Kowa spotting scope

[eastfork]

Ok.... im looking for something different....i have a nikon fieldscope ed 65mm with zoom eye piece and wide angle 24x eye piece. I love the wide angle.....but i would like more power at times.....so....a few manufacturers have zoom wide angles....leica, Swarovski, meopta, ..... kowa......so i have been poking around and the reviews are pretty high on the new kowa with the prominar wide angle eye piece.....they have a 88mm and a 77 mm.......any experiences with these spotters.....just looking at my options.

[Bean Counter]

I have the 82mm fieldscope and love it. Keep in mind that those same eyepieces will push you out to further ranges so if you can find an 82mm on the used market you wont have to invest in new eyepieces, and will have a lighter and heavier setup. 

[eastfork]

That is an interesting thought...

[nwwanderer]

Use my Kowa every day, no issues.  It has been around the block several times.  Compared my 65 to a razor 85 recently, same field of view, side by side comparison.

[Tbar]

I run a tsn 884 with the 20-60 eyepiece.  It's absolutely incredible the amount of light it gathers and how crisp it is. The field of view is great (imo)  My smaller scope a swaro sts 65 hd and there is absolutely zero comparison . They are both in Parr as far as quality.  As for the wide angle I cannot offer any input.

[eastfork]

T-bar. You said zero comparison between kowa and swaro.....so what were the differences.... pluses minus.....just curious

[Tbar]

The biggest difference is the expected difference with the 65mm objective and the 88mm. The Kowa is unbelievably bright in low light situations.  They are almost identical  (imo) when comparing  clarity and fine focus. You really can't go wrong with either.

[eastfork]

Thanks a bunch for response. I figured that much. I am really like the idea of the wide angle zoom....  mated with the 88mm...... 

[eastfork]

Bean counter.....do you have wide angle eye piece or just normal zoom?

[Magnum_Willys]

All the birders seem to rate the big Kowa over everything else. 

[eastfork]

Thats what ive been reading. It sounds like the big kowa is worth looking through

[nontypical]

I have a Kowa and wouldn't trade if for anything. The only complaint I have is the weight it is heavy but very clear at a very long range.

[eastfork]

Non typical-
Keep talking. How do you use it. Backpack? Which model do you have? Do you have any experience with wide angle eye pieces? Im very intrigued by the kowa reviews...

[crowinghen]

What do you guys think about the TSN 601? with the 20-60 eyepiece?

[Tbar]

What do you guys think about the TSN 601? with the 20-60 eyepiece?

@crowinghen, I personally don't have any experience with that model.  I had a 881 and after a lengthy discussion with a Swarovski rep I took a look at the 884 (same scope with better glass). I cannot say enough good things about either company.  One unknown to me is the warranty from Kowa. I hope I never need it.  I have sent several items back to Swarovski and have been very pleased. 

[Bean Counter]

Bean counter.....do you have wide angle eye piece or just normal zoom?

Mine came with the fixed 30x DS eyepiece. I do a lot of photography and from that arena I'm preferential to fixed optics as opposed to zooms for quality purposes. So a few years ago I finally broke down and grabbed the 75x fixed to swap out when I really need to reach out, like 3,000 yards reach out. Its far less pleasurable to use and part of that is just the challenge of all that magnification over atmospheric conditions. mirage and shimmer are huge. Focusing and low light aren't as stellar as they are with the 30x. I wish I could find someone with the 25-75x zoom an we could compare. If I can only leave the house with one its the 30x all the way. I'll be buried with this spotter.

[nontypical]

I have a tsn 883 with a 20 to 60 power eye piece I don't know if it's a wide angle.  I have used it for backpacking.  That's really where I noticed it was heavy.  when I am in wide open Country like where I live in eastern washington and I am not hiking miles it's great for that.

[MtnMuley]

Sounds like you're pretty much sold on the Kowa already. Nice spotters. Have you compared them to a NF?  Both are very heavy for my likings, but I actually liked the NF better. The NF would be my closest comparison to a Kowa when comparing spotters. Their long range binos are amazing though.

