Kowa TSN-66A Spotting Scope Review

Matt Merritt, Bird Watching Magazine, March 2024

Buy here: Kowa TSN-66 Prominar Angled Spotting Scope with TE-11WZ II WA 25-60x Zoom Eyepiece

For the past couple of years, I've been looking at buying a new scope, but I've been in two minds. On the one hand, because I'm usually carrying a camera, I wanted something relatively lightweight and compact. On the other, I didn't want to make too many compromises in terms of optical quality and reach.

Last autumn, on our regular readers' holiday at the Grant Arms in Speyside, one of our guests kindly let me try his new Kowa TSN-66A, with 25x-60x eyepiece. I was immediately hugely impressed by the views of a distant Great Grey Shrike that it delivered, so I couldn't wait to try it out more fully.

First thing to say is that it's small and light enough to be a pleasure to carry around, even for long periods. It feels no heavier than many genuinely compact (ie sub-60mm) scopes, but of course you have a bigger objective lens. It's nicely balanced when sitting on a tripod, too, and there's a dual tripod mounting to ensure extra stabiliry, although whether you can use that will depend on your tripod's base plate.

The design and looks will be familiar to anybody who has seen the rest of the TSN Prominar range, with a robust magnesium alloy body coated with pale green armouring.

There are dual focus wheels on top of the scope, and even while using them while wearing gloves, I found it easy to distinguish between the two without looking. They're well ridged, too, making for easy grip even when wearing gloves, and large enough (roughly 1.5 fingers and 1 finger wide respectively) to make for easy use.

The main (fast) focus wheel takes exactly two clockwise revolutions from close focus to infinity, and both wheels move very smoothly and with moderate resistance. In practice, I found it very easy to find focus quickly using them, and to maintain it as my target birds moved around. Close focus, at 3.5m, is more than adequate. The eyepiece has a hard rubber eyecup that is extremely comfortable even in extended use, and it twists up and down to three distinct positions that stayed in place well in use.

Down at the lower end of the zoom scale (25x-35x, where you'll probably be using it most of the time), the image is extremely satisfying. It's very bright, sharp, and has a lovely wide, 'walk-in' quality. The colour of the image feels very natural, and I struggled to pick up any colour fringing (chromatic aberration) even against strong, low winter sunlight, except once or twice when tracking a bird in flight. Even then, it's not distracting, and probably had more to do with my hastiness and not finding the right eye position. What really stands out above all else, though, is just how good the image remains, even when you really start to zoom in.

As with any zoom, things do start to feel a little dimmer, and the field of view lessens, but even up at maximum zoom, watching an unexpected Velvet Scoter on my local reservoir, the image felt wide enough and sharp enough to make it a really satisfying tick. The mechanics of the zoom eyepiece are good, too, with a really wide and well textured twist ring that is always easy to find and move without taking your eye off the bird. There's a rotating collar and a good lens hood, and the objective lens cover clips on very securely.

Verdict
Some of you may be old enough to remember Victor Kiam, who advertised Remington electric razors in the 1980s by saying that he liked them so much, he bought the company. Well, I liked this scope so much, I bought one, having decided that it offered pretty much a perfect balance between portability and high-quality optical performance. If you're looking for a scope with an objective of anywhere between 50mm and 85mm, it's very much worth taking a look at.

Optics 4.5/5
Design 4.5/5
Value 4/5
Overall 4.5/5

Buy here: Kowa TSN-66 Prominar Angled Spotting Scope with TE-11WZ II WA 25-60x Zoom Eyepiece