Here are the new modular Swarovski scopes (1 Viewer)

[henry link]

Horukuru,

The only thing I would add to Kimmo's remarks is that a star-test is the best diagnostic tool for determining why your ED82 and EDG 85 don't perform as well as your friend's scope. If you can digiscope a glitter point of sunlight around 30m or more from the scopes at maximum magnification we may be able to help you interpret the results. What's needed is a focused image of the glitter point and some slightly defocused images from each side of focus, like the five examples below.

Henry

 

[Mike Penfold]

Jason,

I've seen many chipped, cracked, broken, glued, taped, dented, and scratched scopes.

After an accident in a gust of wind, I now use a tripod with 3cm stakes on the legs, and a daypack containing at least a couple of 1/2 litre water bottles hung from the tripod's centre post hook under similar conditions. The relatively heavy daypack lowers the centre of gravity significantly, and along with the leg stakes, seems to keep the scope more stable.

For the same reason, I had handles installed on the SOC's, so I could keep a grip on the scopes when putting them on/removing from the tripod head.

I substituted Manfrotto's 3/8" camera screw for the standard 1/4" for attaching the QR plate to the scope foot. This camera screw remains tightened securely when checked at the beginning of the day.

Finally, the small brass safety lever on the popular Manfrotto 128RC/3130 tripod head fails to lock the main lever on my older model not infrequently.

Mike

 

[horukuru]

Horukuru,

The only thing I would add to Kimmo's remarks is that a star-test is the best diagnostic tool for determining why your ED82 and EDG 85 don't perform as well as your friend's scope. If you can digiscope a glitter point of sunlight around 30m or more from the scopes at maximum magnification we may be able to help you interpret the results. What's needed is a focused image of the glitter point and some slightly defocused images from each side of focus, like the five examples below.

Henry

Henry,

I have tried the glitter point with the STX95 on 72x and managed to see the rings like in your picture but not as clear as yours. Do I need to use camera to get the rings ?

 

[horukuru]

Crescent Moon

One of my favorite subject for Digiscoping. Picture taken in RAW, converted to JPEG and down-sampled for web browsing only.

Digiscoped with Swarovski STX95 + TLS APO + Nikon D300s

 

[henry link]

Henry,

I have tried the glitter point with the STX95 on 72x and managed to see the rings like in your picture but not as clear as yours. Do I need to use camera to get the rings ?

I'm afraid it's likely to be the reverse - photos of star-tests tend to be less clear than the view through the eyepiece. Air turbulence is the biggest problem for seeing or photographing a star-test well. Try to set up over grass rather than pavement and in the morning before the air heats up. You'll need to use manual exposure. Experiment until you find shutter speeds that don't overexpose the diffraction patterns. Shutter speeds for a sunlight test may vary from 1/500 sec to 1/4000 sec. You'll need a different shutter speed for each size star image, faster ones for the focused image and the smaller diffraction disks, slower for the largest disks.

The example I posted is probably better than what you will see in any of your scopes. It's the center 35mm of an 82mm objective, so most of the aberrations and defects of the full aperture don't contribute. I chose it because there's not much wrong (except the excessive lateral color).

The idea is to try to digiscope a focused image and images that are unfocused by about the same amount on either side of focus. Don't expect a perfectly symmetrical pattern. Analyzing the departures from perfection is what the test is all about.

Henry

 

[horukuru]

I went out with friends to test the STX 95 and Kowa 884 this morning. From our observation, we came to the conclusion :

Brightness - As expected, the STX 95 is brighter and more obvious while looking under shade of tree lines.

Sharpness - A bit sharper. Tested at 60x on both scope then at 70x, my friend told me, if he managed to sell his Kowa, he will get the STX 95 !

Contrast - Much better on the STX 95 with my eyes.

I will do more test with the Nikon Fieldscope EDG 85 soon and will try your method Henry for the star test hehehe

 

[Neil]

I took the STX 95 mm scope to the local park yesterday and thought I would test a range of cameras . I was impressed how even the older ones showed up on my "captive" flamingos which I like for testing magnification and detail.
Cameras -
Canon A640
Nikon 8400 and V1
Sony NEX 7
Panasonic GF1
I used the APO TLS adapter for the GF1,V1 and NEX 7 and the DCB 11 for the 8400 and 640.
The Nex 7 came up the best and it was easy to focus using the TLS adapter , while the V1 showed up the worst and I didn't get one very sharp image. The surprise was the Canon A640 which Auto Focused well and showed a surprising level of detail.
Neil

Hong Kong,
China.
Feb 2013

 

[yves0071]

Hi Neil,
Nice pics.
On the last photo, it seems that some blue chromatism is clearly visible.
Anyboby experiece such things?
It is a pity for a such scope???
Regards
Yves

 

[Wimpy]

Yves I think it may point towards the camera as Neil suggests. The optics of the scope is common to all the images, only the camera has changed.

