zeiss vs kowa

RemingtonShooter

RemingtonShooter

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Jul 7, 2010
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What do you experienced hunters and shooters think you would chose between a Zeiss victory diascope 65fl t versus the kowa tsn 664 prominar. The Zeiss is a 15 x45 x 65 while the kowa 20 x 60 x 66.

This is mostly for hunting and packing. Both get superior reviews with only the swaro being higher. Don't know either and never looked thru either and have no way to do so. I am leaning towards the kowa for the 60x. Assume price the same.....

I have Zeiss scopes and will never buy anything but so I trust Zeiss.

N
 
The Kowa Prominar is considered to be the best spotter in the world. Swaro only has higher ratings in the hunting world because of name. If you step over to the birding world where color and clarity is the whole reason they are even there, the Kowa reigns supreme. I researched spotters for months before I finally bought my TSN-884 and I absolutely love it. I have lots of friends with Swaro's and every one of them will tell you that my Kowa is better. That being said, When I was looking, the Zeiss was right there with it. VERY good scopes and I think they are better than the Swaro's in the color dept. Really though when you are talking optics of this caliber you cant go wrong with any of them. It takes a very trained eye to be able to pick these scopes apart. If it were me I would go with the Kowa for the higher power and slightly bigger objective.

That being said, for what your wanting to do, have you considered a pair of big eyes? If I were a rich man I would have my TSN-884 mated with another one to make a wicked set of big eyes then get a TSN-883 for those occasions when a angled spotter would be nice. Squinting through one eye for extended periods of time gets very tiresome. My solution for a set of big eyes was I bought a pair of the 15x50 Canon Image stabilizing binoculars. I made a setup where I can take my canon's and they are mounted on a bar next to my Kowa. I use the bins to carpet the area then the spotter to zoom in for fine detail like scoring a bull from over 5 miles!
 
I was hoping to find a Swaro ATS 65 HD on sale this Holiday but no luck. Swaro had their binoculars on sale but not the scopes. The ATS 65 is brand new, maybe that is the reason.

I have looked thru just about all of the scopes and I can see a difference but again what do we really need.

While I use Zeiss binoculars and I like them very much I was not impressed with their scopes, at least the ones I tried. The fine focus was finicky. The glass was the usual Zeiss, very good.

The Kowa is also very nice, I thought of it more of a bench scope but I had not seen the model you mention. The only thing that concerned me with Kowa was the warranty. Make sure you check the warranty on the Zeiss as well. This is one of the reason I have been holding out for the Swarovski, they appear to have the best warranty, especially if I am taking it into the field.
 
Zep said:
I was hoping to find a Swaro ATS 65 HD on sale this Holiday but no luck. Swaro had their binoculars on sale but not the scopes. The ATS 65 is brand new, maybe that is the reason.

I have looked thru just about all of the scopes and I can see a difference but again what do we really need.

While I use Zeiss binoculars and I like them very much I was not impressed with their scopes, at least the ones I tried. The fine focus was finicky. The glass was the usual Zeiss, very good.

The Kowa is also very nice, I thought of it more of a bench scope but I had not seen the model you mention. The only thing that concerned me with Kowa was the warranty. Make sure you check the warranty on the Zeiss as well. This is one of the reason I have been holding out for the Swarovski, they appear to have the best warranty, especially if I am taking it into the field.
Click to expand...

You can get the STM/ATM's for pretty good prices right now.

For example: Swarovski Spotting Scopes
 
Thanks for the heads up. I currently plan to wait until spring or at least the dead of winter but I am looking. Lots of good scopes out there, Zeiss, Kowa, Swaro. Unless you have them side by side for a few hours I don't think you can go wrong with any of them. But like I said, check warranties, I use my toys and things happen. My Zeiss binoculars are warranted for my lifetime, good enough for me.

Also you have to keep in mind, does it come with an eyepiece. This is where pricing between different dealers gets cloudy.
 
I just called Kowa (1 800 966-5692) - Limited Lifetime Warranty Of Manufactures Defect.


Not sure that is the same as Zeiss or Swarovski. Will have to call them. I should have asked the girl at Kowa what happens if I drop the scope.
 
Understandably so. My first exposure with a Kowa was spotting an entire afternoon for a shooter I didn't even know. He had an older model with a fixed power eyepiece (30 power I believe). Very nice scope. Kind of made me wonder and it does again today, do I really need a zoom eyepiece, no. The equivalent today of what he had is the TSN-82SV and they sell a 25X eyepiece. This would be great for bench shooting but I would not want to haul it around all day.
 
Zep said:
I was hoping to find a Swaro ATS 65 HD on sale this Holiday but no luck. Swaro had their binoculars on sale but not the scopes. The ATS 65 is brand new, maybe that is the reason.

I have looked thru just about all of the scopes and I can see a difference but again what do we really need.

While I use Zeiss binoculars and I like them very much I was not impressed with their scopes, at least the ones I tried. The fine focus was finicky. The glass was the usual Zeiss, very good.

The Kowa is also very nice, I thought of it more of a bench scope but I had not seen the model you mention. The only thing that concerned me with Kowa was the warranty. Make sure you check the warranty on the Zeiss as well. This is one of the reason I have been holding out for the Swarovski, they appear to have the best warranty, especially if I am taking it into the field.
Click to expand...

Cabelas had the swaro 65mm ATM HD with 20-60 eyepiece for 1710$ right now.
 
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