A follow up on this scope....
The second sample I received from OpticsPlanet was much better in most respects. It maintained sharpness at higher magnifications more effectively and had the same nice overall mechanical quality and feel. However, I am going to return this one for a refund and look for something else.
My primary reasons for returning it:
1. While this sample was better, I still struggled to get sharp focus above 30x magnification. Part of the problem is that I think any inexpensive, smaller aperture scope is not going to be perfectly corrected and struggle at those magnifications. Even in well controlled conditions (reading text at close range to remove atmospheric interference) I still found that, while sharp, there was a bit of "gauziness" to the image at high mags that I attribute to spherical aberration. Probably to be expected again given the price.
Secondarily, I think the fine focus knob was a bit imprecise, I found myself constantly shooting past the perfect focus and hunting back and forth, like I could never get it to "snap" in. In fact, I discovered that I preferred focusing with the coarse focus knob at high mags! I think, in addition to lack of perfectly corrected optics, the fine focus knob is a bit "loose" and thus makes it hard to dial it in precisely.
2. Although this sample was better optically, it AGAIN had dark specs in the zoom eyepiece. At least this time it wasn't a big black speck in the dead center, but there were several smaller dark specs to the sides.
3. While the optics are very bright and have little fall-off as you go towards the edges (probably the best part about this scope optically), I found the FOV of the zoom too narrow for my tastes. It's basically the standard 40-60 degree FOV of the typical zoom eyepiece, and think (especially because the high mags struggle as noted above) I would rather pair a compact budget scope with a nice fixed WA eyepiece (25-30x).
So I am going to return it and might go back to the Pentax PF-65ED, which is even more compact and has nice optics and much better eyepiece flexibility. Or maybe save up a bit and try to snag a Fieldscope III ED on sale with the new Nikons coming out, or maybe go smaller with an ED50 or the Vortex Razor HD 50mm and then get a bigger scope some time in the future.
In summary, the scope does have many positive points. As I mentioned above the build quality is outstanding for the price, it's very comfortable to use and well put together. It comes with a nice view-through case included. The optics are very bright, with only minimal chromatic aberration and distortion towards the edges. At the price I would have paid ($350 after the rebate) it probably has no equal outside of maybe finding a good deal on a Celestron Regal F-ED. If you get a nice sample it's a high quality option.
But at full price ($500-600) you are getting very close to some other excellent options.
