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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

What Scope is Best for me??? (1 Viewer)

D

dobermann

Member
I am an avid bird watcher but have also got into long range target shooting and was hoping that the scope I get will both be excellent at bird watching as well as spotting bullet holes at 500metres, which scope would be best for this?

Kindest Regards

Dob
 
dobermann said:
bird watching as well as spotting bullet holes at 500metres, which scope would be best for this?

Kindest Regards

Dob
Click to expand...

Dob, i use my spotting scopes for similar purposes, 95% birding and 5% shooting. For spotting sandpipers and bullet holes at 500 meters you need a really good quality scope.
These days they come from Leica, Swarovski, Zeiss, Nikon, Optolyth, and Pentax. The ones with Fluorite/ED/HD lenses are better than the ones without. The ones with 80 mm lenses are slightly brighter on dark days and at higher power than the ones with 60/65 mm lenses.
You need to decide first how much you want to spend.
For a good and portable all-rounder, i would say a 60/65 mm scope with ED/HD lenses and a 30x wide eyepiece would do the job.
So, a Leica APO TELEVID, why not.
 
You can also try Tele Vue. www.televue.com. They make small, state of the art, refracting telescopes for astronomy. Their 2 smallest scopes, a 60mm ED and a 76 mm ED are also very suitable for birding but they aren't cheap. Essentially, you custom design your own scope. You get an amici prism diagonal and pick the eyepieces to use. (They sell both.) The 60mm is especially compact and the 76mm is very portable. Over the years, I put together a hybrid spotting scope out of their now discontinued 70mm semi-APO. It has a focal length of 480mm. I picked up a 2 inch Brandon Amici diagonal and matched it with 2 widefield eyepieces from Meade which give me 15x and 34x. Total weight is about 7 pounds. It's not waterproof but it is tack sharp!
 
budget would be helpful!!

I'd add Opticron & Kowa to Otto's list. You see way more over here than Pentax and Optolyth
 
Not in my opinion (although I prefer 32WA ep). But don't take my (or anyone else's) word for it. If you are going to buy an expensive scope I suggest you find somewhere where you can try several brands side by side. Then pick the one that suits you best.

Over here some of the optics sellers have fields days where you can try stuff. Do they have the same in Ireland?
 
dobermann said:
Is their anything better for around the same money??

Dob
Click to expand...

Probably not. When it comes to the top makes it comes down to a matter of personal preference - they are all optically very good. Often the deciding factors are things like focussing (twin focus of Leica and Zeiss vs. barrel focus of Swarovski and Nikon) and colour cast.

I used the APO77 with zoom for a number of years and was very happy with it, they only real downside is the weight. The only other scope that I feel compares is the Swarovski 80HD.
 
Thanks a million guys/girls for the advice

I don't know of anywhere in Ireland I can try out a range of scopes and will probably buy over the net as Irish price tend to be over priced! Any advice on where to buy would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Dob

PS Thanks too to the birdforum.net website great site!
 
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