[Paulyoly]

anyone own this scope? It seems to good to be true for the prices i've found online( $649 with a zoom eyepiece). I found it for $599 at hotbuyselectronics.com however according to 99% of their customers they are dishonest, crooked, devious scondrels, so they are off my list. This is a cheap price compared to other 80mm ed scopes like the pentax for near $1,000usd with eyepiece. I saw it's scores on the birdwatchersdigest.com site and they seemed good, but they weren't scoreing it's photographic ability either.

[Bob D]

I've not used the Bausch & Lomb scope you asked about.

There is another evaluation of this scope and that was in Living Bird, which is published by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. This evaluaton was done by a group of experienced birders, however, appears to be subjective as no mention of opitcal chart use.

They compared 17 zoom type spotting scopes, in the 60 - 85 mm objective size. The test included scopes from Bushnell, FUjinon, Kowa, Leica, Nikon, Optholyth, Pentax, Swarovski and Swift.

The Bausch & Lomb Elite 80 ED in terms of optical quality at 20X had three scopes ranked lower (13 higher). At 60X one scope was ranked lower.

Birdwatchers Digest ranked the scope higher.

It is unfortunate that the scope was not tested with fixed focus eyepieces, as in this price range better optical quality is likely compared to the zoom.

I would like to see some digiscoped pictures thru this scope also as its price is "reasonable".

Bob D

[Andy Bright]

Try this site for some pics taken with the B&L Elite .... just to confuse the matter he uses a cp5000 instead of a cp9**/4500.
Baush & Lomb Elite Digiscoped Photos
Andy

[Paulyoly]

Originally posted by Andybrightuk
Try this site for some pics taken with the B&L Elite .... just to confuse the matter he uses a cp5000 instead of a cp9**/4500.
Baush & Lomb Elite Digiscoped Photos
Andy

thanks Andy, none of those pics are extremely sharp imo, but this could be because he is using the 20x-60x zoom eyepiece that came with the scope, if i were to get this scope i would most likely get the 22x ler eyepiece, i'm now looking at the pentax 80ed

[Andy Bright]

The Pentax is a bit of an enigma.... several U.S. reviewers think it's up there with the top scopes but European reviewers aren't as impressed. Certainly seems good value at the prices that have been mentioned... though the eyepieces are expensive (and huge). You can, as stated elsewhere, use standard astro eyepieces on this scope, but some of the cheaper astro eyepieces mentioned on some forums aren't quite up to the standards of the manufacturers own.
Andy

[Bob D]

Andy, I agree that several U.S. reviewers think that the Pentax ED80 is a top of the line scope.

The test I referred to above in the publication called Living Bird also tested the Pentax scope with its zoom. Unfortunately the review is not available on-line. However, it may be the best review published in the U.S.

There were 17 spotting scopes tested. Living Bird's test was not as favorable towards the Pentax. At 20X four spotting scopes were rated lowers than the Pentax, 11 higher, and one tie. Note that this review included four spotting scopes whose objective was 60-66 mm in diameter.

At 60X six scopes were rated lower. This included three 60-66 mm. objective scopes. The fourth scope in this objective range, the Swarovski ATS 65 HD rated substantially higher at 60X than the Pentax.

Note that all the tests of spotting scopes in Living Bird were with a zoom.

Bob D

[Dennis Hoffman]

Not to defend the Pentax because I own it, but I figured I'd post one of the reviews I read prior to purchacing it. It does seem rather obvious that the US usually reguards this scope higher than the UK. I've heard several reasons why, but I have no idea which is correct.

The review: http://www.betterviewdesired.com/Pentax/index.html

Their homepage has plenty of other useful info: http://www.betterviewdesired.com/

[Andy Bright]

Again, there has been some questions raised about the famous BVD Pentax review. There was some talk on rec.birds about varying quality control but I'm not sure how likely that is.
It is strange that a particular scope should provoke such varying opinion (from owners and optics reviewers).
What-ever, it's undoubtably a good scope, especially at the prices mentioned.... the digiscoped images from this scope shown on the web prove the point.
Andy B

[Bob D]

I too would like to know the answer to the Pentax enigma. I've been considering a larger objective scope. My primary birding scope is a Nikon FieldscopeIII ED 60 mm and I have both the zoom an several wide angle fixed focus eyepieces. Via an adapter I also use these eyepieces on my astronomy scopes.

