OpticsBlog – Thoughts and reviews of binoculars, telescopes, scopes, sights, and much more - birdwatching, astronomy, target shooting - pretty much anything related to optics, nature, and life!

The big news for Nikon fans, this year, has been the new Nikon EDG spotting scopes, which now join the Nikon EDG binoculars as the top of the Nikon sport optics line. The problem has been getting an EDG spotting scope in to test, but, a Nikon EDG85 in straight arrived, this week, so I grabbed it off the shelf for a look. If you've been a fan of the Nikon Fieldscope 82ED, as I have, you know there is one weaknesses in the Fieldscope 82ED and that is the zoom eyepiece. The current Nikon #7467 zoom (25-75x on the 82ED), now packaged with all Nikon 60mm and 82mm Fieldscopes, has been a big improvement over the previous Nikon #7466 zoom (25-56x in the 82ED)in terms of optics and eye relief, but the 7467, 25-75x zoom has a long way to go to catch up with current premium spotting scope zoom eyepieces by Swarovski, Kowa, Leica or Zeiss. That 25-75x still lags behind the competition in terms of eye relief and its small lens element is not conducive to digiscoping. To be fair, Nikon has answered those concerns, nicely, with the Nikon fixed power, DS and WA series eyepieces on the Fieldscope spotting scopes. All of these offer great eye relief and wide fields of view.

Still, most people want a zoom eyepiece, these days. Let's face it, if you want to compete in the premium spotting scope market, you gotta offer a good zoom eyepiece with plenty of eye relief. That brings us to the Nikon EDG. In short, problem solved. The 20-60 Nikon EDG eyepiece is a completely different eyepiece than the Nikon Fieldscope zoom eyepiece. The new EDG eyepiece is a bayonet mount eyepiece, with lock, and it offer good eye relief and excellent field of view for a zoom. Nikon rates eye relief at 18mm to 16mm at 60x, but I found it to be just a touch less at 60x, but still a very useable 15mm or so. Nikon also lists an eyepiece adapter in the manual that allows the use of the older threaded eyepieces for the Fieldscope, like the #7467, but no such adapter was included in the box.

On the chart, optical performance of the EDG, as expected, was right up there at the top. The Nikon EDG will give all the other top drawer spotting scopes a run for the money in terms of money (and price). Contrast and resolution were excellent and I could detect no color fringing or distortion of any kind. Images were tack sharp right to the edge of the field. Excellent performance, no doubt about it. I was a bit concerned over image brightness when I saw the roof prism construction, but I'm happy to report that was not an issue. Some of the other big spotting scopes on the market, such as the Kowa 883, may have just a touch more image brightness, but never enough to make a difference in the field.

Focusing was smooth and easy, though the Swarovski helical focuser on the Swarovski ATM80HD may require just a touch less effort. Fit and finish on the Nikon EDG 85 were what you expect from Nikon's best -excellent. The Nikon EDG spotting scope includes a nylon see-thru case and zoom eyepiece in the price - usually optional and expensive extras on the competition. Thank-you, Nikon.

All in all, the Nikon EDG is a great scope, but there is one caveat. The Nikon EDG is also a heavy spotting scope, even compared to the competition. The 85EDG is a full 19 ounces heavier than the slightly larger 88mm, Kowa 883 with the Kowa zoom eyepiece, attached and a full 29 ounces heavier than a Swarovski STM80 with a 20-60 zoom eyepiece, attached. The EDG85, in other words, earns the dubious distinction of now being the heaviest premium spotting scope on the market. At 83 ounces, a lightweight, the Nikon 85EDG, is not. This means you need to carefully consider your application. I would not rate the EDG as a good choice if you plan to hit the field and carry scope and tripod over your shoulder, all day. On the other hand, if you are birding out of the trunk of a car, from marsh to marsh or if you are at the shooting range, not a big deal. In fact, the weight and slimmer outline of the Nikon EDG85 will probably add a bit of stability in a stiff wind, assuming, of course, you are using a good tripod.

I have a friend who is forever into all things digital, especially digital cameras. We are close friends, but when it comes to our tastes in cameras, we are world's apart. She absolutely cannot understand my fascination with simplicity and elegance of design, especially my fascination with the Leica MP. It wasn't just the astronomical price that made her frown, it was the camera, itself. I tried to explain to her that I want a Leica MP as much for what it can do as for what it cannot do.

