A History of Birdwatching in 100 Objects

Swarovski is constantly raising the bar for high-end optics, and the company’s modular scope idea was acclaimed for its distinctly portable design.

While a substantial part of the history of birding has involved the co-opting of technology ostensibly developed for other purposes, the last few decades in particular have seen the hobby grow its own lucrative demographic, with manufacturers developing and refining products designed specifically for birding needs.

Perhaps the most compensatory for business has been the innovations in the optics industry, with equipment enhancements like lens coatings, nitrogen-filling and weight reduction all being designed with at least one eye on the birding market.

Many of these modifications have been created to solve climatic or transport problems encountered in the field. The crowning achievement in this arena thus far saw Swarovski Optik produce a new breed of telescope specifically designed to overcome the logistical problems of the travelling birder.

Unveiled to the birding media in the wide-open landscapes of the Great Hungarian Plain, the benefits of the ATX series were immediately clear. Its main USP was modularity, the body being comprised of an angled eyepiece module and one of three objective sections – 65mm, 85mm or 95mm. For the first time a telescope used the same component principles long established in camera systems, with interchangeability of the business end of the optics a major technological breakthrough.

This was coupled with a fundamental change to the design of the eyepiece, which became a fixed, flat-surfaced lens, facilitating rapid adaptability for digiscoping. Unlike with other scopes, a camera and adaptor could now be fitted without interruption for refocusing or adjusting the zoom. Emphasising intention in this respect, a new swing-design digiscoping adaptor also became available at the same time.

The zoom function traditionally performed on the eyepiece was transferred to a ring at the other end of the eyepiece module, where the eyepiece and objective sections locked together. This meant that zooming and focusing could be performed more efficiently on adjacent rings in the centre of the telescope’s body, while refinements in the optical elements themselves meant that a clear image could be viewed right up to 70x magnification through the largest objective version (up to 60x on the other two versions).

With its greater magnification and über-light-gathering power, the 95mm is well suited to seawatching and other long-range viewing situations, whereas the less weighty 85mm is better for more mobile general birding. At the smallest and lightest end of the scale, the compact 65mm is ideal for travelling, easily fitting into more capacious jacket pockets once dismantled. The high price tag notwithstanding, Swarovski doubtless hopes that users will opt for at least two objective options to go with the single eyepiece module.

The release of the ATX series was greeted with much acclaim, and was followed in early 2013 by the introduction of its straight-bodied counterpart, the STX series. This optical modularity is mix ’n’ match birding at its best, with the only restriction on getting soundly equipped for any field circumstances being your credit limit. Birders will keenly await the response of other manufacturers to this reinvention of the telescope.