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Meopta dilemna (1 Viewer)

FrankD

FrankD

Well-known member
I own a Meopta Hermes I 70 mm spotting scope. I picked it up earlier this year from the local Cabelas in their "bargain cave". It has served me faithfully for the last 5 months. This past weekend I was using it and the eyepiece focus and zoom adjustments started to stiffen up to the point where I have extreme difficulty turning them. I have no experience with actually fixing optical instruments so I left things well enough alone. However, it has pretty much left the scope unusable.

I went online to check out the major optics retailers and Ebay to see if I could find another 15-45x eyepiece for this scope. Everywhere I looked I was unable to find this particular product. I believe the scope has been discontinued from the Meopta lineup and accessories/parts are becoming hard to come by.

I emailed three major optics retailers to see if they had any in stock despite their website info. One of them, Eagle Optics, replied in the negative. The others I have yet to hear from. I also emailed Meopta USA and Meopta in the Czech Republic but have not heard anything from either of them. Lastly I called Meopta USA (as prompted by the nice young woman at Eagle Optics) but had to leave a voicemail. I have not heard back from that gentleman either.

My question is what I should do at this point. Should I continue to try to find another eyepiece for the scope or should I put the scope body up on Ebay for sale and use the money to finance a new one?

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
 
Problem solved. I just got a hold of someone at Meopta USA and the gentleman was kind enough to put together a special order for me through the local Cabelas. This worked out so well I may have to order an additional eyepiece. The question now is which one...16x, 25x Wide Angle or 50x? ;)
 
I did not consider that route as the item was purchased "as is" and used. I tend to forget that not everyone is familiar with Cabelas' bargain cave. In it is returned or refurbished merchandise. In some cases the items are basically brand new but did not live up to the purchaser's expectations. In other cases items were damaged in shipment and sent back to the company to be repaired. In any case the prices are exceptional and it was hard for me to turn down a decent scope at the price I paid for it.

I am more than happy to pay for the replacement eyepiece...and another one of a different magnification should I decide which one. ;)
 
Thank you for the suggestion Ilkka. I have to check what the eye relief is going to be first but I was leaning that way as well. I have no experience with fixed power eyepieces but have seen it mentioned on the forums that they are head and tails above the variable units.
 
FrankD said:
Thank you for the suggestion Ilkka. I have to check what the eye relief is going to be first but I was leaning that way as well. I have no experience with fixed power eyepieces but have seen it mentioned on the forums that they are head and tails above the variable units.
Click to expand...
Hi Frank,I see that Cabelas has the Meopta HA70 spotter on Sale for $299.99 comes with 25X and 40X eyepieces.Also says adjustable tripod mounting collar and this would be great for the shooters out there if it rotates.Did you get the wide field?
Regards,Steve
 
Steve,

Hey, thanks for resurrecting this thread. To answer your question, no I did not. I was able to obtain a replacement zoom eyepiece from a very kind and friendly gentleman at Meopta named Richard Gilligan. Sadly though I sold the scope not that long after. I decided I wanted to pursue the digiscoping route and needed a scope with less CA in the view. I subsequently purchased the Pentax 65 ED from Camerlandny. My experiences with that scope and the various eyepieces are chronicled both in the Pentax spotting scope forum and the main digiscoping forum. At the present time my digiscoping efforts have been put on hold. I sprung for a 20 mm Pentax XW eyepiece but am still waiting for spottingscopes.com to send my the universal digiscoping adapter that fits on it.

Thanks again.
 
mooreorless said:
Hi Frank,I see that Cabelas has the Meopta HA70 spotter on Sale for $299.99 comes with 25X and 40X eyepieces.Also says adjustable tripod mounting collar and this would be great for the shooters out there if it rotates.Did you get the wide field?
Regards,Steve
Click to expand...

Hi Frank,I thought you bought a Pentax,but I didn't know you had sold the Meopta.It makes me wonder about how good a deal this is from Cabelas.Good luck with your digi quest.
Regards,Steve
 
Steve,

At $300 I think that scope is a bargain. Very well made and the optics were quite good. It was just the high end of the magnification range though showed considerable CA. I do not think it would be bothersome had I not intended to pursue the digiscoping route.
 
Also in need of Meopta HA 70 eyepiece

I just purchased a NOS Meopta HA 70 with a 25X WA eyepiece. I would like to find a 15-45 eyepiece but am also finding it hard to locate. Any suggestions?
 
Paul R. said:
I just purchased a NOS Meopta HA 70 with a 25X WA eyepiece. I would like to find a 15-45 eyepiece but am also finding it hard to locate. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Paul,
I would suspect that the image through the zoom would start to deteriorate above 25x and the FOV throughout the range would be worse.
IMHO you are well served with the 25x WA.

John
 
Wow, this thread gets resurrected again. :)

You should be able to get a hold of the 15-45x eyepiece through Meoptausa. There is a phone number and email address at their website. When I ran into the problem above they still had a few zoom eyepieces in stock but not many.
 
And resurrected again.

I too have a Meopta Hermes 1 spotting scope. While I don't use it much for birding, I am a long range target rifle shooter and I chose the Hermes 1 over the Leica 77 Apo I used to have. The Meopta optics are excellent, no outstanding, and it is far lighter and definitely waterproof. I recently had problems with the 20-45 zoom thanks to an idiot who used it without permission. Thankfully when I bought it several years ago I also bought the 25WA and 16 eyepiece. I prefer the zoom for various reasons but the 25WA is an excellent eyepiece, as is the 16 for low power use.

My 20-45 zoom came up with the same problems you encountered and I traced it to three screws under the zoom's rubber grip ring. They were not very tight and allowed the zoom ring to turn (stiffly) but not actually turn the zoom ring inside. Once I was able to remove the rubber grip ring I could get access to the three screws and tighten them (after making sure the white dot aligned with the proper X number).

I have several telescopes and have owned many spotting scopes over the years and the Meopta Herms 1 is (was), in my opinion, one of the best scope per dollar values out there (the Pentax PF80ED being another).

Regards,

Don
FrankD said:
Wow, this thread gets resurrected again. :)

You should be able to get a hold of the 15-45x eyepiece through Meoptausa. There is a phone number and email address at their website. When I ran into the problem above they still had a few zoom eyepieces in stock but not many.
Click to expand...
 
Steve,

Thank you for the link to the Pentax tests. I sold my PF80ED sometime back and have been seriously thinking about getting the 100ED but have never read a test on it, mainly because I don't have the money right now anyway.

When I first started target shooting back in the late 80's I used my Celestron C90 as my spotter. Kind of a narrow field but the optics were very good on mine. I went to the Meopta 70 because lugging all the stuff a competitive shooters needs from the 800 yard line to the 900 and then 1000 line, well I needed to lighten the load if I wasn't driving and found myself have to hump the stuff.

Best regards,

Don
 
Kevin is correct. You can occasionally find some good deals at the online Bargain Cave (thinking back to the Leica Trinovid 7x42 for $900 a few years ago) but the real bargains are found at the retail locations. There are some silly deals in there from time to time.

My best "steal" was a Nikon Premier LX (original model) for $350.

;-)
 
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