A Leica MP cannot shoot videos. It cannot do a Google search or play music, either. It knows it is a 35mm film camera and only a film camera. A Leica MP cannot store or compress in different media, other than film, but then, film will outlast any digital image. A Leica MP does not have or need a menu. You can see all the controls on the camera body. A Leica MP does not have an LCD viewfinder and does not need one. The optical viewfinder is the best ever made. A Leica MP barely needs a battery and can even take pics without a battery. A Leica MP will never be replaced in a few months with a model with more resolution or fancier processing software. A Leica MP does not have an idiot proof computer or childish markings that tell me how to do photography for different situations. It assumes I already know that and I do. A Leica MP does not have face detection software or a laser ranefinder to confuse. It shoots exactly where I focus and what I focus. A Leica MP doesn't try to compensate when I make a mistake. It is an honest camera. When I get a good pic, I take the credit; when I don't, I take the blame. Most of all a Leica MP uses Leica M lenses and these absolutely do not whir, whistle, beep or growl when I focus. It is a quiet camera. A Leica MP doesn't even have a self-timer. That's fine. Given the price of a Leica MP and Leica M lenses, I'm not sure I want to let that Leica MP out of my hands.

Ever wonder if there is a website designed, specifically, for lab equipment? Ever wonder where to buy glassware, microscope accessories and all the other products needed to keep a modern laboratory running, smoothly and efficiently? Welcome to our newly launched LabPlanet, the one-stop website for all your lab needs. Yes, our lab sales have been growing so fast, it was time to handle it all with a separate website devoted to this line of high-tech equipment with one website, LabPlanet. Congrats to our Lab Sales Team and Web Team for making this a reality. We will be adding products to LabPlanet on a daily basis, so be sure to check LabPlanet for all your future lab needs, as well.

Okay, for most of us, owning a Leica M is only a dream, given the prices. Or is it? I've been shopping for a used Lecia M, from time-to-time, and weighing all my Leica M options, as to models and lenses. For the most part, I've kept my focus on film versions, not the M8, M8.2 and, now, the M9. I am absolutely certain those are great digital cameras, but it is just plain hard to turn my back on film after so many years and so many memories of working with film cameras, especially, manual film cameras. Besides, if I want the convenience of digital, I can get that with a good digital point and shoot like a Leica D Lux4. Going with film is a trip down memory lane for me and puts me on very familiar ground. Now that we carry my ultimate dream manual camera in the Leica MP, the torture continues. Ouch. If my fiancé is reading this, this would make a nice anniversary gift, a few years down the road or, heck, anytime. Bill if you'll buy the camera, I'll buy the lens. Deal?

Down through the years, we have all had a favorite binocular, spotting scope or telescope. I certainly have and even though that favorite binocular, spotting scope or telescope may not have been the most expensive or the most technically adavnced, it worked for me and, most importantly, it worked for me when I needed it the most. I'm sure you know what I mean. Maybe your favorite binocular, spotting scope or telescope was the one that was around long enough to become an old friend. Maybe you feel that your favorite spotting scope or telescope is the best value for your hard-earned dollar. That's important, these days. Maybe your favorite spotting scope or telescope is the one that taught you all the basics. Who could forget that one? Hey, want to share your favorite with others? You can with our Brilliance Awards program. Who knows? You might even win a prize.

Just had the new Celestron Regal 80 ED spotting scope come through, so I thought I would grab one off the shelf and put it through its paces. For the selling price of just under $600, this is most expensive 80mm Celestron spotting scope yet and represents Celestron's bid into the serious, conventional style 80mm spotting scope under $1000 market. The question, of course, is how does it compare to the competition, that being an 80mm Bushnell Elite spotting scope and the 80mm Brunton Eterna? The Bushnell Elite spotting scope and the 80mm Brunton Eterna are as good as it gets under $1000, but they will run another $200-250, compared to the Celestron. That's a serious savings if you go with the Celestron Regal, but only if the Regal can hang in there in terms of performance. Some of that price difference reflects the fact that the Regal is made in China, compared to Japan for the Elite and the Eterna, but if country of origin is not an issue for you, the Regal is a great value, based on my test.

First, the features. The Regal includes all the features you could want in a spotting scope - a rotating tripod collar, the ability to use many different eyepieces, an extendable sunshield, dual focusing, a twist up eyecup on the eyepiece and you even get an SLR camera adapter which allows you to connect an SLR camera body directly to the eyepiece via an optional t-ring. You also get a form fitting zippered carrying case, though not a case you can view through in the field. Weight and length are about average for an 80mm spotting scope with a zoom eyepiece, but, as always, it is a big mistake to put a scope this large on anything but a good tripod. I ran my test using a Bogen 055XDB, 128RC

Next, the optics. In a word, excellent, especially given the price. I have no hesitation stacking the Regal up against other 80mm scopes under $1000. Resolution, contrast and image brightness were all excellent and in the same class as the Elite and Eterna. In fact, I rated image brightness as even better than the Elite. Color correction was also excellent, all the way up to 60x and, as icing on the cake, edge sharpness was also excellent with little or no distortion. The Celestron Regal 80ED is, like the big Elite and Eterna, a legitimate 300 yard target spotting scope.

