• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Kowa's new 50 mm scope (2 Viewers)

Hi,

thanks to Frank for the sneak preview of his review, which I look forward to. Star test results would indeed be very interesting - although it's probably going to be difficult to identify the culprit with the fixed EP. Since my TSN-3 body is a fluorite doublet at f5.5 too, but with 17mm more aperture and is very sharp and contrasty with no visible CA at 55x with the SDLv2, the 55mm doublet at the same focal ratio should be at least as good in theory...

From comparison of the Kowa small body zoom TE-9Z vs the SDLv2 in my TSN-3 body my main gripe was the lack of edge sharpness with the Kowa zoom at all magnifications while the SDLv2 is sharp to the edge for my eyes. On axis sharpness at 60x was ok iirc - but it's some time ago and no star test with it was made as this was at a very nice store that has since closed down after the death of the owner :-(

And yes, it really is the small body zoom TE-9Z - just look at the image of the sample in this link which still shows a zoom labeled 60x...

https://seekoutside.com/blog/shot-show-highlights/

Joachim
 
Last edited:
Is the TE-9Z waterproof?..My Baader Zoom MkIII is dustproof and water tight in the lens element..If the new Kowa 55 is ,as advertised ,fully waterproof,some adjustments might have been made to the eyepiece,unless it was already waterproof when released( kinda doubt it)
So ..performance drop at 45?..I have boosted ED50s ,(one in particular)WAY past 45X with excellent results,and at 45X all of them delivered great images...Oh well..I hate non removable eyepieces in scope anyway,I like options and experiments..I like to use astro eyepieces in the NikonED50 ,I have adapted Nikon and BAader eyepieces to the KOWA 82 ,and even have a Swaro/Kowa adapter in case i can afford the 25/50X swaro sometime in the future!
 
Last edited:
I plan on it tomorrow Manuel.

Took pics of the scope by itself and with the two MM4 models a little bit ago. I would upload one to this post but am using my phone at the moment and the pics are too large. Will get on the laptop tomorrow. Have to ship the scope back to Kowa by Friday.
 
Incidentally I just found out that there's a Borg 55FL lens assembly that uses a 55mm Fluorite lens from Canon, probably the same lens used by Kowa.

Which is probably mildly interesting because Borg offers a complete spotter with these optics for much less than Kowa's asking price.

Or you could build your own scope with your own choice of eyepiece, prism, and optical elements. Of course you'd have to forego weather sealing, and it might be a tad heavier, but AFAIC I'm not sure whether it's not more bang for the buck in the end.
 
Generally Borgs may not have the same quality as Kowas.
I don't know about the new small Kowa.

There are many fine astro scopes, say triplet objective Explore Scientific 80mm, 102mm and 127mm for less than the small Kowa.
 
Borgs are well known for quality, the spotter using Borg objective may not be waterproof but I suspect optical quality will be poor.
 
Hi,

cannot comment on the Borg as I was assimilated, erm I don't know one... but the 55FL is certainly not the same lens as the Kowa 550 series as the Borg is even faster at f4.5... and they sell a flattener/reducer to make it f3.6... nice for wide field astro imaging but probably a bit too fast for higher magnifications...

AOK Swiss offers a nice kit with a 2" feathertouch focuser for 1k€ and change - but I think it is slightly more than 1kg - add 500g for a mirror diagonal and 1kg for your 31mm Nagler for 10.2 deg true field rich field bliss - but the exit pupil is a bit large at almost 7mm and I'm not sure if this thing will be very good at higher mag...

A Tak FS-60CB is about the same in price and weight and will give "only" 7,3 deg with a 31mm Nagler but with a healthier exit pupil of 5.3mm and at f5.9, 5m more aperture and no glass path to introduce spherochromatism, it will thoroughly beat the Kowa optically...
But of course we're talking about a weight north of 1.5kg with a 1.25" mirror diagonal and a Baader zoom...

Joachim
 
FrankD said:
No star test yet Henry so, yes, we could chalk up my experience with the scope as being unit specific. Will try do so tonight or tomorrow.

All of the usual optical characteristics I look for (apparent sharpness, apparent brightness, contrast, CA control, edge performance, etc...) are certainly agreeable up to a point in the magnification range. Then there is a drop off where I expect to see more detail than what is presented. Eye positioning also seems to be a bit more critical than what I am accustomed to with either of the Opticron models.

They eyepiece has 15x printed on one end of the zoom range and a 45x on the other end. There are three white "dots" at regular intervals between the two numbered settings. It is from the last dot up to 45x that I see the drop off in performance.

