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Swarovski or erm Hawke (1 Viewer)

Hello to you all.
Been druelling over scopes tripods heads for some months now.Found to be satisfied with saving up for Hawke endurance 25x75 80.NOW,Love looking at top end Swarovski,OUT OF MY PRICE RANGE. UNTIL last night.😳
A Swarovski Habicht AT80 with the 20-60x and 22x lense has come up for grabs locally to me with case and tripod for £100 less than what I would be saving for Hawke.
Your experience would be most welcome. Andrew.
 
Afternoon.

I was going to save up for the Hawke like yourself. Also like yourself I can't afford brand new high end optics.

Eventually I went for a second hand Nikon ED82 off ebay instead, just slightly cheaper than the Hawke brand new. Fortunately, the Nikon was in excellent condition.

I am a definitely all for secondhand high optics, it's just the risk of whether the instrument comes in the condition advertised.

Can you go and view the instrument?
 
Hi Andrew,

From what I can see online, the Hawke scopes are around £500 and come with ED glass? They will also have the latest coatings and be fully waterproof with a full warranty. I wouldn't be fooled by the Swarovski brand - if it is the AT80, it will not have low dispersion or ED glass, and be subject to a lot of colour fringing, and likely have poorer coatings even than cheaper more modern scopes. I tried the AT80HD and was a bit disappointed by colour fringing and a yellow cast to the image. The design is also rather long in the tooth now, I think they were produced until the end of the 90's or early 00's - at least 20 years.

The idea of buying a used scope a getting better value is a good one, here are a couple of excellent deals for just a bit over £500:
A used Nikon ED82 (if you can find one) would be a great buy, I've had mine for ages and yet to feel any serious need to upgrade.

If you decide to go for the Swarovski, try it before you buy it, and I'd personally say that £400 would be a bit steep for a non-HD version, even in mint condition.

Hope this helps
 
Hi Andrew,

From what I can see online, the Hawke scopes are around £500 and come with ED glass? They will also have the latest coatings and be fully waterproof with a full warranty. I wouldn't be fooled by the Swarovski brand - if it is the AT80, it will not have low dispersion or ED glass, and be subject to a lot of colour fringing, and likely have poorer coatings even than cheaper more modern scopes. I tried the AT80HD and was a bit disappointed by colour fringing and a yellow cast to the image. The design is also rather long in the tooth now, I think they were produced until the end of the 90's or early 00's - at least 20 years.

The idea of buying a used scope a getting better value is a good one, here are a couple of excellent deals for just a bit over £500:
A used Nikon ED82 (if you can find one) would be a great buy, I've had mine for ages and yet to feel any serious need to upgrade.

If you decide to go for the Swarovski, try it before you buy it, and I'd personally say that £400 would be a bit steep for a non-HD version, even in mint condition.

Hope this helps
 
Thanks to you both for getting back to me.I appreciate both your inputs.I did go and try it out and yes the deal was done.I’m absolutely made up.we’ve had poor weather today but managed to play about with it.Not owning a scope before,this has seriously opened my eyes.thanks again.
what a great site this is.
 
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