NEW! Kowa TSN-55A

[Matt Cashell]

Matt, why not include the original Kowa 55? Be nice to see if the improvements are that substancial to upgrade, to me fov is the biggest issue but I’m thinking the eyepiece upgrade will add some improvement all around but how much?

I don't have the Gen 1 for comparison, but I should be able to extrapolate some differences using my prior comparison with the ATC.

 

[Mrtoyz]

Picked up the STC. Got to spend a few hours glassing and comparing with an ATS (20-50). Wow. Totally surprised how well it did. I honestly do not think it gave up anything. I will say though, I did not do low light comparisons. I swear to god the STC had ever so slightly more FOV that the ATS, which doesn’t make sense. I’m happy.

 

[Matt Cashell]

Picked up the STC. Got to spend a few hours glassing and comparing with an ATS (20-50). Wow. Totally surprised how well it did. I honestly do not think it gave up anything. I will say though, I did not do low light comparisons. I swear to god the STC had ever so slightly more FOV that the ATS, which doesn’t make sense. I’m happy.

No need to swear ...

The ATC IS wider than the ATS. I assume you meant the 25-50 WA eyepiece on the ATS you compared.

The linear FOV of the ATC is 186 ft. (17x) to 102 ft. (40x) at 1000 yards while the ATS with 25-50 is 126 ft. (25x) to 81 ft. (50x) at 1000 yards.

Of course the ATC does have less magnification through the range however.

 

[Arrow4Christ]

Just got my 55s from S&S today and am very very impressed as an initial reaction. The field of view is night and day better than my previous 553 with what seems to be an improved image overall and certainly better edge to edge clarity. Looks great throughout the zoom range all the way to 40x. It is very comfortable to sit behind for long periods of time with a noticeably nicer eye relief and more forgiving eye box than the 553. Looking forward to testing it more, but I am very happy with it so far.