Nikon Spotter Xl Ii (1 Viewer)

Has Anyone Had Any Experince With New Nikon Spotter Xl Ii Or The Original Nikon Spotter Xl? I Am Looking Into Buying One. I Dont Want To Invest 7 Or 8 Hundred Dollars Into A Scope. This Seems To Have What I Am Looking For Or Am I Kidding My Self? Light Good Optics Good Eye Relief.

iambirding said:

Has Anyone Had Any Experince With New Nikon Spotter Xl Ii Or The Original Nikon Spotter Xl? I Am Looking Into Buying One. I Dont Want To Invest 7 Or 8 Hundred Dollars Into A Scope. This Seems To Have What I Am Looking For Or Am I Kidding My Self? Light Good Optics Good Eye Relief.

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Cant comment on the scope, but I anticipate that the advice you get will be very good.

However, what I can say is go have a look and take your time. take a trip to a supplier with good viewing facilities where you can compare units side by side. (you dont have to buy from it)

Make a list of whats important to you (and your family if they use it?), including weight, brand, frequency of use, etc etc.

And dont rush.

From what Ive read here on this site, people seem very sensible and take into account budget, use, importance of hobby etc and there doesnt seem to be the 'snob' factor you often get.

If you can, take a look at some of the lesser brands but high spec equipment coming out of japan, you may be suprised.

And most importantly, dont get into debt for one - lol

and even more importantly wait for a sale - lol

Those last 2 comments, whiilst my tongue is firmly in my cheek, I actually live by them.

Oh well, I think the soap box is begining to break, so I best get off it....

thank you. what products from japan? also i ve heard good things about fujinon. but those scopes are just little pricey for me still. i would invest in one if i used it a lot more but i spend most of my time in a kayak in the everglades or looking at warblers in NC. no soap box worries- very much apprecciated the info. info on light compact scopes that pack a walop for optics under 500 US dollars- is that realistic or am i inventing the scope of the future? i heard leupold is decent but not enough optics for the money. i also heard bushnell elite is great? i live in a small town and nobody here even knows what a scope is most of the time- unless you put it on a rifle to kill something. where i live there is not a place that carries scopes. they are 200+ miles away. sad but true other wise i would have bought something already. i agree trying out first hand- is right.

Unfortunately, I only know whats going on here in the UK, and in truth my experience is with binoculars. As I have said elsewhere, Helios, I believe a Russian company, are now having their stuff built in Asia, and certainly the top end in Japan.

For example the helios AM6 binocular has every feature found on a top end roof bin, eg twist up eyecups, phase coating, nitro seal etc etc for £200 (or cheaper if you search hard). I have compared these bins to my Leica BN's and had to admit that the image was actually superior, because there was no fringing at all on the helios. To help you put it in context, the leicas cost about £700.

Now my same supplier is also stocking Acuter scope which he says are excellent, and I have noted that Acuter have introduced a 80mmED model for a third of the cost of a Leica or similar.

I am guessing, but I bet the same products are available over the 'pond' but perhaps badged differently.

I, like yourself, have other intrests such as biking and guitar all of which pull on the resources, so there have to be compromises. I was fortunate over the last couple of years to find leica stuff second hand at a very good price, but I recently decided to sell the scope to fund the purchase of a new guitar. Perhaps you may like to check out a comparison I made just yesterday on this nikon forum, under Nikon Identification

Have to go to work now, so cant check for mistakes on above sorry

Bob

Greetings!

I own an original Spotter XL - the one with the power range of 16x-47x. So far, it seems like a very excellent piece of equipment - much better than I expected considering that I purchased it at a pawn shop for a little over $100. I had a chance to compare it to a 60mm Nikon fieldscope a few days ago, the type with the removeable eyepiece, and for all the time I spent looking through both scopes I just couldn't see any difference between the image quality of the two. I also compared the Spotter XL to a Leupold wind river scope the same day, side by side, and I'll be the first to tell that you the Spotter XL completely blew the Leupold away in terms of overall image quality, contrast, and brightness.

However.... you might really want to consider this before buying a Spotter XL: the lack of a removeable eyepiece will keep you from using the Spotter XL series scopes for digiscoping. This might not matter to you, but it also may be enough of a drawback to make it worth a few hundred dollars more for a Nikon fieldscope.

Best wishes,
Bawko

thank you bawko

Thank you very much Bawko. You really helped. I dont digiscope but when i do, I'll have a couple of grand i hope. You really helped thanks again. :clap: