Disclaimer. I have no affiliation with Leupold, B&H and the review is not intended to endorse any product or company. It simply represents my opinion on the product. Also, I am not a professional reviewer, so take this review with some grains of salt! Comments are welcome.
After deciding to buy a spotting scope, I started looking for reviews and checking prices on the net for scopes that filled my needs. It definitively had to be fogproof as mornings in New Jersey, USA are usually very cold in late fall, winter and mid-spring, and very humid in the summer. It had to be lightweight as I already haul a heavy backpack with camera equipment and a 7 lbs tripod/head combo, and finally, the cost shouldnt exceed $400 dollars which of course eliminated all premium scopes. I wanted something equivalent to my Nikon Monarch binoculars: great optical performance at a reasonable price.
There was pretty much no information on the options left (which is what motivates me to write this review by the way). Models from Meade, Bushnell, Audubon, Eagle Optics, Alpen, Leupold and Simmons offered weatherproofing in the 60mm range, but they all had a zoom eyepiece, which at this price range, usually is the weak link and more often than not, they are unusable at the long end of the zoom where the image becomes dull with very little eye relief.
At the very end of my budget limit ($399) appeared a little Leupold with a small 50mm aperture and a somewhat limited zoom range (15X-30X). However this Leupold offered a unique characteristic: it does not suffer from the defects inherent to non-premium zoom eyepieces because it uses an optical erector system, not a variable magnification eyepiece which offers great eye relief at all magnifications (17.5mm - 17.1mm). Also, the prism glass is BAK4, not the cheapest BAK7.
So after asking some questions on some bird/hunting forums I decided to buy the scope. I bought it from B&H in New York City for $339 (currently on special) + $10 shipping and I received it the very next day.
First impressions:
The deep brown color with golden motifs gives this scope a very formal appearance. Good feeling on the rubber armor, a nice quick-detachable strap and padded case (all in brown). This little guy hardly weights anything. At 610 grams (21.5 ounces) it weights exactly the same as my 8X42 Nikon binoculars! A quick look at the objective and eyepiece shows deep green glass usually associated with good coatings - and the inside is painted black to avoid light loss. About the only thing I didnt like was the tripod adapter which takes away from the scope appearance with its cheap looking screw. In my opinion Leupold should had the tripod adapter built-in, or provide a little cover so the screw doesnt show. Also, the zoom eyepiece has no markings (simply shows the direction to zoom in and out) so its impossible to know at what intermediate magnification the scope is being used.
Birding with the Leupold:
I took the scope to a local Lake for its first field test in a blustery and cold day (wind chill 29F) which required me to wear mittens. I mounted the scope on my tripod (although it can be handheld for short periods, it definitively needs a tripod for extended observation) and quickly pointed it to a Cormorant. A crisp image with very good brightness, sharpness and contrast at 15X. Performance was good all around the field of view. Focusing is easy even with mittens although the knob feels a little stiff. While zooming in I also noticed that the eyepiece is also a little stiff, but after a few minutes of use, you forget about the stiffness on both the focusing and the zoom. The zoom is a joy to use as the eye relief stays constant, and there is no obvious lost of brightness and sharpness. However, once the zoom approached 30X chromatic aberration kicked in (a purple tint in the eyepiece) which made me think that the scope wasnt as good as I thought. Once in focus however, I was greatly surprised to see that almost all the purple fringing went away, leaving a very good and clean image that was brighter than what I expected for a 50mm in a cloudy day.
I watched a Blue Heron, Dark-eyed juncos, nuthatchers and some blue jays and cardinals, all showing very good detail at all magnifications. The ultimate tests for the scope that day were two muted swans and a seagull (white birds!). In both cases, there was no noticeable chromatic aberration at 15X all the way to around 25X (I guess. As I mentioned, there are no marks on the zoom eyepiece). Close to 30X there was some nasty purple fringing while focusing, but it was unexpectedly low once the birds were on focus. You could see a tiny purple/violet halo but it wasnt bothersome (for me of course). No bad at all for a non ED scope.
At home, another handy feature of the Leupold became quite evident: its close focusing ability (4.1m/13.5 ft) its great for watching bird feeders. It should also come in handy for butterflies.
Stargazing with the Leupold:
Last night (3/23/06) the sky cleared up a bit so I did some stargazing with the scope. First target: Saturn. Could this little 50mm scope show the rings of Saturn? To my surprise it did and very well. Very sharp (tiny though) view of the ringed planet with the ring clearly discernible. Even at 30X chromatic aberration (a bluish tint noticeable when I moved the scope a little) was well controlled. Bright Sirius was a well defined point of light with minimal diffraction (spikes) and a small cluster below Sirius (M41?) showing very nice. Another nice surprise was the good edge performance (much better than my Monarch binoculars). Stars began getting fuzzy roughly at around the last 20% of the field of view but only the last 10% was distorted.
Conclusion
Pros
- Very good optical quality. Excellent view at 15X to approx. 25X.
- Great built quality
- Good value for the money (at $339). Excellent if you consider that the original retail price was around $560.
- Good ergonomics
- Completely weatherproof water and fog proof-
- Well controlled chromatic aberration
- Zoom mechanism offers constant eye relief and minimal loss of light
- Leupold lifetime warranty for the Golden Ring series. I dont know if the erecting prism is prone to misalignments, but if it is, the warranty ensures that you wont get stuck with a useless scope down the road.
- Super lightweight. Great for travel. Also, it minimizes the need for a sturdy tripod. A $50 photographic tripod can do the job if one needs to travel light and has no budget for a carbon fiber tripod.
Cons
- 50mm aperture limits the use on low light situations
- Stiffness on focus/zoom mechanism. Can be annoying when focusing at 30X as it causes the scope to shake. A no issue at low magnifications
- Purple fringing at the long end of the zoom. Clearly 30X is the maximum this scope can offer without deteriorating the image. At least Leupold recognized this and didnt push further the zoom range.
- No magnification markings on the zoom eyepiece
- Cosmetically, not a very nice tripod adapter. It works but with time it tends to get a little loose.
- When used with a lightweight tripod, the wind can blow the whole setup away!
Regards
- Emilio DelToro
Once I set up three spotting scopes: the Leupold, a 60mm Nikon, and my 80mm Elite and tried to watch a buck bedded in some very tall sagebrush. Through the 50mm scope I could not see the buck. With the Nikon I could just pick him out of the sagebrush. With the Elite, I had no trouble at all watching the deer “up close and personal.”
Another time I tried to watch a buck early in the morning, but the 50mm scope proved too dim.
These two experiences showed me that the 50mm objective of this scope involves too many compromises to be acceptable. I’ve since sold the little scope and am now actively trying to find a reasonably small and light 60-65mm scope to take its place.