Bushnell Spacemaster collapsible travelscope (1 Viewer)

I recently picked up one of these scopes as a cheap travel scope having foolishly sold my ED50! There are not many reviews online, so I thought I’d post my thoughts. The scope can be picked up inexpensively second hand, and for the money it has quite a lot going for it. I looked at the other options available, but all were much more expensive after import taxes ect. I've used it a few times locally, but will be testing it in Italy at the end of the month, and I basically bought it for a trip to Thailand this winter.

Good points

• Affordable, lightweight travel scope with draw-tube design allowing packing to small size
• Comes with lots of accessories (flight case, carry case, SOC, strap, lens caps, 25x fixed lens and 15-45x zoom
• Sharp bright relatively wide image with only noticeable CA at the edges when using the 25x in good light
• Sharp bright image (though higher CA) at magnifications between 15 – 25x using zoom in good light

Negative points

• Body made of plastic, with rubber armouring only around prism housing and retractable lens hood
• Draw tube design may “suck” in moisture in humid/wet environments, I’ll post back on this once I’ve used it more extensively
• Noticeable CA and loss of light at anything above 25x on zoom, and loss of light using fixed lens in diurnal periods
• Narrow FoV when using zoom, and eye relief not great for spectacle wearers
• Some drift/movement in focus wheel
• Purple cast when viewing light/dark interfaces in strong light

Just for a bit of fun I decided to hold the 30x WA from my TSN-3 in the mount and see if it would focus; surprisingly it did, and it delivered a sharper image which was some 30% wider than with the supplied 25x! There was some CA and fringing, but it appears a higher quality aftermarket e/p could be worth the extra investment. I may look into picking up an old 28xopticron HR eyepiece to see if it will fit. I’m only planning on using this on holiday and more than likely in good tropical light, so I don’t think 30x will be pushing it too hard.

Overall it is basically a cheap scope delivering pretty standard non-ED quality images. That said, if you are looking for a scope to take on holiday which won’t break the bank, or that you won’t miss too dearly if its lost/stolen/damaged/eaten then this is well worth seeking out.

Daniel,

Nice review. I always wondered about those little Spacemasters. I remember reading good reviews on them many years ago but never have had the opportunity to try one myself.

I had a similar instrument sold in the UK by Opticron, but traded up to a ED 50. The design certainly made me very nervous about using it in damp or dusty conditions probably more so than any problems I actually expereinced justified. After a while the image did suffer (presumably from dust). The thing that got me was that it was still a handily small scope when extended so adding the complication of a drawtube section seemed a pointless complication.