My wife & I are very new to birding & I want to purchase a starter spotting scope for her for Xmas. The thing is, I don't see us going into the field where we'd need a very powerful scope. You see, we have a feeder near our back porch that's about 20' (6-7 meters) away so the vast majority of our viewing would require a short near focus. See photos in my 1st (posthttp://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=158272)
I received a recommendation, at the Hello section of this forum, suggesting a Celestron Ultima 65 - 45° Spotting Scope. http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=84&ProdID=197 The spec of this says it has a near focus range of 15-20' which would be prefect. Others in this series have a near focus of 27ft @ 20x (80) & 33ft @ 23x (100) so they might be too powerful for around the house but better in the field.
Celestron also makes a C90 Mak Spotting Scope that has a near focus of 20' that is more expensive but within my budget. http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=87&ProdID=203 It has a look more like a true telescope than a spotting scope.
From what I've read, neither of these are state of the art but we're retired & on a budget so what other alternatives if not these?
Please post with your thoughts!
George
I received a recommendation, at the Hello section of this forum, suggesting a Celestron Ultima 65 - 45° Spotting Scope. http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=84&ProdID=197 The spec of this says it has a near focus range of 15-20' which would be prefect. Others in this series have a near focus of 27ft @ 20x (80) & 33ft @ 23x (100) so they might be too powerful for around the house but better in the field.
Celestron also makes a C90 Mak Spotting Scope that has a near focus of 20' that is more expensive but within my budget. http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=87&ProdID=203 It has a look more like a true telescope than a spotting scope.
From what I've read, neither of these are state of the art but we're retired & on a budget so what other alternatives if not these?
Please post with your thoughts!
George