kenratboy Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 In addition to cars, audio, and computers, optics are one of my happy things in life. Does anyone here own and/or use nice binoculars or spotting scopes? Go ahead and add telescopes, camera lenses (the Zeiss T* on your Sony does NOT count), etc. to make it more fun. I don't have anything spectacular, but my 10X50 Parks vs. Tasco's is like comparing Bose 201's to Klipschorns. They are very nice for $170 (I looked at TONS of binoculars at Scope City, and the Parks were awesome for the money) I want to get Zeiss gear someday. Just seeing a pair of Zeiss binoculars makes my skin crawl (in a GOOD way) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Good optics are like any quality tool, they make the job easier. Although I don't currently own any, I have had the pleasure of using a variety of high quality optics over the years including microscopes, binoculars, rifle scopes, spotting scopes, telescopes, camera lenses, enlarger lenses, etc. The difference between high quality optics and run of the mill is pretty obvious even to uninitiated folks when they can A/B. If you like Zeiss, check out Swarovski (oh, I guess you have). FWIW even the cheap stuff is getting fairly good today. And the best of the Asian stuff is probably as good as the best of the European stuff. Fifty years ago you pretty much paid for what you got. Good optics took time to make and had to be made by skilled technicians. Nowadays, the best computer designed optics are better than anything that could have been done 50 years ago and most of the work is done on CNC equipment. Quality has gone up and price has come down. Most of the difference between expensive optics and cheap optics has to do with the number of elements, type of glass and coatings used, size of the elements, and ruggedness of the housing. Some of it just has to do with the name on the product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted January 14, 2004 Author Share Posted January 14, 2004 Well, maybe the optics in a cheap and expensive piece might be good, but the expensive one will stay in alignment when it gets banged around My newest toy is the Canon 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM III - it was $190 shipped from B&H, but the list price is $320. I compared it to the Ritz Camera brand lens (fowl as fresh dog $hit on a hot, humid day), a Sigma (Made in Japan...then sent to North Korea for refinement, it was a bit crude), and then I tried the Canon. Very nice for under $200. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 ---------------- On 1/14/2004 12:32:15 AM kenratboy wrote: Does anyone here own and/or use nice binoculars or spotting scopes? Go ahead and add telescopes, camera lenses (the Zeiss T* on your Sony does NOT count), etc. to make it more fun. ---------------- Just this past weekend, I bought myself a pair of the Nikon 10x25 field glasses for use on the ski patrol. They where only about $70, but has good optics, small, rugged, water-resistant, and pretty lightweight. I use them to make it easier to look down the hill to watch if anybody is doing anything stupid or if that wipeout I just saw way down there is something that I'll actually need to respond to. Also, they are nice to have during the summer when I go hiking along the river. Few times I found myself out there wishing I had a decent set of binoculars so I can get a better look at that Bald Eagle sitting up there in the tree, for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunsen Burner Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 My grandfather was an avid birder and got me started at any early age. When he died, he left me his optics. I'd smash them all, though, to have just one more outing with him. What I've purchased over the years: 9.5x44 ED Celestron 10x40 Zeiss, replaced with Nikon Superior E 10X42 8x32 Leica Nikon Venturer LX 8x32 Pentax 10x25 UCF Pentax 80mm ED My grandfather left me his Questar Birder, a pair of Bausch & Lomb Elite 8x42, and an ancient pair of 10x50 Steiners that he used for years. The Nikons have no match optically. The Superior E is outstanding, but being a porro prism glass, is not water/weather proof. The Venturer series is, as they are roof prisms, and the 8x32 is the best birding glass out there, bar none. Zeiss and Leica, though excellent and world class, have fallen behind as the undisputed, preeminent birding glasses. Of course, I am splitting hairs here, but when you get to a certain level and the absolute best is desired, Nikon is tops for the time being. No, Japanese optics are not as sexy as European glass, just better at this