[eastfork]

Well.....im not sold yet... .. but...  that being said no i havent looked through a night force. Ive looked through leica, zeiss,vortex razor,Swarovski... ..and a cabelas euro. But i really wanna see a kowa... and now maybe a NF. But....i need wide angle......the view and the image is so much easier on my eyes...

[eastfork]

https://www.eagleoptics.com/products/kowa-77mm-88mm-25-60x-zoom-eyepiece?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=googlepla&variant=23707025927&gclid=Cj0KEQiA7qLDBRD9xJ7PscDCu5IBEiQAqo3BxNuOK5eo2CmP55fOoPYpJXi-pS52tUPq-432wNXIpnUaAjnh8P8HAQ


This what i really want to look through.

[eastfork]

Mtnmuley- what NF do you have?

[eastfork]

Interesting find.....it looks like meopta makes night forces.....hummmmmm....and they too have a wide angke zoom.....

[MtnMuley]

 NF TS 82   20-70×82 is the one I've used quite a bit. I don't own one. For my big spotter, I use a Zeiss FL 20-60x85.

I'm not sure who builds the NF, but if it's Meopta, they sure build them better than the ones they put their own name on. I've used the full sized Meopta several times as well, and wasn't impressed at all. SPotter is 10 years old now, so maybe they've improved.

[eastfork]

Yeah i was just reading up a bit and it sounds like they are the meopta meopro HD. I think im gonna try to roundup a few and do a little comparision myself. If any one is near sw washington and wants to join in  hit me up.  I really think im gonna buy a kowa tsn88. The reviews are amazing.

[MtnMuley]

Regardless which one you chose, they are all very nice scopes.

[nwwanderer]

Can not go wrong in that class, enjoy

[jbauch357]

We did a side by size comparison between ~$1k scopes with zoom eye pieces, here were our findings.

$857 Vortex Viper 20-60x80 - Easy to dial in, dual focus was really nice, pretty good picture with low effort.  After dialing in it had the same light collection as the Kowa but was the lowest clarity of the group and felt like it had the narrowest field of view at full magnification. 

$1149 Pentax PF-80ED-A - Brightest picture of the group and once you spent the time to get there also had the sharpest clarity.  Field of view was the same as the Kowa but took some work to get your eye just right for that full view.  The shortest eye relief of the group with only minimal relief adjustment on the eye cup, was tiring to use even when just doing comparison with the others.  Took a long time to get dialed in to where sharpness and was better than the other two, but once there was noticeably better.  The best option for fixed target/distance viewing, would be a pain in the ass for scanning or moving targets.

$1027 Kowa TSN-82SV - Easy as the Viper to dial in final focus on target, but was sharper than the Viper once finally focused.  Light collection was about the same as the Viper but not quite as bright as the Pentax.  Wide field of view and long eye relief made using and scanning considerably easier than the Pentax even while at full magnification.  Just barely less crisp at full magnification than the Pentax, but took less effort to get to final focus than the Pentax.  This is the best choice of the three for field/hunting use, but if the small clarity advantage over the Viper is worth the extra $170 is debatable.

In the end I returned all of them and purchased a Kowa TSN-880 with 25-60x eye piece.  This thing is absolutely amazing and blows the other three out of the water, I really can't imaging having a better spotting scope.  Light collection, clarity, focus granularity, basically everything about it is beyond comparison of anything else I've ever looked through.  We were checking for eye guards on mule deer over a mile away, outstanding.

[MtnMuley]

Good review. I'm curious why you didn't chose the Vortex Razor and instead chose the Viper. The previous model Razor can be found in that price range you were comparing and it's twice the spotter as the Viper.

[jbauch357]

We did side by side of the old model Razor and Viper while in the store, the Viper was actually clearer and easier to use than the old model Razor so I removed it from the list of considerations.

[rudysts]

What do you guys think about the TSN 601? with the 20-60 eyepiece?

I have used it for 600 yard load development if conditions are good I can spot my 7mm holes on paper. for hunting purpose you cant go wrong they are light enough imo. I have also used them to spot shots at targets out to 1200 yards and never had a problem following the trace on target.