My initial opinion is that they attempted to do a little bit "too much" with just the one eyepiece. They went for a specific magnification range (more typical of 60-65 mm scopes) but wanted to keep a variety of optical characteristics at a certain performance level (thinking CA control, edge sharpness, etc...). The compromise is in how easy the eye placement is, the somewhat lower level of performance at the magnification level mentioned above and narrower apparent field of view.
Click to expand...

I finally got out to a local estuary last Sunday with the 553. My observations were similar to Frank's, especially at the higher magnifications. There was quite a bit of wind and heat shimmer, so I wasn't willing to attribute all the difficulties to the scope, but it seemed that there was a lack of depth of focus at the eye relief point. Unfortunately, I brought the wrong compression ring for my Novagrade phone adapter and could not get a solid link for digiscoping. That is remedied and I will give it another try this weekend.

The thing that was impressive about this scope was the lack of CA. The first time I ever noticed CA in a scope was 20 years ago with my then new Bushnell Spacemaster. I was at the same estuary and looked at a Snowy Egret in dark blue water and saw this broad band of blue all the way around the bird's body. There were also Snowy Egrets present last Sunday, so I made sure to take a look. There was absolutely no CA around the bird with the 553.
 
Good evening, but lack of C.A. As the definition of the telescope increases, I would not like to create controversy, but to date there are no clays that can compete with kowa in the control / lack of C.A. Try putting a duplicator on the 883 you will get a 96x image without the minimum presence of C.A. . I think the 553 in definition will pave the way. Giorgio
 
Im sure is a nice scope,but the price is very high,...specially with that older zoom!.>Ah sure ,If they would have used the wide zoom it would have been much more expensive..Perhaps Eighteen(18)hundred (100)buckos($$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$)......??????...They mention that "considering price ,weight etc.." the ATX65 was only marginally better..and the FOV was not that different?..mmm...start wondering..
 
No pressure guys, but we need better information about the optics of this scope. So far we have Frank's and Steve's subjective impressions that it doesn't meet expectations and a review that says it's so good it's in a class by itself. The reviewers at the bow hunting site don't seem to know what they're doing, so Steve and Frank, could you give us some hard information, like a high magnification star test (photos if possible) and measure the resolution on a standard line pair per mm chart.
 
Last edited:
donno about the review,but saw a unit on Ebay ,from japan..2200 plus dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
mayoayo said:
donno about the review,but saw a unit on Ebay ,from japan..2200 plus dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

No stores around here even care to sell them...
wonder why..:smoke:
perhaps because it's too close to a scam o:)
 
mayoayo said:
donno about the review,but saw a unit on Ebay ,from japan..2200 plus dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

You can "Save" over $400 by pre ordering from B&H 3:)

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1349418-REG/kowa_tsn_553_15_45x55_compact_spotting.html

I still doubt its over $1000 better than my ED50:h?:


Reminds me of this "Deal" I found on a 884 paperweight .........

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kowa-Spotti...917020?hash=item2a8a3d90dc:g:PpoAAOSwYvFZNfrn
 
henry link said:
No pressure guys, but we need better information about the optics of this scope. So far we have Frank's and Steve's subjective impressions that it doesn't meet expectations and a review that says it's so good it's in a class by itself. The reviewers at the bow hunting site don't seem to know what they're doing, so Steve and Frank, could you give us some hard information, like a high magnification star test (photos if possible) and measure the resolution on a standard line pair per mm chart.
Click to expand...

Henry,

I have some questions about performing these tests. I have never done either, so I did some reading about them.

All the star test articles say that the eyepiece magnification must be 1.6 times the objective diameter, but that is impossible on this scope. Is the test still valid?

We have resolution charts and have used them to test relative resolution between two optics. But if we're going to get an absolute resolution for a single optic, there would have to be a standard distance between the optic and the chart. In all my reading, I have not been able to find this distance. Can you tell me what that distance is? Or do I just specify the distance I use and give the smallest line-pair number I can resolve?
 
Vespobuteo said:
No stores around here even care to sell them...
wonder why..:smoke:
perhaps because it's too close to a scam o:)
Click to expand...

No store is allowed to sell them yet. Official release is 8/18 to coincide with the British Bird Fair. We can, do, and have taken pre-orders at Optics4Birding. They are not a scam. They are a fabulous little scope with a couple of cons that don't come close to outweighing the pros.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

binomania
New spotting scope from KOWA
2
Replies
26
Views
4K
jring
J
Y
66A follow up. Questions
Replies
13
Views
2K
SimonLS
SimonLS
L
KOWA TSN-4 conversion to 45 eyepiece
Replies
3
Views
1K
Baltimore
B
T
Thoughts about my 'new' Kowa 883 compared to my old 823
Replies
3
Views
1K
Tringa45
T
C
Kowa TS-611
Replies
2
Views
995
Gypa
G

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 3 (members: 0, guests: 3)
Back
Top