I am after a compact, lightweight, 50mm ED spotting scope. It is something I wish to take to for nature and landscape observations as well as some casual night sky viewing, say, if I went to visit a national park.
My priorities, in descending order, are that this instrument ideally:
- is portable and lightweight;
- resolves well on-axis;
- has good eye relief;
- has reasonably preserved edge performance;
- has a relatively wide field;
- can do double duty as a monocular, especially at low powers
- can take astronomical eyepieces.
The three obvious choices are the Nikon Fieldscope 50ED, the Vortex Razor HD 50, and the Opticron MM3. I would like to hear your personal views.
My priorities, in descending order, are that this instrument ideally:
- is portable and lightweight;
- resolves well on-axis;
- has good eye relief;
- has reasonably preserved edge performance;
- has a relatively wide field;
- can do double duty as a monocular, especially at low powers
- can take astronomical eyepieces.
The three obvious choices are the Nikon Fieldscope 50ED, the Vortex Razor HD 50, and the Opticron MM3. I would like to hear your personal views.