dwolfbearer
Active member
Hello everyone,
I have been into birds for a long time, but have mostly enjoyed photography with telephoto lenses. I have been trying to get my longtime girlfriend (soon to be fiance) into birds for a long time, but she never enjoyed taking pictures of them. I realized recently that she enjoys watching them thru binos and when we recently met some people who were using a spotting scope - her eyes lit up...I also enjoyed the scope and could see its usefulness.
Therefore, I have set about to buy some good binos (mostly done at this point, tried a bunch and finally settled on a pair of zeiss 7x42 fl for me and a minox 8-14x40 vario for her...but that might change soon) and I am now looking for a decent scope to play around with. I am a pretty big guy (6'2" 185lbs), a collegiate rower and lift weights 5 days a week...so size/weight is just not an issue for me (had no problem handholding a canon 1d2 + 500 f/4.5L while I owned them) - so I was looking for an 80mm+ scope...which I could just mount on my gitzo tripod.
My original budget was somewhere around $500-600, but I recently found a used Zeiss 65mm T* FL for sale at $625, but on eyepiece. I'm no fan of zooms, so I would buy a fixed eyepiece (probably the 30x) - costs around $300, so total costs of probably $950. I can swing this (barely), so $1000 is really the absolute top end of my budget.
I got to thinking about the 65mm size and my original thought of looking for an 80mm - so I am wondering if it is worth it to buy the 65mm as compared to buying an 80mm w/ eyepiece of comparable/lesser price...say a 20-60x Pentax 80ED, older Kowa 82mm + 27x eyepiece, Nikon prostaff, Meopta 75mm + 30x, Vortex ED, etc. Basically - I am wondering how much light I will be sacrificing with this 65mm vs a cheaper 80mm? If I got the 80mm, I would be able to get 30x a good bit brighter or 40x at about the same brightness...is that worth the drop in quality from the Zeiss?
Sorry for all the questions - but I am new here and like to spend my money without remorse...or at least with minimal remorse.
Thanks to all of you for the wealth of information here on BF!
-Kyle
I have been into birds for a long time, but have mostly enjoyed photography with telephoto lenses. I have been trying to get my longtime girlfriend (soon to be fiance) into birds for a long time, but she never enjoyed taking pictures of them. I realized recently that she enjoys watching them thru binos and when we recently met some people who were using a spotting scope - her eyes lit up...I also enjoyed the scope and could see its usefulness.
Therefore, I have set about to buy some good binos (mostly done at this point, tried a bunch and finally settled on a pair of zeiss 7x42 fl for me and a minox 8-14x40 vario for her...but that might change soon) and I am now looking for a decent scope to play around with. I am a pretty big guy (6'2" 185lbs), a collegiate rower and lift weights 5 days a week...so size/weight is just not an issue for me (had no problem handholding a canon 1d2 + 500 f/4.5L while I owned them) - so I was looking for an 80mm+ scope...which I could just mount on my gitzo tripod.
My original budget was somewhere around $500-600, but I recently found a used Zeiss 65mm T* FL for sale at $625, but on eyepiece. I'm no fan of zooms, so I would buy a fixed eyepiece (probably the 30x) - costs around $300, so total costs of probably $950. I can swing this (barely), so $1000 is really the absolute top end of my budget.
I got to thinking about the 65mm size and my original thought of looking for an 80mm - so I am wondering if it is worth it to buy the 65mm as compared to buying an 80mm w/ eyepiece of comparable/lesser price...say a 20-60x Pentax 80ED, older Kowa 82mm + 27x eyepiece, Nikon prostaff, Meopta 75mm + 30x, Vortex ED, etc. Basically - I am wondering how much light I will be sacrificing with this 65mm vs a cheaper 80mm? If I got the 80mm, I would be able to get 30x a good bit brighter or 40x at about the same brightness...is that worth the drop in quality from the Zeiss?
Sorry for all the questions - but I am new here and like to spend my money without remorse...or at least with minimal remorse.
Thanks to all of you for the wealth of information here on BF!
-Kyle