Okay, it gets even better. One of my biggest complaints about scopes in this price range is the zoom eyepiece, especially in terms of eye relief, since I wear glasses when I use a spotting scope. A good example of a zoom eyepiece limiting performance n an otherwise worthy spotting scope is the zoom eyepiece on the Celestron Ultima 80ED. The Ultima 80ED spotting scope does not live up to its potential because Celestron uses the same cheap zoom eyepiece as on the much cheaper Ultima models without ED.

Celestron did not make this mistake on the Celestron Regal 80ED, though. Far from it. The Regal uses a completely new design and it is a dandy. Remarkably, the eye relief on the Regal zoom eyepiece remained constant throughout its range and a very comfy 20mm. With its large 25mm diameter lens, this zoom eyepiece can also be used to good effect for digiscoping and, if you don't like zoom eyepieces, you can also use any standard 1.25" telescope eyepiece, any brand, in the Celestron Regal 80ED. The collet style eyepiece lock allows you to change eyepieces in an instant. That's a great feature in terms of versatility and not the norm with most spotting scope models. This is the best spotting scope zoom eyepiece I have tested at this price. Well done, Celestron.

Are there negatives to the Celestron Regal 80ED? Yes, but there will always be some issues at this price. Biggest negative on this sample I tested was the rough and tough focusing when using coarse focus. It required a lot of effort and was not consistent in smoothness. There were high spots and rough spots throughout the range. Not a good feature if you are trying to get on target, fast, as when birding. Of course, this could have been just this one sample, but it should be noted. Fine focus, though, posed no issues.

In a similar fashion, overall construction did not live up to the quality of the more expensive Bushnell Elite or Brunton Eterna. For instance, as good as the eyepiece is optically, it is no $500 eyepiece in terms of mechanics. You won't mistake it for a Swarovski in terms of construction; I could hear the optical elements shift in the body at times. The body on the Celestron Regal 80ED was certainly adequate, but you won't mistake it for the body on a $1000 scope, either. Still, Celestron's No Fault Lifetime Warranty is tough to beat, should there be problems in the future. That's a warranty not equaled by too many other players in the spotting scope market, these days.

So, my take on the new Celestron Regal 80ED spotting scope? I regard the Celestron Regal 80ED to be a best buy in its price range, especially if optics are your main concern and optics are what it is all about on a spotting scope. In fact, I am going to vote it as my choice for a spotting scope in its price range in our new Brilliance Awards program.

When we think of telescope designs, we usually equate simplicity with the reflector telescope, which uses only mirrors, rather than the refractor telescope, which uses only lenses. True, mirrors are cheaper and easier to make than lenses, since lenses require more grinding and polishing, but it may come as a surprise to learn that refractors with their lenses were actually the first telescopes, not reflectors. Why? The problem was getting the required reflectivity on the mirror back before they actually invented mirror coatings. The earliest reflecting telescopes used polished metal for the mirrors, not coated glass, which had yet to be invented as a mirror surface. As a result, the earliest reflectors used a polished piece of metal as a mirror. Polished metal was a nightmare as a mirror; polished metal was hard to grind to the right curvature, it limited you to a very small mirror size, but, most of all, polished metal was a real hassle to make reflective. After only a short time, the metal tarnished and telescope performance dropped like a rock. While Sir Isaac Newton is generally credited with the first working reflector, it wasn't until many years, later, that the reflector became a practical telescope design.

There's still nothing like a big telescope to take you somewhere and see things you will never see in a small telescope, no matter what the quality of the small telescope. Yes, when it comes to telescope performance, telelscope size is the most important feature. Problem with large telescopes has always been the price and, of course, portability, but shave all the bells and whistles off the telescope and the telescope mount and you can get a very large telescope at a great price in a Dobsonian. In fact, dollar for dollar, a Dobsonian telescope is the largest telescope you can buy. Better yet, go with a truss tube design Dobsonian, like a Meade Lightbridge or Skywatcher Dob, and you even get some measure of portability. Yup, nothing like a big Dob for simplicity and ease of use and, most importantly, nothing like a big Dob for seeing the faint stuff.

The digital camera of today offers great value in terms of performance and features and no one will argue the convenience of digital cameras, such as the excellent Leica D Lux 4, but there are some things I do not like about the digital camera market. Chief among these is the relentless and obsessive drive to keep pushing newer, faster, better digital camera models down our throat before we have even managed to smudge a lens or drain the battery on the current model. Is that extra megapixel or two on that new digital camera model really going to make a difference over what you have now? Never, especially when you consider that most people never even print their pics and just view them on the usually low resolution of a computer monitor. Hey, if your computer monitor has the usual low VGA resolution, so do your pics when you view them. Even if you do decide to print your pics, resolution is limited by the resolution of your printer and, sorry, the typical home printer is no match for a 10 MP image you got with your new digital camera. My advice is not to sucker for the newer, faster better pitch, but, rather, enjoy your little digital point and shoot camera while it still does a good job. In most cases, that should be several years. What typically happens, these days, on these tiny cameras is the small focusing motor begins to slow down as the camera ages and the camera struggles to get things focused. When that happens, time to be looking for a new digital camera.

