Anyone have knowledge about the Meopta Spotting Scopes?

[FroggyOne2]

Just wondering if anyone on the board have any useful knowledge about the Meopta Spotting scopes.

Clarity, resolution, miarge readability.. that sort of stuff.. are the heads moveable so i could hang it on my scope stand or would I have to turn the scope head over?..

 

[scout1]

I looked through them at the Shot Show this year, and in my opinion the glass and construction is on par and possibly better than Swarkofski. Even though we were using them inside, we were able to see floating dust particles up near the lights at 150 yds and the Swaro's resolution wasnt sharp enough to get that tight. It may be another show in the mirage and heat but I think it will definetly hold its own. FWIW

 

[FroggyOne2]

Thank you so much for that reply..

 

[jpretle]

I had a Meopta Hermes 70, which I thought to be excellant, with the exception of the short eye relief, which was the reason it found another home.

 

[FroggyOne2]

I am not too worried about the short eye relief, I want super good clarity..

 

[bluestreakrem]

I am not too worried about the short eye relief, I want super good clarity..

I wasn't worried about eye relief either.......... until I got older.
As such today at 63........ it is very difficult to use my Lieca Televid 20-60x77 spotter at any thing above 45 power because my eye relief has change so much. It's optics are incrediable so it pisses me off I can't use it at max power now.

 

[JEFFPPC]

I have a friend with their spotting scope. For a price quite a bit less then my Zeiss it holds its own. Good value, quality scope.

 

[wedgy]

If you are talking about the S2 spotter 20-60x82mm it is a fantastic optic and well worth every penny. The Nightforce spotter is a rebranded Meopta, as well as the Cabelas Euro Instinct but it has a fixed eyepiece.

 

[Precision_Seeker]

I wasn't worried about eye relief either.......... until I got older.
As such today at 63........ it is very difficult to use my Lieca Televid 20-60x77 spotter at any thing above 45 power because my eye relief has change so much. It's optics are incrediable so it pisses me off I can't use it at max power now.

Asking because I am interested in the answer as well...Is it possible to attach a smartphone adapter to view the image on your phone screen?
I'm looking for a spotter, and am leaning heavily towards the Meopta. Getting older, my eyes need all the help & gizmos they can get!

 

[Toptom]

I have the s2 and love it is very clear this picture is at around 1200 and wasn't at full 70 I power dont own one of the phone skopes was just playing around the day it showed up by holding phone to it

 

[USMCDOC]

I wasn't worried about eye relief either.......... until I got older.
As such today at 63........ it is very difficult to use my Lieca Televid 20-60x77 spotter at any thing above 45 power because my eye relief has change so much. It's optics are incrediable so it pisses me off I can't use it at max power now.

i was a lil younger when this was posted.. now i am the same age as you.. i had an APO 77. but sold it.. now i wish i still had it.. but i am looking for another scope now..
Doc

 

[XTR]

For shooting I've used a Leica 77, a Kowa 8** , and lately I'm using a Celestron Hummingbird 56ED when I travel. The seriously LER that Kowa and Vortex can give are awesome, it's nearly double what you can get with anything else, and for matches that I can drive to I'll use the Kowa, but starting at the FCNC last yr I've been running the Celestron for matches that I have to fly to, and it works great at a fraction of the weight and it's $275 or so.

The Leica still has the best glass of the three, but I don't need great glass to read mirage and score, so other than looking at eclipses and Jupiter's moons I haven't used it in yrs.

If you do get the Hummingbird 56ED it takes any standard 1.25 astronomical eyepiece, and there is one Celestron eyepiece out there with really long (32mm) eye relief, but it doesn't work for this scope. To get your effective magnification you divide the focal length of the scope by the focal length of the eyepiece. The Hummingbird has a 200mm focal length, the LER Celestron eyepiece has a 25mm focal length so you end up with ~ 9x scope if you use one of those. If you run much more than a 7mm eyepiece you don't get enough mag.

I'm running a 7mm focal length eyepiece, with 19 or 22mm of eye relief. THe scope comes with a wide angle variable and I really want to try it out. It works great as a team scope, if you're spotting you can see about 20 targets at the same time.

 

[bluestreakrem]

Asking because I am interested in the answer as well...Is it possible to attach a smartphone adapter to view the image on your phone screen?
I'm looking for a spotter, and am leaning heavily towards the Meopta. Getting older, my eyes need all the help & gizmos they can get!

I need to check into a smartphone attachment for it. I didn't think of that. Thanks for the idea. I'm sure it can be done these days.

