I think for that price you can find a far better scope.
I don't think so.
For a little more you can get a Nikon ED82, which I think is a better scope, but that would be it. The PF80 is an excellent performer, especially with an XW EP attached. It does have the reduced effective aperture that Rick mentions but that alone wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.
My biggest criticism of them is their size, length specifically. Pretty big and the Nikon 82 is noticeably smaller and narrow waisted. I also never was comfortable with the collet eyepiece attachment. On the plus side it was very secure and of course allows myriad EPs to be tried. On the downside, the interface of EP and scope isn't waterproof. The EPs are, the scope is (sealing window), but water can get between the two in the rain.
Bottom line? For a wee bit more, I'd recommend the big Nikon though the drying up of the supply of Fieldscope EPs should be a concern.
The XW eyepiece is quite expensive and not included. With that added he can get a second hand Swarovski, and it is a far better scope, or the new Vortex scope I saw in another thread and it could be a nice challenger to the alphas.
The XW EP costs $300 and makes the package cost $1329. I payed $1450 for my Swarovski ats65hd with 20-60x zoom and stay on case from Cleyspy in England 1.5 year ago, and with the new ATM series Swaro scopes I guess this is not an unusual price for this scope. I never saw that only looked for a 80mm scope.
Ok, apples to apples?
Buy a used PF65EDII body for $350., add an XW14 for an additional $300. You now have one helluva $650. scope.
My brother and a birding chum both have this set up, so I'm well familiar with it's performance. Several in my club have Swaro 80mm scopes with zooms, so I'm familiar with them also. My take is that, on axis, the Pentax holds it's own with the Swaro for sharpness. However, the Pentax has 20mm of eye relief -and- a 70 degree AFOV.
I'm getting bored now... B