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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