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The scope’s 65mm aperture gathers 17% more light than the typical 60mm scope. This extra light-gathering can often mean the difference between identifying a life bird and missing it entirely in the poor light conditions of dawn or twilight.

The Diascope’s light alloy silver-look body is good looking and durable. Partial rubber armor on the prism housing helps absorb shock and noise and provides a more secure grip in wet weather. The retractable lens shade improves both visual and photographic contrast and is armored for protection against bumps. A sight line molded into the lens shade armor helps you quickly align on distant targets.

The scope’s straight-through design is generally better for quickly locating birds in the field than a 45-degree viewing angle model. With a straight-through scope, you can sight over the barrel to center in on the bird before trying a high power eyepiece view that often has a confusingly narrow field. It is difficult to sight over a 45-degree viewing barrel, as the prism housing and eyepiece can block the view. The lens shade can be rotated to either side of the scope body, however, to bring its built-in sighting line to a more visible position, making this less of a problem than with other 45-degree scopes.

On the other hand, a 45-degree viewing angle is generally more comfortable than a straight-through scope for watching treetop activity or for extended observing from a blind or back porch. You won’t get a crick in your neck from crouching over to look through the scope as you often have to with a straight-through model on a too-short tripod. A 45-degree model is also more convenient for observing couples of varying heights who must share a single scope, as there’s little need to constantly raise and lower the tripod to a comfortable height for each observer. The Zeiss Z65A is a 45-degree viewing model, should that style be more convenient.

The 65mm Diascope is O-ring sealed and nitrogen-purged to be fogproof and waterproof. It is capable of operating over a temperature range of 2 degrees below zero to +131 degrees Fahrenheit – from the Arctic to Death Valley, from the Serengeti Plains to Costa Rica.

The Diascope has a dual rotary knob focusing mechanism built into the top of the scope for one-finger focusing with either hand, even while wearing gloves. One knob gives fast six-turn focusing from 13.1’ to the horizon, while the other is a eighteen-turn knob for ultra-precise focusing at high powers.

The Diascope can be used as a 770mm f/12 telephoto lens with 15x photographic magnification by adding a T-ring to fit your camera and optional camera adapter #ZPA. This straight-through Diascope is generally more usable for photography than an angled-viewing scope, as it handles more instinctively like a camera/telephoto lens combination. The barrel of the scope can be rotated from side to side to give a vertical or horizontal picture composition during photography. Click stops are built into the rotation mechanism at 45-degree intervals, although the scope rotation can be set at any angle you choose and locked into place with a knob at the side of the scope body.

The Diascope body is supplied alone, allowing you to add the eyepiece(s) most suited to your observing needs.
The #Z30 eyepiece provides 30x, a 150’ field at 1000 yards that is exceptionally wide for the magnification, and 15mm of eye relief.
The most popular eyepiece is the #ZZ zoom. It provides 15-45x magnification, with a 168’ field at 1000 yards at 15x with 15mm of eye relief and a 78’ field at 45x with 12mm of eye relief.

A review in Birding, the magazine of the American Birding Association, said the view through the 65mm Zeiss had “a particular vividness; colors jump right out at you with a lot of snap and pop . . . should perform well in anything short of total darkness . . . the vivid view through the Zeiss would be easy to live with.” This 65mm Zeiss Diascope is a scope that will give you a lifetime of premium optical performance.