Hi all
Firstly , thank you to everyone who replied to my request for advice on
spotting scopes.
I thought I would copy in a couple of the replies that were sent to me
directly , as they may be of some use to others looking now or in future via
the archives.
I ended up purchasing a KOWA TSN663 with a 20-60x zoom eye piece from the
USA, for the cost of $1300 US + $89 US postage , I will pay a 10% GST to get
it into Australia. Much cheaper than my original thoughts of $4900 for a
top of the range Swarovski scope and around $700 cheaper than an equivalent
KOWA in Australia. All it has to do now is arrive ! Quoted as 5-7 days
from www.bhphotovideo.com
The following from Jim Smart :
"I bought my Swarovski 65mm HD angled scope in Britain in 2008. The various
optical suppliers in the UK
have regular displays of their wares at certain popular field locations It
is possible to do side by side comparisons of
different scopes in actual field conditions.
I attended one Sunday the display put on by the chaps at London Camera
Exchange at Titchfield Haven, Hampshire and easily
narrowed the field down to the 65mm HD angled Swarovski or the then just
released Kowa equivalent, the Prominar TSN663.
I decided that both were good but the Kowa had just the edge. The Kowa also
had just had rave reviews in the birding magazines.
Next day I went to the London Camera Exchange shop in Winchester to to buy
the Kowa. I was told that the entire UK stock of the
Kowa TSN 663 was sold out. Meanwhile Swarovski had had a little panic about
the Kowa becoming the preferred scope with
birders and had offered a too good to refuse deal on the 65mm HD including a
free carbon fibre tripod and other goodies
thrown in. I bought the Swarovski and have not regretted it one bit - it is
a magnificent piece of optics.
On the question of 65mm Vs 80mm and angled Vs straight I make the following
comments:
In my experience straight scopes are easier to use in a bird hide when
seated and a hide clamp is used to hold the
scope. In most other uses the angled scope is better. It allows a lower
height to be used on the tripod which has
weight and, more importantly, stability advantages. It is easy to use a
digiscope setup with an angled scope,
particularly with birds in trees. Initial finding the subject is perhaps
slightly easier with straight but this is not a compelling reason
to go for the straight eyepiece tube.
For almost all light conditions you are likely to encounter when birding in
Australia the 65mm offers more than enough
light gathering power. The aperture of the iris of your eye will be the
limiting factor in most cases - i.e the scope can gather more light
than the eye can use. 80mm will give you a few minutes more effective seeing
at dawn and dusk but how often do we use scopes then?
The 80mm is theoretically capable of better resolution that the 65mm if you
are digiscoping but in practice I would suggest
that other things like stability of the scope are the factors that limit
resolution.
Digiscoping is clever and cheap way of getting a 1000mm plus lens for a
camera. However it does have a lot of difficulties.
It seems to me that these days most bird photographers are going for DSLR
cameras with long lenses as the best
way to take photos of distant birds.
It would be nice to be able to go to a shop in Australia and buy Swarovski
optics at world prices but it seems to
be difficult to do that. Have a look at North American prices at web sites
such as http://www.bearbasin.com/swarovski-spotting-scope.htm
to see the price differences, which are still considerable after converting
USD to AUD. If you buy mail order you have to pay 10% GST on arrival
in Australia. Combining a scope purchase with a trip to North America is
also possible, as other HBOC members have done.
Cheers,
Jim Smart "
The following from Peter at Broome Bird Observatory :
"Hi Richard, some more food for thought. I bought a 66 mm Kowa scope the
663 with the ED glass and 20 * 60 zoom. I bought this after looking through
some of the Kowa 88 mm flourite lens top of the range jobs. The 663 gets
dark a bit more quickly but is very sharp and useable up to 60 times zoom.
Earlier model 66 mm had a different zoom eyepiece that is very bad. New
ones are very easy to use, even with glasses.
I considered the 65 HD swaro but it is a lot more expensive than the Kowa.
Haven't been able to compare the 65 HD swaro and the 66 mm ED Kowa at any
stage though. I didn't buy the digiscoping attachment but it is available.
We just bought 2 more of the 66 mm Kowas for the Broome Bird Observatory due
to lower price and lighter weight. The big scopes are very heavy by
comparison. You can also buy 2 66 mm for the price of one 88.
We just bought two 663 from the US. Even after the exchange rate and 10%
gst on import they were substantially cheaper than bintel. We got them in
about the same time that it took to get one from Bintel.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
cheers
Peter "
Dick
Lynn and Dick Jenkin
Tashkent Friesians
PO Box 92 Dungog NSW 2420
02 49921158
<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Django-of-Cacharel/147336717447?ref=ts>
Djangos Facebook Page
<http://tashkentfriesians.com/> Tashkent Friesians
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