theconstantwalker
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I have the chance to buy an unused Televid 77. It's not the APO version so I need to know how good a scope it is compared to today's offerings... ie Vortex Viper 65.
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Leica 77 none APO (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter theconstantwalker
- Start date
Rotherbirder
Well-known member
Andrew,
If you are indeed a 'constant walker', bear in mind that the Leica 77 is quite a long and heavy scope; you may want something lighter & more portable as you will also need a good, sturdy tripod to go with it. You make no mention of price or which eyepiece(s) it comes with so I can't provide much advice I'm afraid. The APO version was/is an excellent scope but I have no experience of the non-APO Televid. If it's 'unused' as you say and with either a 20-60x zoom or 30xWA eyepiece and cheap, I'd be tempted to take a punt, if not, look elsewhere.
RB
If you are indeed a 'constant walker', bear in mind that the Leica 77 is quite a long and heavy scope; you may want something lighter & more portable as you will also need a good, sturdy tripod to go with it. You make no mention of price or which eyepiece(s) it comes with so I can't provide much advice I'm afraid. The APO version was/is an excellent scope but I have no experience of the non-APO Televid. If it's 'unused' as you say and with either a 20-60x zoom or 30xWA eyepiece and cheap, I'd be tempted to take a punt, if not, look elsewhere.
RB
Hi,
that really depends on the eyepiece that comes with it, the price, sample variation and the intended use.
First of all, the 77mm Leica is a plain glass, full size scope - opposed the Vortex 65 HD which is compact and has ED glass. Interestingly, they are about the same weight with EP (roughly 1.6kg) - the Leica being on the lighter side for its size and the Vortex not so much.
Being a plain glass scope, the Leica will show some colour fringing in high contrast situations and increasing with magnification. Also it can be expected be sharp up to 40 or 45x and show a slowly degrading image at higher magnification due to longitudinal chromatic aberration.
Thus, the fairly narrow 20-60 zoom eyepiece is not a great match as you will not get a good image at high magnification and suffer from a narrow field of view over the whole zoom range. The 32x or 40x wide eyepieces are much preferred - be careful, there is also a 40x non-wide EP... The eyepieces are out of production and luck and patience is needed to get them used.
Also Leica used to have a serious problem with their coatings back then which were rapidly degrading when exposed to salt water spray for extended times. This was a big thing in the UK - not so frequent elsewhere... So sea watch might be not the best idea...
PS: these go for 500-600 quid used on ebay (including an EP), the APO variant is 600-700. Much cheaper than in germany - probably due to the coatings problem...
PS: a used example with 32 wide and 20-60 zoom EPs plus Skua case just showed up in the classifieds here...
Joachim
that really depends on the eyepiece that comes with it, the price, sample variation and the intended use.
First of all, the 77mm Leica is a plain glass, full size scope - opposed the Vortex 65 HD which is compact and has ED glass. Interestingly, they are about the same weight with EP (roughly 1.6kg) - the Leica being on the lighter side for its size and the Vortex not so much.
Being a plain glass scope, the Leica will show some colour fringing in high contrast situations and increasing with magnification. Also it can be expected be sharp up to 40 or 45x and show a slowly degrading image at higher magnification due to longitudinal chromatic aberration.
Thus, the fairly narrow 20-60 zoom eyepiece is not a great match as you will not get a good image at high magnification and suffer from a narrow field of view over the whole zoom range. The 32x or 40x wide eyepieces are much preferred - be careful, there is also a 40x non-wide EP... The eyepieces are out of production and luck and patience is needed to get them used.
Also Leica used to have a serious problem with their coatings back then which were rapidly degrading when exposed to salt water spray for extended times. This was a big thing in the UK - not so frequent elsewhere... So sea watch might be not the best idea...
PS: these go for 500-600 quid used on ebay (including an EP), the APO variant is 600-700. Much cheaper than in germany - probably due to the coatings problem...
PS: a used example with 32 wide and 20-60 zoom EPs plus Skua case just showed up in the classifieds here...
Joachim
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