Best birding scope up to 1700 g weight? (2 Viewers)

[jurek]

Hello,
Looking for an advice for a birding scope which is on the lighter side.

 

[asp09]

If money is no object, these are the two that spring to mind:

kowa 773 + 25-60 zoom : 1704g

Swarovski ats 80 + 25-50 zoom : 1630g

If you want to spend less, I’d look at this one:

Opticron MM4 77 + SDL v3 : 1519g

 

[Hermann]

Looking for an advice for a birding scope which is on the lighter side.

I'm sure you'll get more replies if you are a bit more specific: Angled or straight? Which objective lens size? Maximum magnification? How important is the optical quality? How much can or do you want to spend? And so on.

Hermann

 

[jurek]

I'm sure you'll get more replies if you are a bit more specific: Angled or straight? Which objective lens size? Maximum magnification? How important is the optical quality? How much can or do you want to spend? And so on.

Hi, the scope should be angled, lens size > 60, max magnification >55. Optical quality is extremely important, naturally. Price is not limiting. The definition of good birding scope includes also several qualities, like ease to use and good color transmission, which may be difficult to define.

Anyway, waiting for further help!

 

[Will K]

Swarovski ATC?

 

[Hermann]

Hi, the scope should be angled, lens size > 60, max magnification >55. Optical quality is extremely important, naturally. Price is not limiting.

OK, so that means the only serious limit is the weight limit, right? That is a serious limit, because with scopes size matters a lot, and I personally wouldn't trust the build of lightweight scopes with large objective lenses. So in effect you're limiting yourself to scopes with objective lenses <70mm. That's fine, I myself use a 60mm scope more than my big scope, but it's a fact you need to bear in mind. A bigger scope will give you better images, especially at large magnifications. As long as you don't get a lemon, that is.

That said, I'd look at Swarovski, probably the ATS 65 with the 20-60x or the 25-50x eyepiece. The ATS is a "slow" scope with excellent optical quality at an almost reasonable price. I'd probably prefer it over the ATX 65 unless you may want to get one of the big objective modules at some stage. I'd also look at the Nikon Monarch 60 ED-S with either the 20-60x or the 30-60x eyepiece PLUS the 30x WA. But I'm biased, having used Nikon Fieldscopes for so many years .. The problem with Nikon may be the service, and they're not that widely available. However, I never had to send any of my Fieldscopes to Nikon, in well over 30 years.

Hermann