Kowa white label? Also serial number question. (1 Viewer)

[Artigas]

I saw this scope by the German company APM and it looks an awful lot like Kowa scopes. Could it be that it is made by Kowa?

https://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/bi...ing-scope-swarovski-25-50x-zoom-eyepiece.html

Also, on my 883, which I bought new last month, I just noticed that some of the numbers on the serial number have been blacked out by marker. Is this normal?

Thank you,

Mike

 

[BoldenEagle]

Also, on my 883, which I bought new last month, I just noticed that some of the numbers on the serial number have been blacked out by marker. Is this normal?

Hi,

I don't know about normal but also in my Prominar 883 there were some blacked out serial numbers.

Regards, Juhani

 

[PYRTLE]

See this link.....https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=370074

The company retailing it may be German but that does not mean it is made in Germany or Japan. A Chinese copy.

The altered serial numbers seems a strange activity..... suspicious, why would anyone feel the need to change them.

 

[jring]

Hi,

the APMs are certainly not made by Kowa and also not a straight clone... Kowa does not build an 85mm scope and their 88mm offering uses a doublet objective lens with a fluorite element while the APM example uses a triplet objective with probably one ED element (might be two).

Also the fact that it takes Swarovski EPs is not really a hint for a Kowa clone...

PS: as for the blacked out digits in the Kowa scopes - were these bought used and the serial number was blacked out for images on ebay maybe?

Joachim

 

[BoldenEagle]

PS: as for the blacked out digits in the Kowa scopes - were these bought used and the serial number was blacked out for images on ebay maybe?

Mine was bought as a new.

If I remember correct, also the first sample I had (and which I returned), had blacked out serial numbers.

Juhani

 

[WRL]

I just checked my TSN-883 (bought in February this year new at a renowned shop). Same procedure. However, the blackended out numbers do certainly not constitute a serial number or being a direct part of it. I assume that is a kind of checksum or control number.
There are two groups of numbers 1,2,4,8. This can be used to generate a hexdecimal number, since - depending what you blacken (making "not counting") - you can estabish (as a sum of all not blackened) any integer number between 0 (all blackened) and 15 (non blackened) in each group (16 = hexadecimal). This results in a two digit hexadecimal code. Whatever this code means. - Any other thoughts?
I am quite confident that Kowa scope owners should not be alarmed in any way. That is just the way Kowa is identifying their stuff.