I've now had my Kowa for about a month and have used it some 5-6 times in the field (birding from hides) and here are my impressions. Overall an excellent scope that often shows sublime images but is not without some issues.
This scope seems to work best in medium to low light. I've found that on bright days the image can at times appear to be slightly washed out and lacking in contrast. Almost as if there is too much light! This doesn't appear to be consistent though as often the image is excellent in sunlight. I suppose it might depend on where the sun actually is in relation to what I'm viewing. Furthermore, the scope seems a little susceptible to what I call atmospherics. It's like at times you can't get quite the focus you want. The image appears to slip into then slightly out of focus. I call this atmospherics because the air seems to be playing a part in the focus. It's a bright day and I expect a bright, contrasty image, but what I sometimes get is this slightly ill defined and slightly shifting image.
Finally, I find viewing things on little islands or scapes in water can be at times slightly frustrating. Because of the wide field of view, when you get focus on something in the centre of the scope, the top part of the lens and bottom part will not be focused as the objects in those parts of the lens are further back or nearer to you. As an example, I was looking at a large flock of gulls the other day on a little island and the centre gulls were nicely in focus but the ones above and below it were not. The resultant image was slightly odd! I suppose the problem here is looking at things with a wide angle which allows more things into view at different depths. Something I will just have to get used too.
What are other peoples' impressions of this scope? Do they find similar issues as me or have I just not explained myself very well? Thanks for any responses.
This scope seems to work best in medium to low light. I've found that on bright days the image can at times appear to be slightly washed out and lacking in contrast. Almost as if there is too much light! This doesn't appear to be consistent though as often the image is excellent in sunlight. I suppose it might depend on where the sun actually is in relation to what I'm viewing. Furthermore, the scope seems a little susceptible to what I call atmospherics. It's like at times you can't get quite the focus you want. The image appears to slip into then slightly out of focus. I call this atmospherics because the air seems to be playing a part in the focus. It's a bright day and I expect a bright, contrasty image, but what I sometimes get is this slightly ill defined and slightly shifting image.
Finally, I find viewing things on little islands or scapes in water can be at times slightly frustrating. Because of the wide field of view, when you get focus on something in the centre of the scope, the top part of the lens and bottom part will not be focused as the objects in those parts of the lens are further back or nearer to you. As an example, I was looking at a large flock of gulls the other day on a little island and the centre gulls were nicely in focus but the ones above and below it were not. The resultant image was slightly odd! I suppose the problem here is looking at things with a wide angle which allows more things into view at different depths. Something I will just have to get used too.
What are other peoples' impressions of this scope? Do they find similar issues as me or have I just not explained myself very well? Thanks for any responses.
