KOWA Scopes

grizzly · Jan 26, 2012

I am looking for a new spotting scope and have been really impressed with KOWA reviews. They are mainly known in birding circles, but every review I have seen with the TSN-883 puts it above all other scopes... including Swaro, Leica, Zeiss and their various HD models.

It is pretty impressive to see so many people say this scope blows the Big Three out of the water.

I am looking at the TSN-773, which now has the same flourite crystal as the 883, just smaller and lighter.

My question is... "Has anybody on MM actually looked through the Prominar lenses?"

Any help would be awesome.

Grizzly

TRDHUNTER · Jan 26, 2012

I compared them side by side with the Swaros a while back and the 77 in angled is the scope I want when I get the funds. I am no expert but the 883 was awesome and the 77 was about the same as 80 Swaro, in my opinion. I also prefer the dual focusing dial on the Kowa over the large dial on the Swaro but it is personal preference. When you decide and get your scope let me know how you like it.

Fortis · Jan 27, 2012

I own the Prominar 884, I've had the oppertunity to look through lots of good glass that our hunters bring on a hunt over the past 10 years. I can safely say, to my eyes, the 883/884 has no peer, including the Swao 80HD, Zeiss 85 FL T, Nikon Fieldcope 82ED, and Leica APO 77, which I consider to be the best of "the rest". I have not seen a Vortex Razor HD, which is reported to be fantastic.

BigSurArcher · Feb 1, 2012

I have the 663 Prominar ED and I absolutely love it. Hunted it side by side with a friends Swaro 65 and my Kowa was just flat better. Another friend liked it so much that he went and bought the 773. Man... what a scope that baby is. You will not have any regrets.

I took this through mine from a LOOONG way off in NV. I didn't even have time to focus it real well and you can still tell how crisp it is.

www.bowhuntingetc.blogspot.com

grizzly · Feb 5, 2012

Thanks for the info. That is probably the way I will go. Now just got to convince the wife to spend the money.

grizzly · Feb 13, 2012

Just a KOWA update in case somebody searches for it in the future. I went to the Outdoorsmans booth at the WHCE in SLC yesterday.

Outdoorsmans sells Swarovski, Leica, Vortex, Zeiss, Kowa, and others (they even had the Swarovski guy in their booth).

I walked up to the guy at the counter and said, "How do Kowa's compare to the Big 3 German glass?"

He responded, "They don't. You can't even compare them."

The way he said it, I thought he was leading me back to the German stuff.

Then he said, "Kowa is leaps and bounds ahead of anybody else with their spotting scopes." And he has the Swarovski guy standing right next to him as he said it.

I got to compare the five namebrands I listed above side-by-side (albeit in an indoors environment) and KOWA is hands-down the best glass on the market. IMHO.

Grizzly

Timberbuck · Feb 14, 2012

LAST EDITED ON Feb-15-12 AT 00:20AM (MST)[p]The Kowa 88 has been leading the pack for a while but that is changing. It was slightly better than the Zeiss,Swaro and leica scopes but it was by minute incremental differences-its not like it blew these scopes out of the water.

The new Leicas are as good but more $

The new re-designed Zeiss Diascope 85 TFL with 20-75 wide angle zoom, improved lens coatings and duel speed focus has been placed above the 88 Kowa in several reviews since its introduction.

Fortis · Feb 15, 2012

Just looked through one side by side with a Kowa 884 this past weekend hunting aoudad. This Zeiss spotter is better than the one it replaced, but not up to the Kowa, yet anyway, IMO. Edge to edge clarity is by far better in teh Kowa, and the dual speed focuser in the new Zeiss is not my cup of tea either.

Timberbuck · Feb 16, 2012

Its splitting hairs at this level.

Would you not say the new Zeiss at 75x has additional capability over the 60x Kowa? The Zeiss also has wider FOV's at the lower power setting.

Fortis · Feb 17, 2012

A 60x mag is useful a minority of the time. A 75x is less useful, maybe 10% of the time, therefore I very seldom see an advantage to it at all. I had a Nikon 82ED which is every bit the equal of the previous Zeiss 85T FL, and it had 75x. I could seldom use it due to the atmosphere. Last time I checked the Kowa 884 can be had for much less money than the new Zeiss/Swaro/Leica. The 883/884 has no peer or equal IMO.

REDDOG · Feb 17, 2012

Kowa makes a great scope..But to say they "blow the big three out of the water" is a frikken joke..Kinda like vortex and zen ray blows them out of the water, uh huh..anyone looked thru the swaro and zeiss with their new eyepiece? How about a fixed power eyepiece?

Kowa gets great reviews from the birders..birders also use their equipment about as hard as a little old lady..

Timberbuck · Feb 17, 2012

Like you have said twice-In your opinion the Kowa is the best(this comming from a Kowa owner) other peoples opinions may vary.

grizzly · Feb 18, 2012

>Kowa makes a great scope..But to
>say they "blow the big
>three out of the water"
>is a frikken joke..Kinda like
>vortex and zen ray blows
>them out of the water,
>uh huh..anyone looked thru the
>swaro and zeiss with their
>new eyepiece? How about a
>fixed power eyepiece?
>
>Kowa gets great reviews from the
>birders..birders also use their equipment
>about as hard as a
>little old lady..

Reddog, yes I have looked through the swaro, leica, and Zeiss new models. Kowa was better, at least for my eyes. I own swaro slc and leica geovid binocs. I don't own a kowa, but am shopping. I don't have a dog in this fight. Just trying to share info in case there are others like me who are looking for the best.

Grizzly