Re: [MDOsprey] Spotting Scopes
Scott Crabtree (ccrabtre@radium.ncsc.mil)
Tue, 16 Nov 1999 08:11:58 -0500
john ball wrote:
> Does anyone out there have a favorite spotting scope (who can tell me
> why
> it's their favorite) or who knows data on comparisons of spotting
> scopes?
Well, John, you're probably going to get a very wide range of responses
on that question, because likes and dislikes in optics are very
subjective. Much depends on how much you want to spend, how much weight
you want to lug around, where you want the focussing controls to be,
angled or straight eyepiece location, photographic adaptabililty, yatta,
yatta, yatta.
If you haven't logged on to Better View Desired for the kinds of
comparisons you're interested in, you should. It's at:
http://www.lightshedder.com/BVD/
Myself, I've been using a Swarovski AT-80 for eight years now. Why did
I buy it? Because it was the best big refractor at the time - hands
down sharper and brighter than the competition ... at that time. In the
years since, there have been big changes in the large-objectived
refractor market - Bausch & Lomb, Leica, Nikon, Optolyth, Swarovski, and
Kowa have all either upgraded or come into the market. And then there's
Questar, adapting their scope for the birding market; the superb but
quirky Tele-Vue's gathering a following; and a couple of companies
-Nikon and Kowa - putting a lot of effort into the 60mm niche. (These
last give you 95% of the big scope performance with a lot less weight
and cost.)
Any of the above will give you excellent performance. Your best bet
really is to visit a store that carries a range of products, sample them
all, and find which best serves your needs. Purchase-advice from others
will lead you to what was right for them.
Then, to complicate matters, there's the individual production variation
problem...yikes!
Good luck;
Scott Crabtree
Baltimore, MD