Swarovski ATX vs Meopta S2 spotter

[stephen b]

One thing that stood out to me when I looked through the Cabelas Euro spotter that I bought recently- was that it had a quite pronounced warmer almost yellow bias to it. It really stood out in side by side testing compared to the Swarovski STM, and the Nikon Fieldscope. The Swarovski and the Nikon have much more of a neutral color; with the Nikon being ever so slightly warmer than the Swarovski.

The Cabelas/ Meopta had a markedly warmer almost yellow quality to the color. I had checked one of these Meopta spotters before and do not recall that being as much the case. But when looking across the valley at the grass on the hillside and looking at vegetation, it was quite apparent.
This was even more noticeable on cloudy days. This may be a design element to help with some resolution and contrast; but I did not find that it really helped with perceived sharpness in this situations. The Swarovski and the Nikon that I tested were both sharper than Meopta in picking out details. Also the warmer tone of the Meopta made spotter almost made things (details) look more muted than the other 2. Myself, and couple of friends and my wife all easily noticed this characteristic.

I no longer have the Swarovski STM, but I still have the Nikon and the Cabelas/ Meopta spotter. I took pics this AM to try and give an idea of the color through the (2) of them. The pics with my hand held iPhone do not quite pic up the difference as well as the scopes themselves. Hopefully the pics come through.

Here is the pic through the Nikon Fieldscope ( at 25x) :



And here is Pic through the Cabelas Euro- also at 25x:

 

[stephen b]

Well, Those do not show up near as as nice as I would have liked. On the scopes themselves the view is crisp and in perfect focus. And then I uploaded to photobucket mobile and then to here. The pics differences look better on my iphone itself and even more so through the scopes themselves. But I think you can get an idea that the Cabelas meopta version has a warmer tone.

 

[Shrek]

I had the Suri T-025x and hated it. Positives were that it was light , folded very short , and was well built. Negative that I hated was the fixed center colum and the ball head. I hated needing to fiddle with the legs to make minor height adjustments on the Suri. My Oben CT 2331 isn't as nicely finished and it's way too long collapsed but it is easy to used and very light combined with the Manfrotto 700RC2 panhead. The head is nothing special but it is light and affordable while doing a good enough job. Panning is good but getting the tilt just right can be a little frustrating. Too loose and the scope will slowly sink forward or back depending on balance and too tight and it gets sticky and makes it hard to get things centered. Just right can be elusive at times. I might try the Gitzo bird head this year but the Manfrotto works pretty well which makes the cost of an Outdoorsman or the Gitzo hard to justify.
I hear S&S Archery had a run of the old twist style Slik 634's made. That's another light and high quality tripod to look at.

 

[DenRuyter]

I'm have a Sirui T-1205X that's nice. Only been using it with my bino's and camera equipment though, but I have no doubt it will hold my S2 when it finally arrives directly from Meotpa. The Sirui K-20X ball head I have is also very nice for camera equipment, but I hat trying to make any fine adjustments with my bino's. I finally decided to take the jump and get the outdoorsmans panhead for of the spotter, but I'm not sure how it will be yet.

 

[HookUp]

Here is some cell phone pics through my ATX 65mm. Direct sun with sun shade out and heat waves were present.. This is the bottom end of a landing strip below my house about 1.2 miles away. Pics 25x, 30x and 45x. It was windy as well and I was trying to get the color to show. Lack of clarity and lighting distortions on edges has to do with the cell phone adapter not being perfectly inline. Hands down the biggest advantage to SWARO is not clarity or brightness. It is neutral color and full color contrast between colors. Notice in my photos the big difference between greens and brown. When you see animals they literally pop out at you.


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[Fjelljeger]

So the ATX 65 arrived a few days ago and it is amazing. Now we are looking at tripods and heads. We have narrowed the tripod to the promaster xc525c and the Outdoorsmans micro pan head. Question, will the swaro mount directly to the Outdoorsmans or will we need an adapter plate?

 

[bbrown]

You will need one of their adapter plates.

 

[frogman43]

Interesting thread........thank you for the information!