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New Nikon Monarch 82ed with 20x-60x & 30x-60x...help me test it for good of all:) (1 Viewer)

Factoring in price there doesn't seems to be much doubt, for me. Bravo Nikon!

Over $4k (Swaro) for a spotting scope is too much for this guy.

Still, a shame that Nikon makes one buy the 20-60 with the Monarch.
 
Factoring in price there doesn't seems to be much doubt, for me. Bravo Nikon!

Over $4k (Swaro) for a spotting scope is too much for this guy.

Still, a shame that Nikon makes one buy the 20-60 with the Monarch.

This doesn't happen in the UK. Mind you the only place I can find actually selling it in the UK is Nikon UK, so there isn't much price competition. There is somewhere in Europe where we can get it more cheaply.
 
Just to be clear to anyone that reads this thread later, I tested with the 30-60x wide, my sample of 20x-60x had an outside ring of the image that was pretty unusable. I took this off and never used it again.

I did end up returning the Nikon and getting the Swaro 95mm. Im getting married and got a partial contribution from the significant other as a wedding gift. I live in the Colorado Rockies and train using heavy packs in the mountains. I don't mind carrying a little extra weight for that image. Its actually only a little bit heavier than the Nikon Monarch 82 and the original Nikon ed3 scope +2 eyepieces I had been carrying around.

I still maintain that it wouldn't be worth the upgrade to the Swaro ATX/STX 85mm in my humble opinion.
 
Thanks a lot to everyone for the great information and insights in this forum. Really valuable!

I plan to buy a new scope soon and from what I read in various threads, the Monarch ED82 seems to be one of the best or maybe even the best choice in the mid-price range.

However, I am still not 100% certain about the right eyepiece to choose. I would prefer a zoom eyepiece but many people complained about the FOV. I hope I did not miss it somewhere but there is no report on the performance of the 38x W so far or is there?
Do I interpret the test results in this thread correctly that the 30-60x W is really good and better than the 20-60x but that the FOV is still not great?
Another slightly off-topic/thread question: any suggestions on tripod/head for this scope?

Cheers,
Stefan
 
I bought the Monarch with 30 - 60X WA eyepiece. The field of view is very good for this magnification range. Of course it doesn't go below 30 so it's not as wide as some.

I love the scope - apart from the weight, but I'll often use my 50mm Vortex Razor - and in the UK it was almost exactly £1000 cheaper then a Kowa and more than that cheaper than a Swarvoski. Unfortunately I haven't had chance to line it up against friends' Kowas but I am looking forward to doing so. I suspect it is of a very similar quality.
 
Steve,

If your Monarch is as good as the cherry specimen I reviewed you won't find any other scopes of similar aperture with "better" quality images in the field center. If the wavefront errors of the basic optics (objective and prism) are corrected to a level that is sensibly perfect, as they were in the review unit, a visually better on-axis image is just not possible except by increasing the aperture. IMO the only real competition for a cherry Nikon Monarch comes from cherry specimens of the 88mm Kowa and the 95mm Swarovski and then only because they're larger.

Henry
 
Thank you, Steve and Henry.
I ordered the Monarch with the 30-60x W and I am really looking forward to it.

If anyone was able to test the fixed 38x, it would be interesting to know how well it performs. On paper it looks very interesting to me!

Cheers,
Stefan
 
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