New Meopta Spotter and Tripod

[kbaerg]

I wanted to give a somewhat review of two items I received for Christmas this year. While I have been researching and reading online reviews over my items, I had it narrowed down to the Nightforce TS-82 spotter, Swarovski ATS spotter, and Meopta Meostar S2 82 HD. While expensive, I was ready to get some quality optics. After doing some research, I went with the Meopta Meostar S2 82 HD. Along with my spotting scope, I also purchased a tripod as well. I decided to go with the Slik CFL 634 with the Slik SH-707E pan tilt head. Both of these were purchased from Bruce Ventura at High Power Optics. For the Spotting scope, I went with the 30-60 Wide angle eye piece after talking with Bruce about some questions I had regarding the 20-70 eye piece.
A quick note on the Slik Tripod, upon un-packaging and setup you may find the threaded head mount screw is not the proper size 3/8"-16 and you need the ¼"-20 size - in my case for the SH-707E pan head. (DON'T PANIC) Simply loosen the allen screw, unthread the plate and screw, and you will find the ¼"-20 size you need.

NEXT POST WILL BE SPOTTER...

 

[kbaerg]

The Meopta spotting scope comes packaged well with instructions, and the eye piece is separate as you can pick different eye pieces. Setup is pretty straightforward as far as putting the eyepiece on. On the bottom near the back of the spotting scope is a button you press for releasing the eye piece to take it off should you desire.

All my pictures were taken using a Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone with an adapter that I had to alter to fit the eye piece as it is a bit larger. As well as my pics being through my phone they were also taken on not so great days as we had a front coming in both days during the time frame I had. For being my first spotter that I actually own I am very pleased with it. Enjoy the pics.

The Local elevator at my parents. Google earth has it measured at 6 miles. Power is at 60X.

Looking across a lake. The house is 3.5 miles. Water tower is 4 miles. Power is 30X.
and then at 60X

Lastly one of the bad pics at 30X (front coming in). Close tree is 600 yards, small evergreens at 1 mile, large trees at 1.5 miles, and the ethanol plant is 13 miles.

 

[fllefty]

Kbaerg is the nightforce and meopta not the same? If they are was there a price differance.

 

[kbaerg]

From my research (which I could be wrong) the Nightforce is made at Meopta with a few differences . Price for the Meopta was a little less

 

[dah605]

If I understand it correctly, the Nightforce has their own coatings.

What are the differences between the 20-70x and 30-60x eyepieces, aside from the obvious magnification levels?

 

[kbaerg]

The 30-60 is a wide angle lens, I forgot to add that to the main post (my Bad). When I was talking with bruce on the phone about this he said he had looked through the 30-60 and really liked it because the tunneling effect wasn't quite as bad.

 

[bruce_ventura]

The 30-60X eyepiece is really wide angle. It has a wider FOV at 30X than the 20-70X eyepiece at 20X. Unless you really need 70X, the 30-60X is the way to go.

 

[kbaerg]

I KNOW THIS ISN"T ASTRONOMY, but I couldn't resist when out coyote hunting on a night like this. I'm really enjoying this spotter.