level. A lot also depends on other factors; whether you wear glasses, what your interpupilary distance is, how steady your hand is, what fits in your hand, etc. But for sheer optical performance, and now with the robust build found in the Venturer series, Nikon is it. Oh, and I do have a Sony digicam, F707, with a Zeiss lens. Don't laugh too hard, though, as it is recognized as one of, if not the, sharpest lenses on a 'prosumer' digital camera. BB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssh Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Binocs: Celestron 9x63, 10x50,& Deluxe 20x 80 (Universal Astronomics Deluxe Unimount) 2" eyepieces: Televue Nagler 9mm, 12mm, 17mm, 22mm, & 31mm (Numerous Celestron) Scope: Modded C8 Deluxe SSH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Hardy Posted January 14, 2004 Share Posted January 14, 2004 Yup. My wife, an avid birder, has the old 80 mm Swarovski ST80 with the HD optics and the zoom eyepiece. Nice scope. For travel, she also has a much smaller, lighter, and cheaper Bushnell 60 mm. We also have a cheap Orion 80 mm Mak for travel; used occasionally be me as a camera lens (500 mm FL IIRC). Her everyday binos are currently 10 x 30 mm Canon Image Stabilizers, and she keeps a pair of the little Swarovski 8 x 25 pocket-sized binos with her for "emergencies". We haven't taken the plunge for high-end binos for birding. Yet. There's also an Orion 6" Newtonian reflector for looking up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CO1 Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 Leupold Vari-X III 3.5-10x50mm Leupold Vari-X III 6.5-20x50mm Tasco Custom Shop CU 8-40x56mm I put the last one in to piss you off Ken. It's no Leupold but it's actually pretty good. One of the original ones before they changed factories, at which point the glass on the customs went to crap. Put it on a .300 win mag with a bipod and you can nock down any moose in sight but I rarely use it any more since getting the Vari-X III 6.5-20x50mm. I also bought a Canon 75-300mm but it's a f/4-5.6 IS USM. The built in image stabilizer really does away with a tripod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 ---------------- On 1/14/2004 11:14:07 AM skonopa wrote: ---------------- Also, they are nice to have during the summer when I go hiking along the river. Few times I found myself out there wishing I had a decent set of binoculars so I can get a better look at that Bald Eagle sitting up there in the tree, for example. ---------------- ...or that chick sunning herself on the other side of the river? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 ---------------- On 1/14/2004 11:17:34 AM Bunsen Burner wrote: My grandfather was an avid birder and got me started at any early age. When he died, he left me his optics. I'd smash them all, though, to have just one more outing with him. BB ---------------- Right On! I'd give it all up (well, everything but the consoles...) to spend the day with my Dad, or one of my Grandfathers. Seriously, great sentiment. Last time I saw my Dad was on my wedding day in '87. He died one week later, the morning we were coming home from our honeymoon, Father's Day. Pardon me, I have to take a moment... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dzapper Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 I have two pairs of Swarovskis a 10x50 and 10x25 Anniversity edition. The optics are of course awesome. Because of rules on 3d archery limiting participants to 8x optics the pair I use most are Brunton 7x42s Eterna which for the money are excellent. I bought them on ebay for $209 after looking through them and many others at 3d events. For the money you can't go wrong with this Brunton model. Another good mid-priced binocular is the Wind River made by Luepold. Although I have not owned this brand I have looked through several and thought them very good. Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted January 15, 2004 Share Posted January 15, 2004 ---------------- On 1/15/2004 8:36:34 AM fini wrote: ...or that chick sunning herself on the other side of the river? ---------------- You know, I gotta check out the scenery . Kinda nice to see some of the local fauna and floria . