Eyepiece Suggestions (2 Viewers)

[KevinW]

I am going to get a Nikon Fieldscope 82mm ED angled. I will be using it mainly to view migrating hawks. The most likely use will be me finding a bird in binoculars and then trying to find the bird in the scope. What would be the best eyepiece to use for this scope for this purpose?

Also what is the best general use eyepiece for this scope.

Thanks

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

The 30x is a great lens. There may be a occasions when you want more magnification, so the zoom might be better from that point of view, but you'd be losing out a lot on field of view, which would perhaps be more important for your purposes.

 

[iporali]

I am going to get a Nikon Fieldscope 82mm ED angled. I will be using it mainly to view migrating hawks. The most likely use will be me finding a bird in binoculars and then trying to find the bird in the scope. What would be the best eyepiece to use for this scope for this purpose?

Also what is the best general use eyepiece for this scope.

Kevin,

There are those who prefer zooms and those who prefer fixed wide angles. I think you just have to decide which will be better for you.

I love the view of a sharp and wide-angled 30x, but the zooms from any of the "big five" (L, S, Z, N, K) are so good and versatile that eg. for hawk watching I would go with a zoom. The Nikon zoom is quite narrow at its lowest power, but if you master your aiming technique and maybe use a cable-tie or a "red dot" sight, the fov of the zoom should be sufficient for finding those small dots in the sky. The 75x power of the Nikon zoom is sometimes very valuable.

If you are comfortable with the low eye-relief of the zoom and don't plan to do serious digiscoping, I would recommend the zoom. If you need good eye-relief, wide fields of view (easy aiming) and would like to digiscope, the 30xMC/DS could be a better choice. If you want to play safe, buy them both. :t:

Good luck,

Ilkka