Nikon Fieldscope 13-30x50 video review

[robby denning]

Hey Roksliders. I’ve always had a compact spotter in my arsenal as they come in handy on some hunts where weight matters and you don’t need a lot of optic power.

Nikon is a Rokslide Sponsor so they sent me a loaner compact 13-30x50. At 20 ozs & 9”, you hardly know it’s there.

@Tony Trietch is running Maven’s new S.2 so I had him send it to me so I could could compare the two.

Below is a 6-minute video on that comparison.

While the Maven pulled ahead in several performance categories, I’m still happy to be packing this Nikon for some of my buck hunts this fall as it’s 14 oz lighter than the Maven. It’s a noticeable difference.

I’ll post more feedback on this thread as I use it some more so hit the watch button upper right if you want to follow.

Tony has a thread going in the optics forum on the Maven if you want to follow his experiences. You’ll see this same video is posted there for those guys.

Either way, these are the best compact spotters I’ve used

 

[desertmafia21]

I always loved that little Nikon. I wish I would have gotten the 40x eyepiece and tried it before I sold mine. I might be going back to it in the future. You cant beat the weight savings and the optical quality at that price point

 

[robby denning]

I always loved that little Nikon. I wish I would have gotten the 40x eyepiece and tried it before I sold mine. I might be going back to it in the future. You cant beat the weight savings and the optical quality at that price point

good to hear that 40X is an option. I'll be packing this little Nikon on several of my hunts this fall. I really like it and can't believe the performance for the weight!

 

[Blue72]

I love to see these scopes compared to higher powered binoculars you previously reviewed

Have two eye views with increased effective aperture vs the higher magnification scope

 

[robby denning]

I love to see these scopes compared to higher powered binoculars you previously reviewed

Have two eye views with increased effective aperture vs the higher magnification scope

I’m not sure I understand, but the aperture performance was part of my twilight test and depth of field

I can tell you that the binoculars outperform the scopes in almost all measures. Two different animals.

 

[robby denning]

Here’s a pic of that buck I used to test resolving power on a few cheaters. The quality is low as it’s shot through an iPhone on high magnification—the scope is much clearer than what is shown—but you get the idea

 

[EastMT]

My Nikon collection, love it! I am ordering the 45/60/75 eyepiece for this fall, love the fixed power DS eyepieces, awesome for us blind glasses wearing guys.


I have yet to be begin to procrastinate.

 

[EastMT]

I have the 13-30, 13-40(vast improvement), WDS 27-40-50, WDS 16-24-30, and the WDS is hands down the best for eye relief. The 40-60-75 WDS should be great as well.

The camera attachment takes my DSLR with no lense, amazing pics but hand focus. The 60 is a great all around, but for a weight restricted hunt the 20 oz version is amazing and you can carry a lighter tripod also saving weight. I found my ED50 with eyepiece for $250 on CL, for that price it can’t be beat.

At one time I had a swaro sts 60, vortex 27-60x85, and the nikons. All I have left are the nikons.

I dropped my ED50 on the garage floor with no cover, something inside was rattling but everything still worked. Called Nikon said hey it’s my fault, how can I get it fixed. They said no fault warranty across the board, send it in!


I have yet to be begin to procrastinate.

 

[Blue72]

I’m not sure I understand, but the aperture performance was part of my twilight test and depth of field

I can tell you that the binoculars outperform the scopes in almost all measures. Two different animals.

Thank you, that’s what I was hoping you would say. There was some debate in other threads about replacing these small 50-60mm scopes with high powered binoculars for longer more comfortable glassing sessions, brighter views, wider FOV, at a sacrifice of a slight image scale decrease. Which I find can be negated when atmospheric conditions have you reduce the magnification at longer distances on a scope. Giving the binoculars an even bigger advantage

 

[robby denning]

Thank you, that’s what I was hoping you would say. There was some debate in other threads about replacing these small 50-60mm scopes with high powered binoculars for longer more comfortable glassing sessions, brighter views, wider FOV, at a sacrifice of a slight image scale decrease. Which I find can be negated when atmospheric conditions have you reduce the magnification at longer distances on a scope. Giving the binoculars an even bigger advantage

Sure.

