Looking for a nice Spotting Scope

[Kestrel]

I'm looking for a nice spotting scope. I'm trying to decide if I want to go with Swarovki, Leica or Zeiss.

Another consideration is, are the Leupold spotting scopes good enough?

Can anyone give me some guidance on buying a spotting scope? What is the difference in these brands? What power of magnification should I look for? (This will be for 50-600 yard ranges.)

Any guidance on the right tripod for the spotting scope would be appreciated, too.

Thanks for any help,
Steve

 

[Jaywalker]

SteveW13,

Guidance we have in plenty, if you'll trust just one more of my links.

Go to www.betterviewdesired.com which is the "Consumer Reports" of the birding optics world, and read about 10 years worth of optics articles. In addition to binocs, they also test and rate spotting scopes.

Jaywalker

 

[pbhome71]

I have a Kowa 821 - non-fluoride lens, with 20-60x zoom eye piece.

The performance is poor at high magnification. I can also see color separation when observing distance objects. I keep it to not more than around 30x. I wish I spend more and get a better scope.

I looked at Swarovski and it is very nice, at about 3x the price. But you need to remember that you will be using this for a long, long, time.

You did not mention the application, which will usually dictate the type of legs to use. For example, for observation, you can use a good photo tripod with fluid head, and a quick release plate. If you want this for a shooting, you probably want to get a scope stand for shooting. I have one from Ray Vin, which works fine. It is not in a way, and you can store a cleaning rod in it too. You also need a quick release plate with this one too.

IMHO, if you don't use this for competitive shooting, a camera tripod is much more stable. I use a Bogen 3021 (It is a bit big for a spotting scope, but I also use this for my large format photo.)

 

[Jaywalker]

pbhome71,

I'd tend to put the blame for poor performance of your Kowa on the eyepiece, rather than the scope in general. Eyepieces are the unsung source of a lot of the good and bad that's written about both binocs and spotters. Zoom eyepieces in general are very poor performers, as the compromises they make for the zoom capability degrades the optical quality.

Even so, I would expect the 82 mm objective to be able to handle 60X reasonably well, though smaller scopes can't. The tradeoff of yours, of course, is that it's pretty heavy and bulky. For that, you should get really good performance, and as you know, Kowa's a good name. Mine's 40 years old, has removable eyepieces, and is still fine.

It might be worth a shot at a new eyepiece, just to see if the problem is there. If it's returnable, of course.

Jaywalker

 

[pbhome71]

Jaywalker,

Thanks for the suggestion. I have been looking at a 27x wide view. I might try that one.

I probably too critical when I said it was "poor". It is actually very good for something less than 600 yards away.

-Pat

 

[Jaywalker]

"Wide view eyepieces," even in lower power, also costs you some performance. Spherically-ground lenses, even with "normal"-width views, suffer from both chromatic and spherical abberation; the wider you make the view, the more the residual errors appear. (The light needs to focus on a single point to be sharp, and the wider the view, the less the focus is exact.) You should easily be able to take your scope to 45X with a normal lens, given the size of your objective.

Jaywalker

 

[Sparky]

Check out the Nikon tactical Field scope. Waterproof ,rubber armored etc., Nikons have great glass & the street price is around $800

 

[Chris Rhines]

If you have a large budget and want the best performance, Questars are pretty much as good as it gets.

- Chris