38x or 20-60x for Nikon RA III A WP (non-ED)? (1 Viewer)

Hi!

I've finally decided it's high time I got myself a telescope. One of my options is at the moment the Nikon Spotting Scope RA III A WP (non-ED). But which one is better for this - the 20-60x or the 38x?

I've been trying to read the reviews and they say 20-60x is awfully narrow, but still pretty good. Of the 38x I haven't found any reviews... But I've heard that these fixed ones should be better. And the view should be broader (so the birds more easily found with it?).

I'd really appreciate some comments, thanks!

-Elina from Finland-

The zoom is nice, but if you want a fixed go with the 24x or 30x (actually, what you are calling the 38x is a 30x on the 60 mm Fieldscope). I like the 30x better for 95+% of birding because of its wider field of view and better eye-relief (for glasses).

--AP

Edit: Whoops! I forgot that "Spotting Scope RA III" is the scope labeled Prostaff over here. In that case, I'd be even more inclined toward the fixed, but I'd probably choose the 25x over the 38x for most birding. --AP

This morning I had a chance to look through the 82mm Nikon RA IIIA spotting scope at a bird tower. It had the 20-60X zoom ocular. The view was sharp at the low end but begins to soften at magnifications higher than 40X. I would recommend that you try the scope with both oculars (38X wide and 20-60X zoom) before buying. My friend uses a Nikon ED 82A Fieldscope with the 38X wide (the Nikon spotting scopes and fieldscopes use different oculars) with good results. So my recommendation would be the 38X. If you check the technical details you can see that it has the same field of view as the zoom at 20X (only a 0,1 degree difference).

Heikki

EliS said:

Hi!

I've finally decided it's high time I got myself a telescope. One of my options is at the moment the Nikon Spotting Scope RA III A WP (non-ED). But which one is better for this - the 20-60x or the 38x?

I've been trying to read the reviews and they say 20-60x is awfully narrow, but still pretty good. Of the 38x I haven't found any reviews... But I've heard that these fixed ones should be better. And the view should be broader (so the birds more easily found with it?).

I'd really appreciate some comments, thanks!

-Elina from Finland-

Click to expand...

Hi There
I have the Nikon 82mm RA III with a 20-60 zoom eyepiece. I did find it a little bit awkward to locate what I was looking for at first but I have mastered it now. At 60 x zoom the quality does drop off but it's fine for ID ing small birds at a few hundred metres.
You do not say if you want to digiscope with the scope, but, if you do then you have to go with the zoom eyepiece or you will not get clear pictures to blow up on your PC.
I find I use my scope after locating something of interest through my Minox bins, then zoom in to digiscope. I usually have a 'working' area of 2-3 hundred metres within which the scope works great.
Overall for the money I am very pleased with my purchase and will recommend them to anyone.
Hope this helps
IanB

Thanks, everybody. So it looks like whichever I got, I'd be pretty well off.

I'm not planning on digiscoping since I carry around a Canon S3 IS (with 12x zoom) and would be using the telescope for identifying and drawing birds. So because of the ID part, I'd be willing to go for the zoom (the not-so-great-but-usable 60x would be nice), but because of drawing, I'd again appreciate the 38x wide view (as long as the picture is pretty much as good and stable as it would be on 20x on the zoom)...