Nikon Monarch Fieldscope 82ED-A Review

[Justin Crossley]

Nice review Justin.

It sounds like the Monarch ED spotter and Monarch HG Binos could get hunters into a premium setup at a pretty big savings over the Euro offerings.

Matt, you're exactly right. They are producing great glass at a big discount.

Sent from my E6833 using Tapatalk

 

[realunlucky]

Very nice write up Justin. The Nikon provides a great view no doubt.

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

 

[jd30069]

Eye relief, field of view, and depth of field were the weak points of the fieldscope. However, it still produced a hell of a picture. I thought the one I looked through was sharper than my ATM 80hd.

I agree 100% - i too battled the glasses issue which gets very tiring very quickly

 

[Antarctica]

It always surprises me how little mention/traction Nikon gets on this site. I rarely weigh in on optics stuff, because frankly, I've never even looked through Swarovski glass - I just don't need to, 'cause there's no way I could justify the cost. I've also never had much interest in all the 'newcomer' glass - vortex, etc, - most of which contract out all the manufacturing and focus on marketing.

As said before, Nikon's entrenchment and respect in the photography market speaks for itself. Its hard to imagine how other optics companies can compete on cost with a company that is using (and as I understand, actually manufacturing- someone please correct me if I'm wrong) so much glass.

At least for my money, Nikon optics provide a combination of affordability and excellence that isn't met by any other manufacturer.

Thanks for the write-up. And thanks for doing so after a year of use versus so many write-ups that are done 15 minutes after the reviewer opens the box!

 

[Cameron945]

Throughout this season I will be doing an ongoing review of the Nikon Monarch Fieldscope 82ED-A with MEP-20-60 Eyepiece. I will mostly be comparing it to my Swarovski ATS 20-60x80mm HD. It will be an interesting comparison considering the price difference is over $1,500.00 US.

So far I have only had the Nikon out in the field a little bit and my Swaro is getting cleaned but should be back shortly. Subscribe to this thread using "thread tools" toward the top of the screen if you would like to follow along.

Just picked one of these up. You can find them at a few Sportsman's locations for 1200$; 1300$ after tax. I'll be getting after deer, ibex, elk and Aoudad in NM. Can't wait to get my eye through it and thanks for the review!

 

[Wrench]

I had the 8x edg binos and sold them....great glass. I kept my ed82 scope because I'd have to spend 3x as much to get 10% more performance. I have a d800 and a ton of $$ in lenses.....with that said,

You couldn't give me a nikon riflescope. I've had reliability issues to the point of phobia.

 

[elkhunteralta]

I picked one of these up from Nikon, great glass, very impressed so far. Not a light set up but the clarity and edge to edge sharp picture makes it a great all day spotter.

 

[ElkElkGoose]

I picked up one of these and have been sharing some things over on bird forum. Here's just some copy paste from the threads if anyone is interested:
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I just received a Nikon Monarch 82ED 20x-60x and the 30x-60x wide. I'd like to test it out for my own understanding and to get some more data points out there for everyone.

I'll update this post with the tests as I do them. I havent done this before so feel free to chime in with pointers.

(UPDATE)
Star Test w/ 30x-60x Wide
I took it out and focused on a star and then unfocused it both high and low. Both sides of focus produce a perfect circle with an outside border with several smaller rings insed. Based on a couple articles I read, I do not see any astigmatism or mixed abberations. I didnt understand the examples for spherical abberations so cant comment on those at this time. Disclaimer: Its currently a full moon and I can only see the sky in the moon's direction due to mountains. I also had LASIC a few months ago and still get some "haloing" effect from light sources when its dark, if anything, its better than what im seeing. Im not sure how to interpret these results so any insight would be helpful

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Hi,

congratulations to your new scope!

Regarding the star test - perfect circles are good - so we can rule out astigmatism, coma and some higher order variants of those...

Spherical aberration and zones will show themselves with different round and concentric diffraction patterns inside and outside of focus (by the same amount).
They all tend to bring more energy away from the center which will result in blurry stars even at "best" focus in bad cases...
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Jring, Thanks for that, Ill take another look tonight.


Since I wont be getting my hands on an "official" resolution chart I figured I could do a comparison with a low tech print out one as long as the scopes were being tested under the same conditions.

I printed out an USAF resolution chart, grabbed my Nikon scope & 30x/60x eyepiece and headed down to Cabelas where they had an ATX 85 and 95 in stock.

I set up the chart about 40-50 yards across the store in a more dimly lit area and put the ATX 95mm and Nikon Monarch 82ed on tripods. This test was pretty easy, the 95mm was brighter and had better resolution than the 82ed, hands down. I wasnt really surprised by this with the larger objective.

I then swapped out the 95mm with the ATX 85mm for a more apples to apples test. This was interesting, I prob spent an hour looking back and forth through these two scopes at the resolution chart and I landed on they seemed to be exactly the same to me. If one did happen to look better than the other it was usually because it was the first one I had looked through after resting my eyes. The winner would swap the next time I rested and started with the other scope. I also asked 2 employees and 1 customer to take a look for their opinions and 2 people said they couldnt tell the difference while 1 said he thought the swaro was fractionally better.

As far as image I think they are tied, however, I still think the Swaro is the better overall scope. All testing was done at 60x.

The Swaro has
1. Lighter weight
2. Wider field of view
3. Better eye relief
4. I liked the feel of the focus better, seemed a bit easier to "tune" the focus
5. The eyepiece cover stays on better (This is a pet peeve of mine)

The price difference between these is around 2k. Personally, the list of items above doesnt warrant buying the 85mm over the 82ed. It also doesnt seem that surprising that we are seeing similar performance at lower price points now. The ATX has been around close to a decade...technology becomes cheaper with time and other companies will be able to undercut you on price. If Swaro doesnt find a way to increase optic tech beyond the ATX series I imagine we will see several other companies catch up to them and at lower price points.

Personally, I probably should have never looked through ATX 95mm because I am now considering returning the Nikon and getting that. I wouldn't do it for the 85mm though.

 

[kad11]

I realize this is an old thread, but wanted to clarify that the scope body weighs 57.8 oz - add another 10-14 oz depending on the eyepiece you use. I just got one of these with a 38x wa EP and was pretty surprised when I put it on the scale.

The scope w/ EP, stay on case, and arca swiss plate comes in at 76oz. It's definitely not the lightweight 80mm class scope this review and many vendors represent it to be...