POLL: Buying a new scope

[Steve]

what is The most important Factor to you when Buying a New scope?

[IanF]

No so easy this poll. The decision has got to be a combination of factors. The two most important for me being the Optical quality v Price.

Hopefully I found a happy medium with my Kowa :t:

[alan_rymer]

Steve

Difficult/Impossible to answer in one!.For me, price is important, but so is optical quality, and if I am going to be carrying it a long way regularly, so is weight!. Personal recommendations and Optics reviews weed out the no-no's and you can't go wrong with most reputable manufacturers. People don't tend to ask about after sales service because it shouldn't go wrong!.

Its a bit like your other poll on which scope you would buy if you had $2500, obviously 95% would go Swarovski or Leica!. Why go for an Opticron and have $1500 change?.
8-P

[pduxon]

Originally posted by alan_rymer
Its a bit like your other poll on which scope you would buy if you had $2500, obviously 95% would go Swarovski or Leica!. Why go for an Opticron and have $1500 change?.8-P

Or Zeiss??

Uhm I wouldn't mind the 1500. Think of all the places I could go bird trip to Africa, the states, west indies.......

[birdman]

Actually, this was easy for me...

Don't really mind which brand, as for the rest, a good personal recommendation should cover them all!

[Charles Harper]

Surprising results. I don't think people are thinking carefully about the options offered.

[Charles Harper]

172 views and only 27 votes! I am aghast.

[rdspalm]

Optical quality No.1 and Price No. 2. Its difficult to limit the choice to one factor.

I have a pair of Leica binoculars but cant justify the price of a good Leica scope at present. However my Kowa TSN 821 is a great piece of kit. Reasonable to carry too if you use a carbon fibre tripod. I have a Manfrotto 444 which is great for birding (4 piece).

[Lewis]

I was suprised at the low turnout as well. And that is usually such an American problem!

I voted for manufacturer and was suprised at how low that factor rated with other people, especially when you consider how few manufacturers are mentioned in all the scope ruminations on this site.

Because I could not really try scopes out before we purchased one, and perhaps because I could not consider high-end, likely-to-be-great scopes, my sense (good or bad) of who makes good mid-range scopes had to be my starting point.

[pauco]

the scope I use is opticron imagic 65 thats all the pocket could
afford, with 19x eye piece. I still like the scope but decided I could
do with a better eye piece. of to infocus, to try out a zoom on
the imagic 65 it is 16-48x HDF. and a very nice optic it is, a bit
more expensive than I thought but you get what you pay for.
went out with it this morning and am very pleased with it.
bert

[Surreybirder]

I would never buy a scope that I hadn't tested in the field. So I cannot vote as my vote would go for 'the one that I like best and can afford'.