best eyepieces for seawatching (1 Viewer)

[Dialyt]

I'm considering getting a fixed eyepiece for my kowa tsn 603. i find the zoom very poor as regards field of view at 20x. I feel at 30x, you have a darker image, so 20x is the optimal eyepiece for this small scope.

my question is: Which is the best magnification for seawatching - 20x or 30x?

I may have answered the question myself (20x for 60mm scopes, 30x for 77-88mm scopes) but would appreciate your comments on what would be the best option. Both kowa fixed eyepieces are comparable with swarovski's offerings in terms of field of view.

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

I think a good field of view is most important when seawatching and 20x is enough magnification most of the time. 30x might be okay too, but on a lot of scopes the field of view won't be enough.

 

[Julian Bell]

I do tons of seawatching and use 30x WA (on my present scope and the Kowa I used to use). Better field of view and brightness than the 20-60 zooms BY FAR - and that applies to both my "recent" 'scopes.

 

[SteveClifton]

I agree that that FOV is important, and that I would personally prefer 30x wide angle most of the time, unless you are seawatching somewhere that the birds pass very close (eg at Bridges of Ross in Co. Clare), when I think even with a 30x wide you can easily miss birds that slip by very close 'underneath your scope', if you see what I mean.

At the other extreme, at some places the birds are sometimes passing so far out that the only way to ID species properly is to 'pull them in' closer with either a high power fixed eyepiece (45x or 50x wide) or a zoom. Be aware that many zooms are effectively wide angles at 50-60x mag, and typically have a FOV of around 60 degrees at the top end of the zoom range.

This obviously depends on the aperture of your scope, and larger scopes perform better than smaller ones at high powers. The height you view from also affects how much field you need to see. High up on a cliff top, and you'll miss close birds with a high power eyepiece, but at sea level you can often get away with one.

Personally I don't think there is a 'one size fits all' eyepiece for seawatching. You have to make a personal choice depending on the places you watch most often, and to a certain extent even the species you're targeting .

Steve

 

[martin kitching]

30xWA, wouldn't consider anything else (certainly not zooms). The problem of birds passing underneath your field of view can be rendered largely irrelevant because either;

a) you're seawatching on your own and you won't see everything anyway so you just need to live with it

b) you're seawatching in a group and (hopefully) there will always be one of the group using binoculars to scan the near distance

cheers
martin

 

[GMS]

I've started with a zoom (20-60x) but bought a 30x WA a while ago and wouldn't change back. The 30x is much lighter and has a much better field of view.

 

[Dialyt]

The 20xW on my kowa tsn 603 is nothing short of a revelation when compared to the 20-60x zoom I started with. it's like a different scope.

 

[Helsinki Birder]

I used to use a 27xWA lens when i first started out (on an Opticron Classic MKII).
Not bad at all, but I now use a 32xWA on a Kowa TSN-823 and Its just perfect for me.
Even on close stuff at the Bridges its fine (you never see the close stuff for long anyway, cos usually its off around the rocks before you know it).
I would never use a zoom. Ive seen people use them, and use them well on seawatches. But i just dont like them. Too constricted in terms of field of view, and i cant count the number of times when ive found a rare seabird and thought "Id never have picked that up in a zoom".

Pariah

 

[Corax67]

I seawatch with a 32WWx on my Leica APO 77 - much easier to use than my 20-60.

 

[Sancho]

On my ED82A, I used a 30xw. I found the 25-75 zoom next to useless. For a while, I tried a 38xw, this had some advantages but in general I didn't like the loss of FOV and light, so I reverted to the trusty 30xw and don't think I'd go back. Does anyone ever use two scopes, a 30x and, say, a 50x, side-by-side? Or is that just mental?

 

[Dialyt]

Does anyone ever use two scopes, a 30x and, say, a 50x, side-by-side? Or is that just mental?

You could use them both at the same time.

 

[Helsinki Birder]

That would be pretty mental. In high winds you just know one will topple over and could be costly to repair.

Pariah

 

[Sancho]

That would be pretty mental. In high winds you just know one will topple over and could be costly to repair.

Pariah

It could even topple over and....crash into its partner! Waaaaah!

 

[Twite]

It could even topple over and....crash into its partner! Waaaaah!

Half Man, Half Donkey? Which half is which, are you bragging?

Twite.

ps. Don't misinterpret the wink.

pps. Or that one either.

 

[Sancho]

Half Man, Half Donkey? Which half is which, are you bragging?

Unfortunately the top half is the asinine one. Mind you, some eejits have got it into their heads to plague me with e-mailed offers to redress the balance somehow. The mind boggles. Hee-Haw, Hee-Haw. Now that I think of it, "Half-Assed" would probably have been more accurate.

BTW, when I said the Nikon 25-75 was "next to useless", I meant only in the context of seawatching. It´s a great eyepiece for static birds, and is really crisp right up to the max in good light.