As has been mentioned
in previous blog posts, the big news in spotting scopes in the last
couple of years has been wide-angle zooms, giving both the
flexibility of variable magnification and a very good angle of view.
The latest manufacturer to join the 'one eyepiece for everything'
club is Kowa.
Kowa are one of the
most respected Japanese optics companies with a particular forte for
spotting scopes and a legacy of ground-breaking equipment going back
over thirty years. For many birders in the mid to late 1980s the
77mm TSN 1,2,3 and 4 were the bee's knees when it came to near
indestructible high-performance scopes. At that time fixed 20x or
30x were the eyepieces to have, not only because they were good lenses
but also because the zooms available from all manufacturers were
almost useless for birding on account of being soft and having a
field of view nearly big enough to get an entire goldcrest in at
fifty yards.
These days zooms are
much better to the point of outselling fixed eyepieces more than 20:1
and offering fields of view nearly on a par. The latest generation
of zooms from Leica, Swarovski and a host of others give a
magnification range of 25-50/60x and have much improved field of
view. Both of the afore mentioned European companies now only have
zooms in the current product line ups and the ATX Swarovski scopes
eyepiece is part of a rear module that includes the prisms and
therefore most of the glass in the scope.
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| The TSN-IP4S phone scoping adapter |
Kowa have stuck to the
traditional body-and-eyepiece format and introduced their first
wide-angle zoom, made for the 770 and 880 series scopes. Physically
it uses the same metal chassis as the 20-60x that was launched with
these scopes in 2006, and so is the same size and near enough same
weight. The biggest advantage
to keeping the same dimensions as the previous eyepiece is that
Kowa's excellent
iphone digiscoping adapter fits it perfectly. The mechanics and build are up to the high standards you
should expect for a scope of this quality, feeling positive, nicely
damped and robust.
Optically it has a
tough act to follow in the form of the 'old' 20-60x but it in no way
disgraces itself, delivering everything its predecessor could and a
bit more punch, edge sharpness and of course field of view. I tend
not to hold a lot of store in the figures quoted in specification
sheets as it doesn't always translate into what the eye sees, so
purely for a subjective point of view the new eyepiece is notably
wider at 25x than the 20-60x is at 20x and this increase holds up
right through the range. One of the real strengths of the 880
series is the phenomenal brightness from the large 88mm objective
lens, especially at 60x and the new eyepiece, unlike some
manufacturers' offerings, retains the this power rather than
restricting the range to 50x.
At £669 it is quite
and investment, but it really does deliver what it set out to and
will keep Kowa at the cutting edge of spotting scope technology.
Our satellite shop in
the old visitor's centre at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust's Cley Marshes
reserve has become our clearance outlet, with all of our ends of
lines and one off deals. The spring cleaning has turned up some
real goodies, like the last pair of the Zeiss Conquest 10x40s now
with £142 off the
This shop is in the
perfect location to test out the kit, with the impressive views over
one of the most famous nature reserves in the UK. When the Norfolk
Wildlife Trust opened their new visitor centre at Cley in 2007, the
opportunity came up for us to have a small shop in the old thatched
Dick Bagnell-Oakley visitor centre just next door to the new one.
From here you get an elevated view over the reed beds, scrapes and
pools out to the shingle bank and the sea around a kilometre away.
As well as the impressive list of regular species found at Cley we
have had a few notable rarities and scarcities seen from the shop
including collared pratincole, western sandpiper, red-backed shrike,
water pipit, black redstart and Wilson's phalarope amongst the
highlights. Cley's coastal freshwater marsh (the product of medieval
land drainage) is an unusual habitat nationally and this coupled with
its location on the North Sea, makes it an attractive area for
regular and vagrant species.
