Dear birders, optico-holics and everyone,
I always believe that, nowadays the optic producers design their products based on profitability, instead of customer satisfaction. I am looking for a scope, simply free of optical faults (Coma, CA and other aberrations) for years. But unfortunately I still didn't find such a scope together with other simple properties (i.e small size, extreme sharpness, brightness, contrast, water repellency etc.). It is quite distressful *when you see a 50 year old scope outperforms your newest 4K-6.5K scope when birding with other birders. Thanks god I didn't live such a scene, but I witnessed some. Anyway I am ready to pay 5k-10K or more for a wonderful scope. But there is none around (at least I do not know, although I have some knowledge about optical instruments and their histories. I am talking about spotting scopes. Of course there are several wonderful astronomy scopes. But they are out of my interest. Because they are generally bulky and impractical in the field.).
Digi-scoping and especially video-scoping is my hobby and I was practicing it before Lourence Poh was famous. I was taking photos and some 320x240 movies with my old 8X42 BA Leica binoculars coupled with Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera (there was a software that converts image series to a movie) in 1999. As I said I was looking for a scope, that satisfies me on every aspect at least since 1990. But I couln’t find it yet. So I started to explore to build my own spotting scope.
I have 3 tele-lenses: Contax 400mm f4 TeleApoTessar (about 600 pieces produced, 112mm front lens glass), Nikon 180-600mm f8 (latest version, less than 600 piece produced, 95 mm front lens glass, still in production: 15 000 Euro) and Pentax MStar 300mm f4. These are very special lenses and to me optically almost perfect and can not be compared (far beyond) to today’s best sport optic and photographic optical instruments. The first two lenses that I have mentioned to be in my possession, are relatively over-weighted. But the Pentax 300 mm is under 1 kg together with a Nikon eyepiece (scope converter). Total length for this optical gem is under 19 cm. The front lens element is 77mm ED glass. I am not talking about today’s ED glass. This lens contains so many special glass elements and excellent optical design that it is the smallest (at least as far as I know) 300 mm f4 lens in the world (also Nikon 180-600 lens's glass element assembly contains some very special elements i.e. Thorium). I converted the lens to the Nikon mount so that it accepts the Nikon scope converter. The result: It gives me a 30X scope magnification, 2.5 mm exit pupil, under 1kg weight, under 19 cm length, excellent sharpness, and no CA etc. That is not the whole story: I bought similar scope converter, produced by Leica in 90's (TO-R adapter). This is clearly a better scope converter and gives 24X magnification instead of 30X. But with this converter the scope gives 3.78mm exit pupil and better (actually excellent) sharpness and brightness. I sent the new (actually old
*) scope converter for Nikon mount conversion and waiting impatiently for its return.
I am sure my other two lenses will eat the new scopes for lunch and I believe this combination (Pentax 300mm+Leica scope converter) *will be unbeatable by the best Kowa, Leica, Swarowski and Zeiss spotting scopes. May be I am wrong. But I kindly invite you birders, who are familiar with digi-scoping to make an optical quality test that shows today's best scopes performances against older good quality optic's performances. If I am right, I believe this test will be a warning for the top scope producing brands. The test is simple: We will take a photograph or a short video of Just a Coca-Cola can as an international object from a 5m, 15m, 25m and 50m distances. If the coke can cover the frame, the image can give us some idea about the scope’s optical performance apart from the camera you will use. I am posting this to every scope thread and digi-scoping threads. I am waiting for the scope owners (including the older scopes) to contribute to this test (I hope I'll post my samples in next few weeks, as soon as my Leica scope converter will arrive). Comments about any scope converted from an old tele lens are also welcome.
Best Regards
Murat Ozcelik
P.S.: Here and the link on the menu, you can find several camcorder lens test footage performed by me:
http://www.vimeo.com/14026566
Leica 8X42BA binocular CA quick test:
http://www.vimeo.com/14002919
I always believe that, nowadays the optic producers design their products based on profitability, instead of customer satisfaction. I am looking for a scope, simply free of optical faults (Coma, CA and other aberrations) for years. But unfortunately I still didn't find such a scope together with other simple properties (i.e small size, extreme sharpness, brightness, contrast, water repellency etc.). It is quite distressful *when you see a 50 year old scope outperforms your newest 4K-6.5K scope when birding with other birders. Thanks god I didn't live such a scene, but I witnessed some. Anyway I am ready to pay 5k-10K or more for a wonderful scope. But there is none around (at least I do not know, although I have some knowledge about optical instruments and their histories. I am talking about spotting scopes. Of course there are several wonderful astronomy scopes. But they are out of my interest. Because they are generally bulky and impractical in the field.).
Digi-scoping and especially video-scoping is my hobby and I was practicing it before Lourence Poh was famous. I was taking photos and some 320x240 movies with my old 8X42 BA Leica binoculars coupled with Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera (there was a software that converts image series to a movie) in 1999. As I said I was looking for a scope, that satisfies me on every aspect at least since 1990. But I couln’t find it yet. So I started to explore to build my own spotting scope.
I have 3 tele-lenses: Contax 400mm f4 TeleApoTessar (about 600 pieces produced, 112mm front lens glass), Nikon 180-600mm f8 (latest version, less than 600 piece produced, 95 mm front lens glass, still in production: 15 000 Euro) and Pentax MStar 300mm f4. These are very special lenses and to me optically almost perfect and can not be compared (far beyond) to today’s best sport optic and photographic optical instruments. The first two lenses that I have mentioned to be in my possession, are relatively over-weighted. But the Pentax 300 mm is under 1 kg together with a Nikon eyepiece (scope converter). Total length for this optical gem is under 19 cm. The front lens element is 77mm ED glass. I am not talking about today’s ED glass. This lens contains so many special glass elements and excellent optical design that it is the smallest (at least as far as I know) 300 mm f4 lens in the world (also Nikon 180-600 lens's glass element assembly contains some very special elements i.e. Thorium). I converted the lens to the Nikon mount so that it accepts the Nikon scope converter. The result: It gives me a 30X scope magnification, 2.5 mm exit pupil, under 1kg weight, under 19 cm length, excellent sharpness, and no CA etc. That is not the whole story: I bought similar scope converter, produced by Leica in 90's (TO-R adapter). This is clearly a better scope converter and gives 24X magnification instead of 30X. But with this converter the scope gives 3.78mm exit pupil and better (actually excellent) sharpness and brightness. I sent the new (actually old
*) scope converter for Nikon mount conversion and waiting impatiently for its return. I am sure my other two lenses will eat the new scopes for lunch
and I believe this combination (Pentax 300mm+Leica scope converter) *will be unbeatable by the best Kowa, Leica, Swarowski and Zeiss spotting scopes. May be I am wrong. But I kindly invite you birders, who are familiar with digi-scoping to make an optical quality test that shows today's best scopes performances against older good quality optic's performances. If I am right, I believe this test will be a warning for the top scope producing brands. The test is simple: We will take a photograph or a short video of Just a Coca-Cola can as an international object from a 5m, 15m, 25m and 50m distances. If the coke can cover the frame, the image can give us some idea about the scope’s optical performance apart from the camera you will use. I am posting this to every scope thread and digi-scoping threads. I am waiting for the scope owners (including the older scopes) to contribute to this test (I hope I'll post my samples in next few weeks, as soon as my Leica scope converter will arrive). Comments about any scope converted from an old tele lens are also welcome. Best Regards
Murat Ozcelik
P.S.: Here and the link on the menu, you can find several camcorder lens test footage performed by me:
http://www.vimeo.com/14026566
Leica 8X42BA binocular CA quick test:
http://www.vimeo.com/14002919
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