A great way to practice digiscoping is to setup shop at birdfeeder. If you are careful not to move too much, the birds often become accustomed to your presnce and you can get some nice shots through the spotting scope. This gives you some essential practice with both the spotting scope and the digital camera as far as focusing and framing, but, most of all, it gives a sense of timing as to when the bird is going to sit still long enough for a sharp pic. Believe it or not, this is a big factor in digiscoping with songbirds, since these energetic subjects are notorious for moving just as you hit the shutter. Trying to get them to pose for a shot is always a challenge, but if you are careful to oberve and time their movements, you can usually squeeze a shot off with your digiscoping rig before the next twitch. The food at the birdfeeder also helps take attention away from you.

If you are looking for a great buy on a beginner's telescope, you might want to check out one of our OpticsPlanet special packages from Celestron. Right now, the best buy on the market in a beginner's telescope with a motorized mount for easy tracking is the Celestron Powerseeker 80EQ-OP. Other scopes at this price require you to manually move the telescope on a regular basis to keep an object in the field of view, but not the Celestron Powerseeker 80EQ-OP. The motor, which is normally an optional extra on the standard and more expensive Celestron Powerseeker 80EQ, moves the telescope for you. This feature is usually found only on much more expensive telescopes.

The leaves are just turning color in the Chicago area, so grab a digital camera and have some fun. If your fall color shots with your digital camera are lacking a little punch, here's a few tips. Most folks make the mistake of framing the same view, over and over, with their camera. Instead, mix it up with some close-ups of a single leaf, isolate a single tree and, of course, step back and get the big picture. Variety of perspective adds a lot of interest and some of my favorite shots have been of a single leaf. In the same vein, less can be more when dealing with a tree that has only partial color. It's sometimes better to frame that one brilliant section with your digital camera than the whole tree. Another good trick is to frame against a dark background when possible. This increases contrast between the color and the background, making the color even more striking. Going the other direction, add a little interest to your color shots by adding roads, fences, streams, lakes, and other objects in the scene. Color should add to the landscape, not replace it, so get some other objects in the digital camera LCD screen, too. Lastly, the temptation to get the whole scene in the frame sometimes gets us a pic without a subject. Not good. Pick out a nearby tree and make it the subject of your photo. Remember, your eye will automatically seek out a subject in a photograph. Make sure you give it one.

I get some folks who ask if they can see craters on the moon with a small telescope, such as our special edition of the Celestron Powerseeker 80EQ compared to a large telescope. Asking if you can see craters on the moon with any telescope is a little like asking if you can see bricks on a building or see letters on a sign. Sure you can, but it is is just a matter of how many and how small. You can see some craters with any telescope. In fact, when it comes to craters on the moon, you can always see some with nearly any optical device. In fact, there are plenty of craters visible with an ordinary binocular. Those are the larger craters, of course, but they are still visible and with a moon map you can plot and name many of them with a binocular. A telescope, of course, makes many more craters visible and it would take you a very long time, indeed to plot and name all the craters visible in even a small telescope.

This week, I will be giving our employees a class on beginner microscopes, since the holiday season is one of our biggest sales periods for these basic beginner microscopes. No, I'm not going to cover N.A., apochromatic objectives, Kohler versus Abbe and all the other features right out of my microscope terms glossary that keep microscope nuts talking late into the night. No, this microscopes class will be mostly about student level, hobbyist and toy microscopes and how to match the a customer with the right microscope. As a former science teacher, I know how important it is to have the right combination of microscope features to get that student or young scientist off to a good start. Too many well-meaning parents and gransparents buy the wrong product for their favorite youngsters and that translates into too many disappointed younsters. Anyone shopping for a holiday microscope should definitely take the time to read my article, Microscopes for Students. Microscope models change from year to year, but the basics of beginner microscopes do not.

Early October is one of my favorite times of year, not just for the beautiful fall colors, but also for migrating waterfowl. These early bird waterfowl species are also some of the most colorful. For instance, who can ever tire of seeing a Wood Duck in a binocular, spotting scope or camera? When the fall colors are at their peak, this woodland duck is migrating and moving along small streams and ponds. I often hear the Wood Ducks call before I see them, as they flush at my approach as I walk along woodland streams or come upon a pond. However, if you are careful in your approach, you may look down into the stream and watch for ripples in the water, which often indicate the presence of some Wood Ducks. After that, it is just a matter of being ever so quiet and patient and you may get to see one of these beautiful birds in your birding binocular.