Can you tell the difference between these spotters?

[BjornF16]

best pictures are: B-B-A-B to my eyes on my computer screen (27" iMac, 5k).

According to your description, that is the Kowa. Yet your words say the mini Razor was best...

 

[aaronoto]

best pictures are: B-B-A-B to my eyes on my computer screen (27" iMac, 5k).

According to your description, that is the Kowa. Yet your words say the mini Razor was best...

I felt mini Razor was better under one condition at one distance. I'm refraining from stating my opinion overall of the two.

 

[BjornF16]

I felt mini Razor was better under one condition at one distance. I'm refraining from stating my opinion overall of the two.

copy. I missed the long range qualifier.

Interestingly (since you mentioned the S&S Archery reviews), it appears the reviewers at S&S have abandoned the 50mm and 65mm Razor spotters in favor of Kowa 55mm or Swaro spotters.

The 55mm Kowa’s only real competition comes from high end 65mm spotters. So I put it up next to the 65mm Vortex Razor. What i found was that the Kowa was better in every aspect. Brightness and resolution were all better behind the little 55mm Kowa. Even with the Razor’s new wide angle eyepiece the field of view and eye relief were so close that i could not see a difference. The clear winner here was the Kowa.

Kowa TSN-550 Prominar 55mm Fluorite Crystal Spotting Scope preview

We are very excited to be one of the very first to have our hands on the new, highly anticipated Kowa TSN-553 (angled) and TSN-554 Prominar spotting scope with a pure fluorite crystal 55mm objective lens.

blog.sandsarchery.com

 

[AkMtnRunner]

I also like BBAB, which was the Kowa 553. Funny, the look of those were familiar as I have compared my 553 and 883 with digiscoping photos. I will say, in the middle of the day, the photos from the 553 often look better than from the 883. I believe the large objective of the 883 brings in too much light for the photos. When the sun gets low or worse, then there is no comparison.

Both are good little spotters. I owned that little vortex for a couple months and as long as I didn't need to look really far, I thought it was great. I just moved on to the Kowa when I could afford it.

 

[JGRaider]

I always like these "blind" optics tests. I applaud the OP for posting it. We all have bias whether we admit it or not, and not knowing whether the optic has a Z, L, S, or whatever badge on it makes us trust what we see, not what we think we should see when we see the branding. I'm as guilty as anybody and I admit it.

I also agree it's difficult to digiscope an accurate representation of what your eyeballs are seeing, but once again I applaud the OP's effort and would like to see more of these "tests" actually. I've been fooled a number of times by blind tests.

 

[Matt Cashell]

I always like these "blind" optics tests. I applaud the OP for posting it. We all have bias whether we admit it or not, and not knowing whether the optic has a Z, L, S, or whatever badge on it makes us trust what we see, not what we think we should see when we see the branding. I'm as guilty as anybody and I admit it.

I also agree it's difficult to digiscope an accurate representation of what your eyeballs are seeing, but once again I applaud the OP's effort and would like to see more of these "tests" actually. I've been fooled a number of times by blind tests.

I like blind tests too. It can really remove bias (or expose brand-bias).

Unfortunately in this case and others like it, it is really a blind preference test for the photographs, not the quality of the optics.

I have seen a few tests where disguised optics are compared by multiple viewers. Those tests are interesting, but they are limited to being a preference test also.