I just know that viewing with both eyes open at any power trumps a scope at high power. But I don't know a test where I could prove that. Somethings a guy just has to trust his gut. I do know if I'm heading into big country and can only take one tripod optice, I always take a scope. But the viewing "experience" isn't as nice.

 

[Blue72]

Sure.

I just know that viewing with both eyes open at any power trumps a scope at high power. But I don't know a test where I could prove that. Somethings a guy just has to trust his gut. I do know if I'm heading into big country and can only take one tripod optice, I always take a scope. But the viewing "experience" isn't as nice.

At what magnification would you say you rather use a scope instead of 15-20x binoculars?

I find anything below 30x I rather use the higher power bins

 

[robby denning]

At what magnification would you say you rather use a scope instead of 15-20x binoculars?

I find anything below 30x I rather use the higher power bins

I ran that old Swaro’ 30x for 15 years (still use it on some hunts), it’s good glass, really good in my opinion, but I still see more in my 15x. So to answer your question, I don’t really think that way. I try to match the glass to the hunt and how much I wanna pack. Even my big 25-50x80mm Swaro’ isn’t as good as a pair of 15x for finding game IMO. Even the lower end Vortex Vultures 15x Bino I ran in 2014 gave me an edge over the great scopes. I still pack scopes for the simple reason that a 15x Bino still is limited on distance compared to a scope, and if I can only take one optic (besides the one hanging around my neck), I’ll take the scope as I wanna know if that deer is big or just nice. But for finding animals out to several miles, it’s 15s!

Tough question to answer! That’s why I’m rambling.


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[Blue72]

I ran that old Swaro’ 30x for 15 years (still use it on some hunts), it’s good glass, really good in my opinion, but I still see more in my 15x. So to answer your question, I don’t really think that way. I try to match the glass to the hunt and how much I wanna pack. Even my big 25-50x80mm Swaro’ isn’t as good as a pair of 15x for finding game IMO. Even the lower end Vortex Vultures 15x Bino I ran in 2014 gave me an edge over the great scopes. I still pack scopes for the simple reason that a 15x Bino still is limited on distance compared to a scope, and if I can only take one optic (besides the one hanging around my neck), I’ll take the scope as I wanna know if that deer is big or just nice. But for finding animals out to several miles, it’s 15s!

Tough question to answer! That’s why I’m rambling.


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Good stuff

Thanks for the great feedback

 

[Newtosavage]

Love my little ED50! I'm always going to bring a small tripod for my bin's anyway, so the added 20 oz. for the scope only makes sense if I'm headed up to a glassing point. I have forgotten it was in my pack a few times, that's how small and light it is.

 

[robby denning]

From this weekend’s scout.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mcseal2]

I had the ED50 for several years and really liked it. I got mine as a refurbished model for a great price, for the money it was especially impressive. I didn't feel like the Razor 50mm was better than the ED50 after looking through one, although it wasn't a side by side comparison. Then the Kowa 55mm came on the market. I have not looked through the Maven, but the Kowa was in a different class than the ED50 or Razor and it was evident immediately.

I bought the Kowa 554 on an intro pre-order deal from S&S Archery. It performs better than the ED50 in every way It is a much more expensive scope but it really is exceptional glass. I sold my Swaro STM65 because it had no advantage in clarity or low light. The Swaro did win in field of view and eye relief, but neither is a major issue for me. The eye relief is just a bit touchier than some of the other scopes. Field of view is not an issue since I do almost all my locating game with 15x binos on a tripod. I eventually also sold my ATS80HD Swaro also, I just wasn't using it since getting the Kowa. The Kowa is close enough optically and so much lighter. Since I got the 15x56 SLC binos and use them so much, I just can't justify having a big, heavy, expensive spotter. The Kowa does what I need it to until the end of light, and at that time I prefer the binos to a spotter anyway.

