...I hope you enjoy your testing Sancho - I'm sure you'll find something great!
Good Birding
Andrew
It´s a vague notion at the moment. It´ll probably never happen unless I decide to sell off everything except my Swaro binos. But life is short and I´d like to try the best!Hehehe Sancho, you planning for this Kowa ?
It ought to be remembered that Kowa has a long tradition in making outstanding scopes. For quite a few years, the TSN 3&4 fluorite scopes were in a class of their own among prismatic scopes, only to be surpassed when the Leica Apo-Televid 77 and Swarovski ST/AT 80 HD's were introduced. And like Henry indicates, the Kowa 823/4 have likewise been outstanding optically. A friend of mine has for over ten years also had one that is virtually aberrataion-free. Also, in the aforementioned tests by Jan M., the scope closest to perfect seems to be his old Kowa 823, which has consistently performed better than just about any of the scopes he has tested save for some of the best samples of the numerous 883's in his data, despite the 6mm aperture deficit it has. And both of the Kowas have the advantage of superior CA correction resulting from the use of a real fluorite crystal objective lens element together with apparently very successful optical design. But Kowa binoculars have never reached quite the same cutting-edge quality level that their best scope designs have enjoyed, although the latest Genesis Prominar series comes commendably close.
But to make Andrew feel better, I can say that among the Swaro AT 80 HD samples I have seen, there have been quite a few that have had very clean aberration-free images and excellent performance all the way up to 60x. Rather than "upgrading," I think that someone with a good sample of the Swaro AT/ST 80 HD might get the kick from trying Swaro's new 25-50x W zoom in their scope. I have one friend who has done that and is as happy as can be.
Kimmo
Need Santa to approve it
Hi Kimmo
At least it's perversely refreshing when the owners of the latest kit make a huge i.d. mistake within minutes of meeting them - my self-esteem is soon restored and I realise that it's now what you have but what you do with it!Hi Andrew,
A good sample of the grey 80mm HD Swaro really is good enough that "what you have" is very rarely if ever the limiting factor, and what you do with it is just about everything. So your self-esteem should be safe.
Finally, having realised who you are - and going slightly off thread - I must first offer a word of thanks for all the reviews in the sadly missed Alula magazine. Presumably you work professionally in the optics field? Can you offer any advice on how members of the public can test equipment prior to purchase to obtain non-faulty goods - other than flying you in at great expense for a personal evaluation?Thanks for your kind words about the Alula tests. And, I'm not a professional in the optics field, just an interested and, by now, rather experienced hobbyist.
Among others, I have sometimes offered advice on scope choice on the forum. Do a search on Henry Link's posts as well as mine, use "star test" "glitter point" and "focus snap" as search terms, and you should find plenty of entries. Of course, flying me in at great expense sounds like a good idea as well.
And the burning question is - which telescopes and binoculars do you use personally and/or rate as the best available?People sometimes ask me this, and I'm pretty reluctant to answer as I know that too much will easily be read in and between the lines I or anyone else whom the public deems as "experts" express as a rating. However, I'll give a sort of an answer this time, because I also know how frustrating it is to read opinions of said "experts" when one feels that they just hem and haw and say nothing. So, here's what I use at the present moment, but not (necessarily) what I consider the best.
Scope: Cherry sample Nikon Fieldscope ED 82 A with 25-75x MC II zoom on a Gitzo 2380 fluid head on a Velbon 830 carbon fibre tripod.
Bino: Better than average sample of Canon 10x42 IS L with a Fujinon FMTR-SX eyepiece rainguard and a two-part thread-on finnstick that has a horizontal handle at the bottom.
Spare bino, seldom used but for a reference when measuring visual resolution: Nikon 10x42 SE
Travel/exercise run bino: Leica Ultravid 8x20
What is best available consists not just of "objective" properties of the instrument but also depends on use, priorities and the hard to pinpoint effects of human differences and psychophysiology of perception. Thus I have very rarely felt that it is possible to give a "best available" rating to any binocular or telescope.
However, I have felt the Kowa 883 to be an exception - in that it is consistently just that little bit better in enough meaningful respects without being weaker in any - that since we tested it I have recommended it as the first choice to any who have asked. Mind you, I have not seen the new Zeiss with its new zoom yet, so it is possible that this state of affairs could change soon enough.
With binoculars, my view is that personal preferences are even more important, and at least with un-stabilized binoculars the ultimate quality of the binocular is not quite as critical. Thus it does not matter that much which of the premium (or even not quite premium) models on has. The Swarovisions that I have looked through have been pretty impressive, but I have not tested them properly yet. After I have, we will know if I think they are worthy of a recommendation as unqualified as the one I have been giving the large Kowa scope. But for them becoming a part of my own arsenal, I'm unfortunately so addicted to IS by now that I'm unlikely to purchase a +2000 euro binocular without IS, no matter how good the image of it tripod-mounted would be.
Hope this satisfies your curiosity
Kimmo
Hi,
I've go birding several times in a group with includes both scopes, mine's the Zeiss. Easy to choose, the Kowa wins in every aspect, specially about colour rendition. By the way its FOV isn't impresive, although almost 100% of it gives the highest quality of image.
Fernando
I got the Zeiss/Baader-zoom set-up because I was sick of the "keyhole" FOV of my old Nikon ED82A. There is nothing wrong with it, really. Only right up past 55x or thereabouts does the Zeiss/Baader begin to fade. I´d be really interested in a Kowa except I´m not sure if I want to trade image quality for a narrower field of view. The curse is that I can´t find one here to test. Not to worry, life is a minefield of real problems, and this is not one of them.