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Optolyth Collapsible Spotters

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koshkin View Drop Down
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    Posted: July/15/2009 at 02:52
Optolyth Collapsible Spotting Scopes

It has been some time since I looked at these spotters, but for some reason I never published a review on them.  I suppose it just fell through the cracks, somehow.

They came up in a recent thread, so I figured I might as well pull up my notes and compile my observations.

The two Optolyth spotters I looked at were the collapsible 25x70 and 15-45x80 models.

 From left to right: Pentax PF65ED, Optolyth 25x70, Nikon Fieldscope 82mm ED, Optolyth 15-45x80.  Please note that the Optolyth spotters are in the extended position.


Here is another shot with the Optolyth spotters collapsed:


One interesting observation is how beefy the Optolyth eyepieces are compared to the Nikon.  Unfortunately, the eyepieces on the Optolyth scopes are not removable, so I could not inspect them on both sides, but the lenses looked quite a bit bigger than those on the Nikon, and a bit bigger than the ones in the Pentax as well.  I’ll refer to this difference between eyepieces later again when I touch on eye relief.

 

I think I’ll skip the description of the packaging the scopes come in, since noone (including me) particularly cares what the box looks like.  I will however note that the manual included a plot representative of the spectral profile of Optolyth’s Cerulin-Plus coatings.  Since to get the spectral profiles of other coatings I typically have to dig through a bunch of patents (and even then most are hard to get), I really appreciated that.  The plot below shows the reflectivity of one layer of Cerulin-Plus coating.  An interesting aspect of this profile is the double-dipped shape.  Apparently, the coatings were optimized for maximum transmission in the blue region (~420nm) and green-yellow region (~530-580nm).  Whenever you see a company optimize their coatings for the blue colors, you know they were thinking about low light:




Here is another snapshot from the manual that shows the specs for the scopes:


 

There are two 25x70 models, I looked at the one leftmost in the table (BGA/WW).  The XS model is almost identical except the eyepiece can be stored inside the spotter body for transport.  I have never seen the 30x80 model.  I do not think it is currently imported into US.


The 25x70 spotter has a field of view of 50m at 1000m (150ft at 1000 yards for the metrically challenged).

 

For comparison the field of view of the other spotters mentioned at the same magnification (25x) is as follows:

  • Nikon Fieldscope I used for this test is 28 meters at 1000 meters (84ft at 1000yards)
  • Optolyth 15-45x80 is ~37m ( ft at 1000yards).  The number in the picture is quoted at a bit over 15x, I think.  Besides, the numbers on Optolyth's German website are a touch different.  110-112 ft at 1000 yards seems about right based on my observations.
  • Pentax PF65ED is ~32.5 meters at the same distance (97.5ft at 1000yards).

 

My observations at the range confirm the differences in the fields of view.  One thing to note, however, is that all this field of view can be pretty hard to use if the eyepiece does not have enough eyerelief to show the full field of view:

  • Optolyth 25x70 has 20mm of eye relief
  • Optolyth 15-45x80 has 20mm of eye relief
  • Nikon Fieldscope 82mm ED has 15.2mm of eye relief.
  • Pentax PF65ED 20-60x65 has 11-15mm of eye relief.

 

I have tried to use all four scopes with glasses and without glasses (I normally wear contacts).  The three scopes with variable eyepieces have adjustable p

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote silver Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/15/2009 at 05:29
Excellent
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote koshkin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/17/2009 at 17:14
Thanks, silver.

ILya
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Kickboxer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/17/2009 at 18:18
Excellent review, ILya.  Thank you. NOW, I probably won't shoot one of those...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Duce Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/19/2009 at 10:58
Thanks for the excellent review
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote koshkin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/07/2009 at 17:27
BTT.

I am applying for a "media" badge for the next SHOT Show which requires proof, i.e. industry relevant stuff that I have written and posted here.
I will bring several of my threads back to the top to make them easier to find.
Thanks
ILya
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