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milton10 Posted January 20, 2004 Share Posted January 20, 2004 My optics are the following telescopes: TeleVue Pronto telescope with the following eyepieces: 35mm Panoptic, 17mm Nagler Type 4, 12mm Nagler Type 4, 9mm Nagler Type 6, 7mm Nagler Type 6, TeleVue 2x Barlow. By big telescope is a 12.5" Starstructure Newtonian. Both are excellent scopes. Since the Pronto is smaller, I use it far more than the Starstructure. Milton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 A couple of decades ago I bought a Nikon F3. Great unit. I'll say that body was the last of the manual ones with just enough metering. The real investment was the micro lense at 55 mm with extension and then the 102 mm short telephoto. The micro opened up taking shots of small stuff. The 102 is very fast, going down to 1.8 or so. My mania at the time was available light. Still is. There is a lot you can capture with fast film and a fast lense which just can't be read with flash. In recent times, I like using the Sony Mavica which writes to disk. It is great for internet posting. OTOH, lack of manual control, the relatively slow speed of the device, and low resolution sometimes makes me want to go back to the Nikon and Kodachrome. I started looking at telescopes because Messiar objects are something I'd like to explore. The telescope store showed me some $1000 binoculars. Wow. It is not so much magnification as it is contrast and clarity. Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunsen Burner Posted January 22, 2004 Share Posted January 22, 2004 ---------------- On 1/21/2004 11:48:56 PM William F. Gil McDermott wrote: The telescope store showed me some $1000 binoculars. Wow. It is not so much magnification as it is contrast and clarity. Gil ---------------- That's what it's all about; high contrast, color purity and resolution. When you are looking through a pair of binocs and they feel like an extension of your eye and not some clunky device, you know you've got a good pair. BB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenratboy Posted January 22, 2004 Author Share Posted January 22, 2004 ---------------- On 1/22/2004 10:39:19 AM Bunsen Burner wrote: ---------------- On 1/21/2004 11:48:56 PM William F. Gil McDermott wrote: The telescope store showed me some $1000 binoculars. Wow. It is not so much magnification as it is contrast and clarity. Gil ---------------- That's what it's all about; high contrast, color purity and resolution. When you are looking through a pair of binocs and they feel like an extension of your eye and not some clunky device, you know you've got a good pair. BB ---------------- With my 10 X 50's, there are many times where I feel looking thru them is actually BETTER than my eyes. They have enough light gathering to a point where they give a bit of BOOST to available light, and the quality is awesome, but I have compared them to Zeiss, Lieca, etc. and those are still better, but a thousand bucks more William F. Gil McDermott: I will assume you are a Nikon man (I'm a Canon fan, though I LOVE both), so you ought to look at a D1X digital SLR. It's the best of both world. No film, instant pictures to the computer, etc. - and you can use any of the Nikon lenses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted January 22, 2004 Share Posted January 22, 2004 I have some residual brand loyalty to Nikon. OTOH, there are a lot of things to put in the budget and an HDTV is near the head of the list. Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleandan Posted January 26, 2004 Share Posted January 26, 2004 kenratboy, do not get cought in the name game when it comes to optics. You do have some very respected names listed, and you will pay for the ownership of those names. Go "kick some tires" and find something you like. Nikon and Kowa are two names that make excellent optics at a less than premium price. My optic experience comes mostly from shooting sports and cameras. I have many different lenses for my Nikons and have traded/sold off quite a few. I have never s=traded/sold any of the Nikon lenses though as they are far superior to others for the price. My spotting scopes are B&L, Kowa, Leupold, Weaver, Simmons, Tasco, Unertle. The higher end units, Kowa, B&L, Leupold, Unertle all have much higher light gathering ability along with far superior clarity than the others. Look for clarity and light gathering and you will see the differences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hurdy_gurdyman Posted January 28, 2004 Share Posted January 28, 2004 I have some older medium format cameras with nice optics. I have a 4 element coated 80mm/f-2.8 Zeiss Tessar in my Century Graphic, an 80mm/f-2.8 5 element Sekor and a 4 element 180mm/f-4.5 Sekor for my Mamiya C-220, and a 4 element 100mm/f-3.5 in my Mamiya Super 23 press camera. All are sharp and contrasty. Picture quality from these big negatives (6mm x 6mm and 6mm x 7mm and 6mm x 8mm)are remarkable! Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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