CATERPILLAR Report post Posted June 15, 2020 Looking at purchasing a small good spotting scope. Does anyone have field experience with the Kowa? Not looking for giant overweight spotting scope to look at the moon with just something smaller, light weight, and clear. Thanks in advance for your input. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
creed_az_88 Report post Posted June 15, 2020 It's one of the best purchases ive ever made. It's amazing. You can hardly tell it's in your pack. It blows every other spotter in it's class out of the water. I wouldn't recommend it for trying to locate animals with because of its narrow field of view. But for sizing animals up that you found with your binos, I wouldn't carry anything else. Not a swaro. Not a zeiss. Nothing. Unless, I was planning on hardly ever getting more than a mile away from the truck. Then I would use the big 85mm kowa. Or the big stx swaro. The image quality of the little 554 kowa is so close to the 65 swaro that you couldn't convince me to take the weight penalty of the swaro. It does have a narrow field of view and also short eye relief. But the weight and space savings makes you forget about those two things real quick. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
no worries Report post Posted June 16, 2020 I used one last year and was very impressed with the clarity. It seems to be equal to the best 65s out there. Optic planet or one of the big suppliers has them for $1399 with a neoprene case. It’s the 125th anniversary addition and will be black instead of green. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
