Hi!
I am trying to sort couple of angled spotting scopes in order of image quality. I have zero possibility to test these, not alone or compare them. In Finland, where I live, and in Europe (not including UK) almost all of them are "out of stock". Any help would be appreciated. I have limited budget and of these the Kowa 663 is a bit over the limit
. This particular price point of the Kowa is near a price point where I would have many other quality choices too. I have to mention that when purchasing abroad the returns are kind of ruled out (because of the high expenses related), so I want my first purchase to be widely accepted as "good".
My interest is to compare these spotting scopes:
Hawke Endurance ED 15-45x60 (cheapest, lightest (big plus), but a bit smallish lens size)
Hawke Endurance ED 16-48x68 (I have found zero information of the IQ)
Athlon Ares G2 UHD 15-45x65 (good reviews, but is it anyway better than Hawke?)
Kowa TSN-663M with 20-60X eyepiece (lightest of the scopes that have 65+ lens size)
According to the scarce information I have found no one compares them against each other. Ares has got good reviews here and was highly appreciated in Backwood Pursuits spotting scope showdown February 23, 2021. In this forum the Ares has been mentioned to be similar in IQ than the Hawkes. How does it compare to the 663 Kowa? With Kowa I doubt the zoom eyepiece as it has been mentioned clearly worse than the one they use in the bigger scopes. I am familiar with fixed eyepieces (and have good experience with them), but with this purchase I also want to have a good zoom option.
I have made my search through this forum and still think I cannot find an answer to this comparison. Thanks in advance.
I am trying to sort couple of angled spotting scopes in order of image quality. I have zero possibility to test these, not alone or compare them. In Finland, where I live, and in Europe (not including UK) almost all of them are "out of stock". Any help would be appreciated. I have limited budget and of these the Kowa 663 is a bit over the limit
. This particular price point of the Kowa is near a price point where I would have many other quality choices too. I have to mention that when purchasing abroad the returns are kind of ruled out (because of the high expenses related), so I want my first purchase to be widely accepted as "good".My interest is to compare these spotting scopes:
Hawke Endurance ED 15-45x60 (cheapest, lightest (big plus), but a bit smallish lens size)
Hawke Endurance ED 16-48x68 (I have found zero information of the IQ)
Athlon Ares G2 UHD 15-45x65 (good reviews, but is it anyway better than Hawke?)
Kowa TSN-663M with 20-60X eyepiece (lightest of the scopes that have 65+ lens size)
According to the scarce information I have found no one compares them against each other. Ares has got good reviews here and was highly appreciated in Backwood Pursuits spotting scope showdown February 23, 2021. In this forum the Ares has been mentioned to be similar in IQ than the Hawkes. How does it compare to the 663 Kowa? With Kowa I doubt the zoom eyepiece as it has been mentioned clearly worse than the one they use in the bigger scopes. I am familiar with fixed eyepieces (and have good experience with them), but with this purchase I also want to have a good zoom option.
I have made my search through this forum and still think I cannot find an answer to this comparison. Thanks in advance.
