yorkslister

Why does it always take me so long between updates these days?  I just don't seem to have the time to post anymore, and when I do I've forgotten all those little golden nuggets of wit!

So in the absence of anything funny to write about I'll talk about optics.  Regular reader(s) will remember last year I tested all the top scopes and at the time I thought the Kowa 883 with 30x was cracking but the Swaro 80 with the 25-50 zoom was the best zoom, and therefore offered more felexibility.  I think I also posted to say I'd bought a the Kowa in the autumn.  Well the reason for buying the Kowa was it was secondhand and therefore a bit cheaper and I didn't want to shell out full whack on a scope as I'd heard Swaro had a new one coming out this year.  The beast has arrived, well it's been announced, in the usual Swaro style it won't arrive for a few months and when it does they'll be rarer in shops than rocking horse shit.  I will almost certainly be buying one though, specifically a 95mm 30-70 zoom one.  Check it out on t'internet it looks simply awesome, I can't wait to look through one.

Also while we're on the subject of optics I've bought some new bins, I should have bought two pairs by now but haven't found the time to go look through the new Swaro 8x32 EL swarovision, that really is a shit name innit, swarovision, who the fuck thought that one up!  Think I'll stick with SV's.  The other pair I bought we're solely for boat work.  My 10x we're a bit difficult to hold steady particularly on the boats I'm working on at the moment which are a little less than smooth!  So I got myself a pair of 8x, I didn't fancy using the new SV's (when I get them) and fucking them up with loads of salt spray and the odd drenching on rough days so I found a pair of Zeiss 8x40 victory's going for a relative song.  Most people don't remember these because they got a few bad reviews due to the way they handled stray light, the strap design and the rubber smelling of tyres!  I got a pair of MK11's and they sorted the light and strap issue on these but the rubber is the same, except after a few years it seems they don't stink anymore.  This is what they look like.

They are pretty good, in fact in anticipation of buying the new SV's I sold my old EL's a few weeks ago and haven't missed them.

I also got hold of a converter for the Lumix the other week which now makes it 1020mm, it's insane.  I've not really had a chance to use it much but this Barn Owl was obliging the other day.  They have had some curves tweaked and sharpened.