ZEISS Victory Harpia-Thoughts

[tpick21]

Have an opportunity to buy a Harpia for reduced cost, what is the general opinion on the ZEISS victory harpia 85mm?

 

[tpick21]

Bump, any suggestions?

 

[Pronghunter]

Kowa 88

 

[tpick21]

Kowa 88

Starting to lean that way, much much more reviews on Kowa. It’s a little nerve wracking spending that kind of money on a ZEISS

 

[Kenn]

This guy gives unbiased reviews. http://www.scopeviews.co.uk/ZeissHarpia85.htm

 

[tpick21]

Thanks!

 

[tpick21]

Kowa 88

Do you have experience on the zeiss and the Kowa?

 

[Pronghunter]

Do you have experience on the zeiss and the Kowa?

Yes. Do a search and you should see I’ve owned them all.
Swaro ATX 95
Zeiss Harpia
Kowa
NF
Maven
Vortex
Leica

 

[Solm]

I have the harpia 85mm. It's really good.
Previously had a Swarovski atx 95mm, but found the relatively narrow field of view unusable.
The harpia is much wider at low magnification, to the point that you can point it in the general direction and the subject will be in there.

The focus has a geared mechanism, which is hard to explain, but it starts off fine tuning, then switches to a faster focus. When you arrive at your subject, you focus just past, then home in on the fine tune.
Not sure i'd know if it was there if I hadn't read about it. So it's obviously fairly well designed / intuitive.

Similarly, never noticed the aperture thing at lower magnification. It's plenty bright throughout.

I'd also consider the latest kowa models, which seem to get good reviews.
And the swarovskis

 

[silasbowhunter]

I have one and it’s pretty amazing. Agree with the post above about the FOV.
The focus is amazing in my opinion. Hard to explain but extreeeeemely easy to get focused quickly!


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[Skerhunter]

Here is the official rokslide review explaining the wide FOV and only downside to these spotters (exit pupil changing). I have the 95 and zero complaints.

Zeiss Victory Harpia 85 Spotting Scope Review

Back in 2012, I took a Zeiss Diascope 85 T FL spotting scope with me to Alaska on a moose hunt. At that time, the Diascope had been updated with rubber armoring and a clever dual-rate focus mechanism over the previous Diascope of similar design. The spotter offered great brightness and very...

www.rokslide.com

 

[tpick21]

Do any of you notice an issue with low light performance with the harpia? That’s about the only con I can find on it, allegedly.
For reference, I currently use a vortex razor 22-48x65. So the harpia is going to be a huge upgrade

 

[silasbowhunter]

Do any of you notice an issue with low light performance with the harpia? That’s about the only con I can find on it, allegedly.
For reference, I currently use a vortex razor 22-48x65. So the harpia is going to be a huge upgrade

I haven’t noticed that at all. More than adequate and still very useful to the half hour before sunrise and half hour after sunset here.


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