General spotting scope differences between brands and price points? Kowa, Pentax, Zeiss, Swarovski, etc. (3 Viewers)

[sidpost]

I own a couple of small Athlon spotting scopes but, nothing large or what I would call premium.

I will use whatever I get in Overcast skies in addition to bright Sunshine. Most ranges are going to be 300 to 500 yards though, I occasionally go to the coast and would like to do some ship spotting at a mile or more.

I have only seen Kowa's at rifle ranges and the various European brands at retail locations and from a distance while out and about. I have Leica NV, Zeiss, and Steiner binoculars with my Minox being a real sweet spot (older model with super premium glass and absolutely stunning clarity 🥰 and better than my Leica and Zeiss bins).

I am thinking the Pentax PF-85 or PF-100 would be great options at a moderate price with a great eyepiece. At 3X the cost, I wonder if a Swarovski or Zeiss would be worth the higher cost. And, there may be a brand I am not familiar with that is worth consideration. Also, I want eyepieces that are generally widely available and not "proprietary"!

TIA,
Sid

 

[wllmspd]

The OEM eyepieces will be designed to work optimally with their scopes, whereas others may have some aberrations. There’s a new post in the Astro forum with someone who’s tested this. I’d like to use Astro eyepieces as they are frequently wider field than than many of the zoom eyepieces.
In the UK it’s Swarowski and Opticron with a sprinkling of Kowa l, from what I’ve seen.

Peter

 

[lmans66]

The eye piece is 'huge'..... I know when I had a Swaro, there was a big quality difference between the eye pieces of the 20-60mm and the 25-50. The latter was much better and both were Swaro's. I imagine the same holds true to all scope brands if they have different eye pieces. Generally, much over 50mm is difficult to see quality due to the laws of physics and heat waves etc.... I would also image the difference in scope alone, between Pentax and Swaro or Zeiss would be evident although not as much so as the eye-piece. I would doubt you could interchange eye-pieces between brands though.

The scopes might differ in quality of protective scope covering, the type of focus and how smooth it is etc. In addition to weight and over all size.

 

[DRodrigues]

Pentax isn't an alpha scope producer and prices show that.
I like the Swaro X scopes but the price tags seem higher in the USA than within EU, when compared to Kowa.
Kowa 88 should be compared to Swaro X85.
Kowa 99 show Spherical aberration - the X95 doesn't but the X115 does - you might be interested on having a look at X95 vs X115
The Zeiss Harpia is a "special" scope that has some advantages and disadvantages X95 vs. Harpia95 and is a shame that Zeiss doesn't produce straight versions neither adapters to uses astro eyepieces...
Kowa scopes can use some astro eps - Kowa produces 2 different 1.25" adapters. I can also use astro eps with Swaro X but needs more adapting. However, Swaro has the BTX versions.

 

[Montereyman]

Check out the Celestron Regal M2 100ED scope that sells for $800 and weighs 4.5 lbs. While not obvious but a 100mm objective provides 50% more surface area than a 85mm one and a corresponding increase in light transmission. Read the reviews by owners that posted on the BH Photo website.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/917620-REG/celestron_52306_regal_m2_100ed_spotting.html

"Went birding today and was able to do a back to back comparison between the Celestron and an 80mm Swarovski. Now that's not a fair comparison coz the Celestron in a bigger heavier scope but on the other hand the Swarovski does cost more than twice as much. So visually which was better? Smaller high end or bigger mid range quality? Well it was not even close! Celestron for the win. Day and night brighter and just as crisp. (both scopes were focused on two bald eagles in a tree at 400 yds) The build quality on the Celestron is nice but not as nice as the Swarovski"