Fieldscope I ED or Fieldscope II non ED? (1 Viewer)

Fieldscope I ED or Fieldscope III non ED?

I am a beginner buying my first scope and looking at pre-owned items.

My current budget to get my toes in the water is for the original Fieldscope I ED60, or the Fieldscope III 60 without the ED glass. Both are offered at about the same price ($20 more for the original). The Fieldscope I comes with its stock 20X eyepiece and the Fieldscope III comes with a 15X eyepiece. Both are the older folddown-eyecup versions.

From my reading of past threads in this forum, I learned that the Fieldscope I is single coated, and the Fieldscope II is multicoated, and the Fieldscope III fully multicoated.

I know the III is waterproof and the original I probably not.

In terms of optical performance, how does they compare? Between the ED glass of the original Fieldscope I versus the non-ED but modern multicoating of the Fieldscope III, which one will be the better performer?

I am thinking of digiscoping with it too. Seller is including the Nikon 7468 F mount/SLR adaptor with the Fieldscope I and I have a few Nikon DSLR bodies both DX and FX. Also, I wear glasses.

Thanx in advance for any advice.

The 15x eye piece is not much use. I don't know this scope, but most of us start with a zoom eye piece, 20X to some 40 or 50x. Though with cheaper scopes they get dim as you get past 45x.

I do use glasses and my eyepiece has a rubber cup that I fold back. Some screw out eye cup pieces are available but best to see in person and test with glasses on.

1. The Nikon EDI only takes the old range of eyepieces - 15x, 20x, 30x and 40x. It doesn't take *any* of the modern wideangles except for the 24x, and none of the zooms. So it'll be very difficult to find any more eyepieces.

2. It leaks like a sieve.

For these two reasons alone I'd go for the III, even though even the EDI may just be a little bit better optically.

If you decide to get the III, make sure you find a few more eyepieces as soon as possible. I'd recommend the zoom (20-60x MC II) or the 30x WW. They're disappearing fast from the market since Nikon stopped making the Fieldscope, only to replace them with those akward EDGs.

Hermann

Thanx for all these information! Appreciate much!

I had the Nikon 60 Fieldscope III and I would agree with Herman. Here is a link to Nikon Sports Optics Japan. At least I hope. #4 MC eyepiece 30X, # 8 20x-60x Variable MC eyepiece or even # 7 20-45X MC variable.

http://www.nikon.com/products/sportoptics/lineup/scopes/mc/index.htm

mooreorless said:

I had the Nikon 60 Fieldscope III and I would agree with Herman. Here is a link to Nikon Sports Optics Japan. At least I hope. #4 MC eyepiece 30X, # 8 20x-60x Variable MC eyepiece or even # 7 20-45X MC variable.

http://www.nikon.com/products/sportoptics/lineup/scopes/mc/index.htm

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Thank you.

I went with the Fieldscope I ED hoping for better optical performance. Maybe I will sell it if I dont like it after using it a while and will get a III ED or a 82A ED.

Reporting back:

I had used the Fieldscope 1 on a few birding walks and I am very happy with it, being my first scope I have no other to compare with but I am sure it is great based on Nikon's heritage.

And I would like to share some photos of a pacific swallow I took earlier in the afternoon with the ED60 Fieldscope 1, using a D700 DSLR attached to the scope via the #7468 adapter.

sjackal said:

Reporting back:

I had used the Fieldscope 1 on a few birding walks and I am very happy with it, being my first scope I have no other to compare with but I am sure it is great based on Nikon's heritage.

And I would like to share some photos of a pacific swallow I took earlier in the afternoon with the ED60 Fieldscope 1, using a D700 DSLR attached to the scope via the #7468 adapter.

Click to expand...

nice combo and great photos,
:t:

do you get 800mm focal length or a bit less perhaps?

Vespobuteo said:

nice combo and great photos,
:t:

do you get 800mm focal length or a bit less perhaps?

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I got no idea, its supposed to be 800mm, or so said Nikon.