Spotting scope recommendations

[Turbulent Turtle]

It's not specifically because it is a fixed magnification eyepiece that it has a larger field of view (FOV) compared to the zoom eyepiece; the reason for the bigger FOV is, because the eyepiece is larger. This is actually something that March has introduced in some of their latest riflescopes; a wide angle eyepiece. The March-FX 5-42X56 and the March-FX 4.5-28X52 have a WA eyepiece and it provides for a larger FOV at all magnifications compared to other scopes at the same magnification, fixed or variable. It's like watching a movie in IMAX compared to a regular screen.

I'm not sure how you can get a deeper DOF at the same magnification compared to the zoom eyepiece. After all the DOF is determined by the distance of the objective lens to the prism in the scope body. The eyepiece is an afocal device that sends the image formed inside the scope to your eye, which focuses it on your retina.

Now perhaps the eyepiece lens is of higher quality than the zoom lens and is able to take advantage of the CoC on the image inside the scope bod and send it less distorted to your eye. Larger lenses do a better job with light, quality of the glass being equal. Perhaps in this case, the quality of the glass in the eyepieces is not equal; hence the much better resolution. (Better, larger glass).

That effect will also attenuate the distortion from mirage, or, if not attenuate, it will resist distortion more than a smaller, lower quality eyepiece. The ED glass in the spotting scope is the factor that does reduce the effects of mirage.

I would expect even better results with the 82mm spotter.

The eyepiece selection has a lot to do with the performance of a riflescope/spotter. In my old Kowa, I have a couple of eyepieces. The original one is the 25X LER (Long Eye Relief). This one projects the image from the spotter afocally to the eye for a longer distance. I don't have to have my eye glued to the eyepiece to get a full picture. The other eyepiece is a 20-60X zoom eyepiece. With this one I have to have my eyeball smacking the lens to get the full picture. They also offer a wide angle eyepiece, but I did not get that one.
The eyepieces will be regular (zoom or fixed) and can be LER or wide-angle. I don't think you can have LER and Wide Angle.

I use my Kowa to do digiscoping with my Nikon D7500. For that, I have the adapter that I affix to the camera body and I can only use the zoom eyepiece in that afocal setup as the eyepiece places the picture directly on the sensor. The LER eyepiece doesn't work in that setup. Yes, you focus the image using the spotter focus ring, not anything on the camera, eyepiece, or adapter.

I notice the box for your eyepiece says Digiscoping on it. That's giving me an idea that may make me spend money.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Got the 82mm ED Nikon today. Put it side by side with my ED78 and swapped the 25-56x zoom, wide angle 50x, and wide angle 75x eyepieces back and forth between them many times while looking at the same target just under 1,000 yards away. I gotta say I was quite surprised. Both are insanely impressive but my ED78 actually resolved ever so slightly better than the bigger ED82.

The target was a house being built with Tyvek house wrap on the walls so I could resolve on the detail of lettering. Conditions were good today with a little bit of mirage and a slight breeze to knock it down. I kept swapping the eyepieces back and forth again and again to make sure but there was no doubt the ED78 could read the smaller lettering just a little better with both the 50x and 75x fixed eyepieces. Also resolved ever so slightly better with the zoom eyepiece. Colors looked just a hair better and mirage was a little more manageable in the ED78 as well. That all being said, we have to remember that the ED82 has slightly more magnification with each fixed eyepiece than the ED78 so that’s probably the reason the ED78 was handling the mirage a little better and therefore able to resolve slightly better.

Resolution and color in both scopes with the fixed eyepieces was some of the best optics I’ve ever experienced at any price point. I’m not kidding. These fixed wide angle eyepieces are total game changers over the zoom eyepieces. Fixed is not as versatile as a zoom of course, but the difference in optical quality is quite noticeable. There was another shed being built with Tyvek wrapping up the mountain at 1150 yards that I looked at with the same results. With good conditions like I’ve had the last few days, I would honestly bet money that these scopes could easily resolve bullet holes in a paper target at 1200 yards or even farther. If someone shot a hole in the Tyvek wrap on the shed I was viewing at 1150 yards, I have absolutely no doubt I would have been able to see it with no issues at all. I’m dead serious.

I will play with them both again in low light to see how they compare there as well but for normal daytime viewing these scopes are both optical masterpieces with high magnification fixed power wide angle eyepieces. What a pleasure!

 

[Ledd Slinger]

We have a resident elk herd that runs around the neighborhood fields around the house. Took a photo of these cows at 1052 yards in the setting sun thru the ED82-A with the 50x wide angle eyepiece. As I said before, my phone camera can’t show the true resolution of actually looking thru the scope but this is the best picture I’ve got so far and it’s pretty decent so figured I would post this one. You can actually see so much more detail actually looking thru the scope. Every tiny ruffle of hair on their hides, and arch individual blade of grass hanging out of their mouths when their heads are up is extremely easy to see with amazing detail. My phone camera is nowhere near capable of capturing the details these scopes deliver.

 

[tom]

1.7x times 2 really sees holes as they appear. I was amazed 101x wasn't too much. I watched and called every shot on a 1,000 yard relay target Saturday at deep creek. Flipping amazing, but at the extreme end of the cost as stated.


Tom

 

[Ledd Slinger]

1.7x times 2 really sees holes as they appear. I was amazed 101x wasn't too much. I watched and called every shot on a 1,000 yard relay target Saturday at deep creek. Flipping amazing, but at the extreme end of the cost as stated.
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Tom

That’s awesome! And huge! Amazing it will handle that much magnification. If I still had my ATX I would lend you a 3rd multiplier to stack on the mountain of optics you got going there! Lol

 

[tom]

I think I prefer the balance of the single 1.7x for 60x mag still better. But Alex isn't getting his 1.7x back until I get more time behind it. I'll probably spend some time behind it next match without as well (35×), as that is really nice for watching trace and conditions.

Tom

 

[Ledd Slinger]

I think I prefer the balance of the single 1.7x for 60x mag still better. But Alex isn't getting his 1.7x back until I get more time behind it. I'll probably spend some time behind it next match without as well (35×), as that is really nice for watching trace and conditions.

Tom

Yeah looking thru my fixed 75x is pretty awesome, but I prefer the new fixed 50x I got. Don’t feel like the 50x loses anything in resolution to the 75x. I think I’m done with zoom eyepieces.