ED 50 or Vortex Razor 11-33X50....should I wait

[BigSurArcher]

BigSur- iv been looking at the viper hd 60x it dont appear to be much bigger than the razor hd compact, their both around the same price, more power for same money not much bigger, any thoughts?

The Viper HD you're referring to is a 65mm scope and is twice the weight and almost 5 inches longer than the Razor HD 50.

 

[dying to kill]

Got cha , What about quality of glass for the money ? Think the compact razor hd 50 compact is the best bang for your buck?

 

[dying to kill]

yes it was the 85mm i was talking about.

Are you talking about the 85mm? Im confused... the viper is heavier than the razor line in the same mm. They don't have a 50mm in the viper line.

 

[Grantbvfd]

Got cha , What about quality of glass for the money ? Think the compact razor hd 50 compact is the best bang for your buck?

It all depends what you are going to use it for... if you are going to get one spotter to do everything my recomendation would be the razor 65. For the price you can't beat it.
The 50mm is a lightweight compact spotter that is geared more towards someone counting ounces. 11x-33x

The 65mm is a middle of the road. It is 23 ounces heavier than the 50 and 17 ounces lighter than the 85. 16x-48x

The 85mm is big scope that has a larger FOV than its smaller brothers. It will do excellent in low light and long distances but weighs over 4 lbs.

There is a lot more to all these scopes. If you have any specific questions let us know.

 

[Bitterroot Bulls]

The 85mm is big scope that has a larger FOV than its smaller brothers.

Actually the 50mm has the widest FOVs, the 65mm is next widest, and the 85mm has the narrowest FOV range.

The 85mm will be much brighter at the same magnifications as the smaller scopes.

SCOPE eye rel. CF FOV Length Weight
20-60x85 Angled 18-20 mm 16.4' 117-60' / 2.2-1.1° 15.3" 65.7 oz
16-48x65 Angled 18-20 mm 11.5' 138-75' / 2.7-1.4° 14.1" 48.4 oz
11-33x50 Angled 20 mm 11.5' 191-96' / 3.6-1.8° 10.3" 25.0 oz

 

[BKC]

Hey BB, What is your experience on the vortex 2x doubler. I have an older 25X 50mm fixed leupold that I like carrying, I just wish I had a little more power sometimes. Do you know what the diameter of the piece that slips over the eye piece is? Have you looked thru this ?

 

[Grantbvfd]

Actually the 50mm has the widest FOVs, the 65mm is next widest, and the 85mm has the narrowest FOV range.

The 85mm will be much brighter at the same magnifications as the smaller scopes.

SCOPE eye rel. CF FOV Length Weight
20-60x85 Angled 18-20 mm 16.4' 117-60' / 2.2-1.1° 15.3" 65.7 oz
16-48x65 Angled 18-20 mm 11.5' 138-75' / 2.7-1.4° 14.1" 48.4 oz
11-33x50 Angled 20 mm 11.5' 191-96' / 3.6-1.8° 10.3" 25.0 oz

I swore Paul just did a review and he said the 85 was the largest.... my bad

 

[Bitterroot Bulls]

Hey BB, What is your experience on the vortex 2x doubler. I have an older 25X 50mm fixed leupold that I like carrying, I just wish I had a little more power sometimes. Do you know what the diameter of the piece that slips over the eye piece is? Have you looked thru this ?

I have looked through it. It fits the standard Vortex eyepiece diameter, and I don't know, but I think it is too small for the old Luepy roof spotters. My impression was it would work for a quick look, but degrades image quality noticeably.

 

[JMSZ]

Thanks....super helpful review to actually see them side by side. Basically what I picked up is if you don't own an ed 50 already, it looks as if the vortex is the way to go with slightly better glass and the fine focus option.

The only con I picked up is that roll down eyepiece? How big of deal is that. It looked like a pain in the butt compared to the twist up on the minox. All in all a rather sloppy design flaw? But, not enough to dissuade you from the vortex I guess.

From looking at the video, they have the stiff eye cup because of the cover - the eye cup has to be stiff enough to hold on to the cover. Obviously, they put the priority on the cover.

They may not have used the twist eye cup to keep it simple or because of legal considerations, Nikon or Minox may have a patent on the design or some key part of it.

 

[Muleys 24/7]

From looking at the video, they have the stiff eye cup because of the cover - the eye cup has to be stiff enough to hold on to the cover. Obviously, they put the priority on the cover.

They may not have used the twist eye cup to keep it simple or because of legal considerations, Nikon or Minox may have a patent on the design or some key part of it.

I wonder how they get away with the body style. They look very similar as well.

 

[mcseal2]

Saw this is an older thread, but will probably still be looked at a lot with the excellent side by side comparison on the scopes by BigSur

For what it's worth, my eyes seem to be really picky on what works for me. I leave the eyepiece extended on the ED50 and can use the full zoom, been using mine for 2 seasons now. The Zeiss Victory FLT binos fit me also, I use them one click short of being fully extended and they fit me perfect. Most versions I tried including the Cabelas Euros, Vortex Razor, Zen Ray Prime, and Minox HG left me wanting to extend them one more click. Maybe this will help someone having a similar problem with optics.

 

[Fatrascal]

Big Sur, great review. fatrascal.

 

[Antler addict]

Great review BigSur, thanks for the comparison. Are you using a larger objective for most of your trips not concerning weight? If so which spotter and what is low light comparison between the vortex 50mm and your larger objective. I currently have the 85 mm objective razor and was wondering how much lowlight performance I would sacrifice going with a 50mm packer

 

[25contender]

BigSur Nice video review. Thanks for taking the time.