 

[Neil]

Hi Neil,
Nice pics.
On the last photo, it seems that some blue chromatism is clearly visible.
Anyboby experiece such things?
It is a pity for a such scope???
Regards
Yves

Yves,
Yes , there is a little. It's interesting that it doesn't show up in the other images, although the A640 image is a crop of the center to eliminate some vignetting in the corners. The V1 image was the only only that wasn't in sharp focus. The GF1 image fills the frame and doesn't show it.
More study needed.
Neil.

 

[henry link]

The same odd dark purple line visible at the left side of the Nikon V1 photo is also there on the left side of bird's neck in the NEX7 image. I'm not sure what that is, but it doesn't appear to me to be normal chromatic aberration. Could it be some kind of image processing artifact rather than an optical one? The spot where the dark gape of the bill disappears behind a white feather in the NEX7 image looks more like normal longitudinal CA from the scope objective.

The images below are screen shots of extreme enlargements of those areas in the NEX7 photo.

 

[Neil]

The same odd dark purple line visible at the left side of the Nikon V1 photo is also there on the left side of bird's neck in the NEX7 image. I'm not sure what that is, but it doesn't appear to me to be normal chromatic aberration. Could it be some kind of image processing artifact rather than an optical one? The spot where the dark gape of the bill disappears behind a white feather in the NEX7 image looks more like normal longitudinal CA from the scope objective.

The images below are screen shots of extreme enlargements of those areas in the NEX7 photo.

Henry,
I use the APO TLS adapter with the Nex 7. I suspect that the problem is with the lens built into the adapter ( it's a 30 mm lens ) to focus the image on and protect the sensor from dust.
This image was taken through the scope only yesterday , using the DCB 11 adapter http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/8487573952/in/photostream
This is full frame and straight out of the camera at full size.
Below is the reduced but untouched version.
Neil
Hong Kong,
China.

 

[Neil]

Yves I think it may point towards the camera as Neil suggests. The optics of the scope is common to all the images, only the camera has changed.

The APO TLS adapter adds another glass surface. See my answer to Henry.
Neil.

 

[horukuru]

Neil and Henry,

If more glass involved in Digiscoping;

Scope + eyepiece + camera lens or

Scope + photo adapter + camera

Will it show obvious CA in the pictures if the camera lens do not have an ED glass ?

 

[henry link]

Henry,
I use the APO TLS adapter with the Nex 7. I suspect that the problem is with the lens built into the adapter ( it's a 30 mm lens ) to focus the image on and protect the sensor from dust.
This image was taken through the scope only yesterday , using the DCB 11 adapter http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/8487573952/in/photostream
This is full frame and straight out of the camera at full size.
Below is the reduced but untouched version.
Neil
Hong Kong,
China.

Neil and horukuru,

Why not try a more controlled and systematic approach? Photograph exactly the same high contrast target through the various combinations of cameras and adapters under exactly the same lighting conditions. That should easily isolate the sources of any chromatic aberrations.

I don't think living/moving birds work very well for this because they never present exactly the same target twice. In addition, I think we can't tell much about CA from Neil's later photo because the subject and lighting conditions have such low contrast.

The simple homemade CA target in the link below is the sort of thing that can be used for repeatable test images.

http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=1409490&postcount=1

It has the same kind of high contrast as the dark bill gape and white feather enlargement in post #331. Any similar high contrast target will work for revealing longitudinal CA if placed at the image center or lateral color if place near the edge.

Henry

 

[horukuru]

Converted from RAW to Jpeg, cropped and resample image for website

Digiscoped with Swarovski STX 95, DCB II adapter + Nikon Coolpix P7000

Pied Fantail

 

[Neil]

Neil and horukuru,

Why not try a more controlled and systematic approach? Photograph exactly the same high contrast target through the various combinations of cameras and adapters under exactly the same lighting conditions. That should easily isolate the sources of any chromatic aberrations.

I don't think living/moving birds work very well for this because they never present exactly the same target twice. In addition, I think we can't tell much about CA from Neil's later photo because the subject and lighting conditions have such low contrast.

The simple homemade CA target in the link below is the sort of thing that can be used for repeatable test images.

Henry
I will try some more repeatable tests this weekend
The shrike I posted below was taken with the Nikon P310 which doesn't have an ED glass lens. The original kit lenses on the Nikon V1 are not ED glass either and I haven't noticed any serieous fringing with them.
Neil

 

[Neil]

Converted from RAW to Jpeg, cropped and resample image for website

Digiscoped with Swarovski STX 95, DCB II adapter + Nikon Coolpix P7000

Pied Fantail

View attachment 429585

I love my P7000 too so will give a run in the field next week.
Neil.

 

[horukuru]

I love my P7000 too so will give a run in the field next week.
Neil.

Thanks Neil and vignetting is throughout the zoom range and I was shooting on wide angle. A bit worse even on the Macro zone ... Any advice ?

 

[Neil]

Thanks Neil and vignetting is throughout the zoom range and I was shooting on wide angle. A bit worse even on the Macro zone ... Any advice ?

I've tried everything with the STX 95 Jason but nothing works. As you found all you can do is have the lens at wide and crop.
This is why I used to like the Kowa 25x LER eyepiece as it could handle cameras like the P7000 and the Canon G Series very well with limited/no vignetting. I have two of them that now can't be used on the new scope.
Neil.