Kowa TSN-82SV or Celestron Regal 80 F-ED ???

[AddictedToSB]

I want to get a good spotting scope, and am trying to decide between the Kowa TSN-82SV and the Celestron Regal 80 F-ED. I know a lot of people swear by the Kowa scopes, but also know a few people who use Celestron. The Kowa would cost around $1000 with eye piece, and I can get the Celestron for less than $700. The biggest difference I see is the Celestron is one of the extra low dispersion (ED) with fluorite in them. This is supposed to give you "razor sharp images while virtually eliminating chromatic aberration". It seems like the sharp images would be helpful, but I don't really understand what chromatic aberration is, and how it night affect things like mirage. To get that feature in a Kowa would double the cost to about $2000, which is way out of my price range.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions? (I've tried several other brands, but haven't been able to get the eye relief I like with most of them, so would like to concentrate on these two.)

Thanks!!

[Jerry G]

You usualy get what you pay for. I do love my Kowa.

[CWS]

The long eye relief of the Kowa (assuming you get the associated 27X eyepiece) makes it a LOT more comfortable to use. Much less eyestrain with that one and the fatigue factor makes a big difference by the end of the day. I haven't tried any of the Celestron products so I really can't give you a direct comparison but I've tried Nikon, Leupold, and Leica products and still prefer the long eye relief of the Kowa. If Celestron offers a similar feature... might be worth a try.... or, you could wind up owning a $700 white elephant.

[Dee]

Chromatic aberration is when the light color spectrums get distorted because they are being refracted differently and have different focal lengths from the lens after the light passes through. For what I know about it regarding spotting scopes it mainly is of most importance to people using their scopes to take digital pictures or get video of the scoped image.

I am messing around with trying to use my cell phone video to capture the scope view and I can see how it would be helpful. Then again I can see where a real mount and video camera would be nicer as well to try this

I agree with the Kowa 27x LER being the way to go. You get that long relief for easy viewing and it also makes it easier for the spotter to be able to peep back and forth at the conditions which is helpful if things are switching all over the place.

Celestron makes some nice products I wish I could give you a better comparison but I never owned any myself. You may get some good reviews to read on bird watching forums. As for the Kowa I love mine and also the customer service is great. I needed two new caps and they sent them in no time free of charge.

I think Jason was saying some good things about a Celestron scope some time back, maybe he could help you compare.


Dee