Ron,
I recently purchased a scope for a friend of mine, the Nikon Fieldscope III
with ED coating. I can honestly say that of all the scopes I've used (small
& large) this one is the best, hands-down. The quality of Nikon glass is
superior to just about anything else out there. It's a 65MM scope, with the
45 degree eyepiece. Fully waterproof, it also comes with a great field
case/cover that is very functional, except for the fact that with it on you
can't traverse the eyepiece (my only complaint).
Colors pop out at you through these scopes - I have looked at birds through
Kowas, Swarovskis and Leicas and there is just no comparison! At over half
the price, to boot.
I also have an old Celestron C90 that I love despite the snickering of my
birding friends. It has lots of drawbacks - not a bit waterproof, clunky
tripod head attachment, and the brightness of the image is surprisingly dark
for such a large (90MM) scope. But, it has adapters for my film cameras,
and it's just odd enough (like me) that I can't seem to part with it. The
new C90 has lots of improvements like rubber armoring, some degree of
waterproof-ness, and a wider variety of eyepieces are now available. These
scopes use mirrors to magnify, and they're not for everybody. C90s are very
reasonably priced in the $300-400 dollar range. One bonus - I stargaze with
mine all the time!!
The Nikon Fieldscopes are very reasonably priced, and there are packages,
with Bogen tripod(s) available at places like B&H Photo in NYC that you can
order for about $600-800 depending on sales, etc. We got ours at Eagle
Optics and paid more for the ED glass and a very nice Bogen tripod head, but
we have always loved Eagle's customer service, which we are willing to pay a
bit more for.
Whatever you choose, get the ED coating on the objective lens for color
correction and brightness of the image.
Hope this helps!! Good birding.
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Frank Boyle
Rohrersville, MD
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