It was probably 2 years ago that I first became aware that Leica had a new
spotting scope expected soon to hit the market. However repeated enquiries
after that led to the same information - that the release was persistently
delayed (for reasons which have never been made clear).
As a result of having my 2 scopes stolen last year I was (and still am) in
the market for a new scope and felt that before making a decision (probably
between the top-end Swarovski and Kowa scopes) it would be good to have a
look at the new Leica.
By this time it had indeed been released - but do you think I could get my
hands on one for a test drive? Not until today.
Kim Dearnley at Michaels (camera, video, digital) in Melbourne city managed
to get one in and I went to see it today. She was very helpful.
First, and perhaps most important in view of there being other excellent
scopes on the market, is the price - a whopping $6,500! So it would need to
be a pretty sensational piece of equipment to justify the considerable extra
expense compared with the top of the range Swarovski or Kowa.
I don't pretend to be anything other than an experienced user of a birding
scope in the field over many years (I don't have any special expertise in
optics or any other related technical field), mostly with a Kowa TSN3 (both
Prominar and regular glass models) but also with my wife's Swarovski 65mm,
and I only had about 30 minutes of inspection and use, inside the shop and
pointing it out the door towards some distant trees in the twilight. These
are my impressions:
It is nicely designed - solid, chunky and seemingly robust (its predecessor
was a little on the fragile side), with a pretty standard weight for a large
spotting scope.
The optics seemed absolutely top-drawer - as would be expected from the
latest model from this maker at this price.
The 25-50 zoom eyepiece and trademark twin focusing mechanism (gross and
fine focus wheels in-line) were both high quality.
The fixed footplate is well-centred on the body (unlike the absurd location
of the footplate on the Swarovski 65mm scope which makes the scope
distressingly rear-end heavy and requires a special plate to stop it from
toppling backwards unless locked down hard on the elevation control handle).
However, the sighting mechanism (3 small raised "teeth" on the top of the
body near the front end) is rendered almost useless by the 45 degree angled
eyepiece because the eyepiece is in the way of the sighting-line. I would
find this quite a drawback as I use a scope extensively for passerine
birding (in forest, jungle, etc) and need to be able to aim the scope
accurately and quickly at quite small targets in the foliage (the Kowa has a
very simple and effective aiming mechanism - the Swarovski mini-tube aiming
mechanism I find much less easy to use).
All in all from this brief inspection and test it seems to me that this
might be a very fine scope indeed, both optically and in its major design
features, but this would need to be tested carefully in the field by
comparing it with its main rivals - and then there's that price!
Kim at Michaels has told me that they have this scope on loan from Leica for
about 3 more weeks and anyone who can get in to their shop on the corner of
Elizabeth and Lonsdale Sts in Melbourne city would be very welcome to
inspect and have a look through it. Her email address is above and the
store's phone number is 9672.2222. (Anyone who does so might like to add
some more observations on this forum for our collective interest.)
[By the way, I have no interest of any kind in either Michaels or Leica.)
Richard NOWOTNY
Port Melbourne, Victoria
M: 0438 224 456
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