The ED50 is a heck of a spotter for what one can be found for with some shopping for a used or refurbished one, but the Kowa is 29oz and extremely close in performance to the big 3 companies 65mm spotters.

A review I read before buying mine:

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

 

[robby denning]

I had the ED50 for several years and really liked it. I got mine as a refurbished model for a great price, for the money it was especially impressive. I didn't feel like the Razor 50mm was better than the ED50 after looking through one, although it wasn't a side by side comparison. Then the Kowa 55mm came on the market. I have not looked through the Maven, but the Kowa was in a different class than the ED50 or Razor and it was evident immediately.

I bought the Kowa 554 on an intro pre-order deal from S&S Archery. It performs better than the ED50 in every way It is a much more expensive scope but it really is exceptional glass. I sold my Swaro STM65 because it had no advantage in clarity or low light. The Swaro did win in field of view and eye relief, but neither is a major issue for me. The eye relief is just a bit touchier than some of the other scopes. Field of view is not an issue since I do almost all my locating game with 15x binos on a tripod. I eventually also sold my ATS80HD Swaro also, I just wasn't using it since getting the Kowa. The Kowa is close enough optically and so much lighter. Since I got the 15x56 SLC binos and use them so much, I just can't justify having a big, heavy, expensive spotter. The Kowa does what I need it to until the end of light, and at that time I prefer the binos to a spotter anyway.

The ED50 is a heck of a spotter for what one can be found for with some shopping for a used or refurbished one, but the Kowa is 29oz and extremely close in performance to the big 3 companies 65mm spotters.

A review I read before buying mine:

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

Thanks for the feedback on those scopes. Very helpful


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[mcseal2]

Anytime, I learn so much on here I figure I should share what little I know!

 

[fightthenoise]

Disclaimer, I haven't done this. Yet. But a lot of folks recommend upgrading to the MCII eyepiece for the ED50 which moves the zoom to 13-40. If this is your plan, you're out $700 or so for the scope, + $250 or so for the upgraded eyepiece and you're left with the stock eyepiece that'll probably gather dust.

Enter Japanese Amazon. If you shop at amazon.co.jp, you can get the ED50 without an eyepiece for $283 shipped. Best I can tell, Nikon doesn't sell the scope without an eyepiece in the states. Amazon claims 3-6 day shipping from Japan. Add the MCII (you can use American Amazon for this) and you're into the ED50 with upgraded eyepiece for under $550. Even cheaper if you go with one of the fixed mag eyepieces. The consensus on the birding forums is that everyone loves the 27x fixed that offers better eye relief and FOV than the zooms at the same mag. That might be the direction I go. Either way, you have the flexibility to choose the eye piece you want to go with, and you save money.

 

[Newtosavage]

I bought my ED50 through the Amazon, and it was fulfilled by the Japan outfit. I had to wait about 3 weeks but it arrived straight from Japan and I don't remember spending more than $300 on it, without the eyepiece of course. Then I got a 13-30x eyepiece from a member here for about $150 and off I went. I also found an eyepiece adapter from a BirdForum member that allows me to adapt standard 1.25" astronomy eyepieces to the scope, and I have a wide-angle 12x eyepiece for it when I want to set it up in birding groups. People love that scope on a good tripod with the 12x wide angle eyepiece. I've shown lots of folks birds they never would have seen otherwise, even with binoculars.

I plan to get one of those fixed 27's next, for hunting. I generally use my 13-30 at around 20x.

I still can't get over the light weight of the ED50. Lighter than my binoculars and smaller than my water bottle. It's a no-brainer to take with me everywhere I go, since I'm already packing a tripod anyway.