Meopta S1 APO scopes (1 Viewer)

[FrankD]

I am curious. Does anyone have any experience with this line of scopes? I had one of their earlier models, the Hermes 70 mm, several years ago and was fairly impressed with their optical performance, minus some CA issues. I know their newer model has been around for some time but have yet to really see anything mentioned on it. I was just checking out their new website www.meoptasportsoptics.com and noticed they have an interesting new digiscoping setup called the Meoview. I would love to give this one a try as it seems to really remedy one of my digiscoping "gripes".

Any comments would be welcome.

 

[FrankD]

Anybody?


This is surprising.

 

[John Russell]

Frank,
I recall reading a test somewhere, which I have unfortunately been unable to locate, in which it fell somewhat behind the big APOs from Leica, Swaro and Zeiss. It does however have less aperture and is a lot cheaper than these.
I had a brief look through the Apo with 30x eyepiece at Photokina 2006 (Meopta did not exhibit last year) and was favourably impressed but cannot offer a qualified recommendation. The eyepieces I believe are of the screw-in type and have fold-down rubber eyecups. When I asked the Meopta representative about the rumours that they assemble scopes for one of the top three, his "No comment" was I suppose an answer in itself.
Holger Merlitz once quoted a military assessment of terrestrial scopes, which concluded that the exit pupil should be a minimum of 2,5mm and that in 90% of cases there was not much to be gained by magnifications above 30x due to mirage. If this is the case then a 30x75 would be an ideal compromise.

John

 

[FrankD]

John,

Thank you for the comments. Excellent information. I have yet to try the 75 mm APO but I would like to eventually. I am looking for a larger alternative to my Pentax 65 for certain applications and I think the price/performance combination of the Meopta might be right up my alley. I would probably opt for the 30x eyepiece over the zoom though assuming it is a wide-angle model. I find myself using a scope in this capacity much more so than with a zoom.

...and, yes, I would like more conventional eyecups though.