Getting back to Meopta optics.................The more I view ANY Meopta optic.........the more impressed I am with them. Their optical image quality is generally excellent all round......especially at their price points. I certainly think highly of the Tract Toric rifle scope I have.............but comparing it to an Meopta Optika6 side to side in real time and at the same magnifications.........the Meopta produces a more clear, pin point focused and color correct image with less parallax error. It really beats a Vortex Viper GenII rifle scope I have. Both the Tract and the Vortex were twice the cost of the Meopta. FYI.....The Tract is made at Light Optical Works in Japan and the Vortex is from a Phillipines manufacturer. I don't see myself buying anymore Vortex stuff.
Now a days............anytime I'm looking for ANY optic (spotter, binos, rifle scope or whatever) I'm looking at Meopta to see what they have to offer because I'm so impressed with them. They are high quality optics and are such a bargin. Full disclosure..........I don't work for Meopta and have nothing to do with them other than being just a customer like you.

Been thinking recently about buying a Meopta SFP Meostar rifle scope or a Steiner GS3 for hunting. I wish I could see both side by side to compare their optical image quality. I'm pretty sure they will not be the same optical quality (Meopta should be much better) because the Steiner is about 1/3 less than the Meopta.
But I have always like Steiner optics in general. I have a pair of old Steiner 8x56 binos I love because they are stupid bright......... Unfortunately they have their Auto Sport Focus feature and due to my aging eyes now............My eyes don't have the flexiable range of focus I use to..........so now I have to focus them using the diopters for every distance. I miss (got spoiled) not having to refocus binos from 20 yards to infinity when hunting. The Auto Focus feature is great if your eyes can tolerate it.

 

[bluestreakrem]

i was a lil younger when this was posted.. now i am the same age as you.. i had an APO 77. but sold it.. now i wish i still had it.. but i am looking for another scope now..
Doc

Mine IS NOT an APO77. I wish it were. Those scopes are truly awesome. I did view the APO77 version of my standard 77 back when I was considering my scope purchase. The APO lens group really brings out the true colors of a subject image and more precisly focuses all three color wavelengths into the same focal plane. The high price tag kept me from getting it back then. I was stretching my wallet to get the standard 77 but I'm glad I did buy it. That was a lot of money for me back then.

Today I am shocked (but very happy) how good the optics are these days for what little money we have to pay for them. Today our buying dollar nets us much better optics than just 10-20 years ago.

 

[USMCDOC]

Mine IS NOT an APO77. I wish it were. Those scopes are truly awesome. I did view the APO77 version of my standard 77 back when I was considering my scope purchase. The APO lens group really brings out the true colors of a subject image and more precisly focuses all three color wavelengths into the same focal plane. The high price tag kept me from getting it back then. I was stretching my wallet to get the standard 77 but I'm glad I did buy it. That was a lot of money for me back then.

Today I am shocked (but very happy) how good the optics are these days for what little money we have to pay for them. Today our buying dollar nets us much better optics than just 10-20 years ago.

yeah.. i am thinking of a Prominar 663 with a 25 LER

 

[rardoin]

@FroggyOne2 I have a Swarovski ATx 20-65x85 and compared it to to the Meopta Meostar S2 when I was figuring out which scope to buy. The Meopta is very well made mechanically and has excellent optics. I chose the Swaro for some minor preferences in the optics but, in retrospect, either scope would have been more than adequate for a competition or casual shooting optic- great resolution at distance, sharp image with great contrast and near zero chromatic aberration. If I was into ornitholgy and needed to see bright crisp colors on birds I would choose the Swarovski (but, if I were buying for that purpose I would do as my mother did and buy a Leica). I could have saved a bit of $$ by getting the Meopta and had a great scope for my application.

 

[USMCDOC]

@FroggyOne2 I have a Swarovski ATx 20-65x85 and compared it to to the Meopta Meostar S2 when I was figuring out which scope to buy. The Meopta is very well made mechanically and has excellent optics. I chose the Swaro for some minor preferences in the optics but, in retrospect, either scope would have been more than adequate for a competition or casual shooting optic- great resolution at distance, sharp image with great contrast and near zero chromatic aberration. If I was into ornitholgy and needed to see bright crisp colors on birds I would choose the Swarovski (but, if I were buying for that purpose I would do as my mother did and buy a Leica). I could have saved a bit of $$ by getting the Meopta and had a great scope for my application.

Thanks for the feedback!