Therefore, it is likely that I could use these eyepieces with the Pentax, unless there is a problem with infocus, therefore preventing infinity focus. Not having to purchase the Pentax zoom and the use of Nikon's Fieldscope WA eyepieces which are well regarded in Astronomy circles certainly provides a relatively inexpensive way to obtain more light for digiscoping.

One of these days I will drive to Eagle Optics and do a comparison myself of the Pentax and Swarovski, Leica and Zeiss scopes and perhaps for myself resolve the issue.

Bob

[Paulyoly]

Originally posted by Andybrightuk
Again, there has been some questions raised about the famous BVD Pentax review. There was some talk on rec.birds about varying quality control but I'm not sure how likely that is.
It is strange that a particular scope should provoke such varying opinion (from owners and optics reviewers).
What-ever, it's undoubtably a good scope, especially at the prices mentioned.... the digiscoped images from this scope shown on the web prove the point.
Andy B

Hey Andy, do you know of any site with pics taken with the pentax scope, don't go through any trouble searching the net as i know how to do that, i haven't had much luck in my search.

As for the reviews wouldn't it be nice if all scopes used a universal eyepiece like the 1.25 inch for telescopes, that way you could swap eyepiece, it may be that the scopes are all equal and the eyepieces are whats superior, maybe the swarovski zoom eyepiece is superior to all others, i would like to see reviews done with fixed eyepieces as well as zooms.

[Andy Bright]

I know there are a number of Pentax digiscopers out there (in N. America)... but my old mate Harold Stiver from Canada has probably been using the Pentax longer than anyone else.
Harold Stiver's Website
Andy

[Paulyoly]

Originally posted by Andybrightuk
I know there are a number of Pentax digiscopers out there (in N. America)... but my old mate Harold Stiver from Canada has probably been using the Pentax longer than anyone else.
Harold Stiver's Website
Andy

Thanks Andy, i found his site just a short while ago, i just need to broaden my search to "digiscoping pentax" instead of digiscoping pentax pf-blah-blah-blah. I sure hope he's been at it for awhile because he has a boat load of pics on his site, i especially like this one, very sharp.

http://www.ontfin.com/Tree_Swallow4.JPG

I think i will give the pentax a try, not sure what eyepiece to go with, he uses the xl28 pentax, but i was going to try the threaded ones from scopetronics or williams optics, i figured i buy the scope with the zoom eyepiece and sell the zoom or keep it for general viewing.

Now can someone tell my wife i'm putting a $800 spotting scope on the mastercard?

[Walther Loff]

Hello: I have just signed on with this group and noticed info on a Baush & Lomb ELite 80mm Ed Lens + 20X60 Zoom eyepiece.
I am new at this as of March 2002 and to birding, when I noticed the comments regarding my site's picture quality, I did not use any software to improve the jpegs just to make them to size, lots to learn and all were taken in the auto mode; consequently a learning curve with the CP5000 as well as the Spotting Scope and Birding. I hope with time I will improve my posting

[Walther Loff]

It is amazing how a question started this tread for the Bausch & Lomb Elite 80mm Ed Lens and suddenly it was taken over by pentax users scopes.
I am a retired machinist/millwright, and we have learned from experience, it is not the new expensive precision lathe that makes good parts, but the experienced machinist operating the old lathe... cheers...

[rockwright]

I personally own a B&L Elite scope. Before I bought this I agonized a lot, read a lot of reviews, etc. Then I read the review in Birdwatcher's Digest of July 2000 which relieved some of my anxiety about the purchase. What I came away with was that with the exception of the very high-end scopes, Nikon, Pentax, B&L, Fujinon and Kowa all have about the same resolution - close enough that an average person would be hard put to tell the difference. They did differ in close-focus ability. I'm no expert but I suspect good pictures could be obtained from any of these with the proper tripod and release cable. This scope does have a camera adapter for it.