Digiscoping with an 883 and the 25-60 zoom (1 Viewer)

I'm wondering about how well the 25-60 (TE-11WC) performs for digiscoping.

If you're doing it, how? With what adapter and what camera and what zoom setting?

Have you compared the zoom with a fixed FL eyepiece?

Thanks in advance.

Kevin Conville said:

I'm wondering about how well the 25-60 (TE-11WC) performs for digiscoping.

If you're doing it, how? With what adapter and what camera and what zoom setting?

Have you compared the zoom with a fixed FL eyepiece?

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

These might help...kick hem up to 1080 for best results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgmqZ6iywMw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLiGvGEJRZ4

Thanks for the links. It helps to understand their system.

I'm hoping to hear from people with their own experience and how well the phone adapter works and if people are using Kowa's camera fixture.

I usually make my own stuff as I almost always have issues with the generic, one size fits all types of fixtures.

I'm quite torn at the moment as to whether I want to even get an 883.

Cheers

Kevin Conville said:

Thanks for the links. It helps to understand their system.

I'm hoping to hear from people with their own experience and how well the phone adapter works and if people are using Kowa's camera fixture.

I usually make my own stuff as I almost always have issues with the generic, one size fits all types of fixtures.

I'm quite torn at the moment as to whether I want to even get an 883.

Cheers

Click to expand...

I have and love the 883...it's a fantastic scope.
The iPhone adapter I have works fine but I don't use it very often.
Good Luck!

I can provide more info if you have questions, but see my comments here:
https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=3844172&highlight=novagrade#post3844172

--AP

Alexis, I read your comments and others in that thread. People seemed to ignore Henry's comment, which I thought very interesting.

henry link said:

As Joachim says changing to a more expensive scope does not necessarily mean upgrading to a better one. Optically, the very best birding scope I've yet seen was a specimen of the Nikon 82mm Monarch ED I tested recently. It cost exactly the same as your Vortex Razor, but per mm of aperture it outperfomed all of the high end scopes I've tested from Kowa, Swarovski or Zeiss. I hope to post a review in the next week or two.

I haven't seen the new Vortex Razor, but I have tested two of its Kamakura made siblings: The Zeiss Gavia and Brunton Icon, both reviewed here. Those have some serious optical design problems which the Vortex possibly shares, but I don't think even a poor sample of the Nikon would have. Unfortunately I would be surprised if every Monarch ED is as good as the one I tested, but just finding one unit that good means the design is not a limitation.

Henry

Click to expand...

I for one am curious to hear more from Henry about this.
I went looking at the Monarch ED82A and found Nikon up to their old tricks, unfortunately.
One can only buy these scopes with their standard 20-60 zoom. They offer a higher quality wide angle zoom, like most of the premium makers do these days, for roughly $550. Because the scopes cannot be purchased w/o the std zoom one is forced to buy/pay for something they don't want if another EP is preferred.

The resale market for the std zoom will be nil because everyone will already have it. Nikon should offer these scopes body only or bundled with one of the other EPs. They've done this kind of silliness before and Nikon marketing continues to fail in some respects IMO.

So by the time one buys the Monarch $1600 and adds the cool zoom EP $550 one is into it for $2150. I wound up buying the Kowa 883 bundled with their 25-60 (TE-11WZ) for $2420. That's only $270 difference and one gets another 6mm of aperture, a real fluorite element in the objective, an even better zoom EP, access to a more complete system, and (for me anyway) a better focusing system.

Back to the topic though.
I'll delve into my usual bag of tricks to evaluate the Kowa for digiscoping with an iPhone, an APS Fuji, and Canon SLR.

I'll write of my findings.

Sorry, I've been a bit lax about getting around to the Nikon Monarch review. It will probably be the middle of the week before I can post it, but I would suggest to anybody thinking of a scope purchase at any price level to try to see the Nikon first. The one I tested was quite spectacular.

And yes the bundling of the body with the standard zoom is ridiculous. The dealer my friend bought the scope from called her Nikon rep to see if the standard zoom could be switched for the wide angle zoom by paying the difference between the eyepiece's price. No dice.

Henry

I look forward to your review Henry.

A zoom lens workaround for traders/gamblers who are willing to take a risk to upgrade their Monarch eyepiece.

Nikon also sells the Monarch with a 30x reticle eyepiece that is outstanding. Total cost is $100 more than the scope with the meh zoom. If you don’t care for the reticle there’s an excellent chance you will be able to sell the eyepiece to archer, hunter or target shooter and use the proceeds to purchase the better zoom. Net cost of around $1700 if you can find a buyer. It’s a risk but the only downside is the chance that you’re stuck with a truly excellent 30x eyepiece and outstanding scope for $1700.

Best,
Jerry

Thanks Jerry.
I hadn't seen that EP bundled with the scope before. I went looking after reading your post and was able to find it.

I get your point about it but I'd probably pass on that idea. The potential return doesn't seem too good relative to the trouble. I also don't travel in circles that would be interested in that EP, and I wouldn't want to have that reticle in my view.