So, thanks to the generosity of Doug at www.CameraLandNY.com, I was again able to spend a few days testing an optic – without paying for it. This time I had the Promaster Infinity Elite EX 15-45x65 Spotting Scope.
Let’s dispense with some of the particulars first:
• Objective Lens – 65mm, ED glass
• Magnification Range – 15x-45x
• Field of View – 171’@1000 yds @ 15x and 81’@1000 yds @ 45x
• Exit Pupil – 4.3mm-1.4mm
• Close Focus – 9.8’
• Waterproof (though specified as being up to a depth of only 1 foot and for no more than 2 minutes.)
• Weight – 2.78 lbs. (2.87 according to my digital scale.)
For comparison purposes I had my Bushnell Elite 20-60x80 and my Leupold Golden Ring 15-30x50 spotting scopes. To begin with, there are some definite differences in the physical sizes of these scopes. Here is a picture of them all placed “side-by-side.”
Of course, the biggest and most important difference is the size of the objective lenses. Here’s a picture of the three scopes’ objectives. Notice how much extra glass there is as you jump from one class of scope to another. Each step up means more light entering the system as well as greater potential for resolving detail.
The Promaster fits squarely in the middle where I have traditionally categorized this class of spotting scope. It’s small enough that it can be carried most places without being too burdensome and yet it is big enough that it can handle most viewing chores with aplomb. It is the size of scope a person who is only going to own one should be focusing on (pun intended).
As you can see the Promaster has an angled eyepiece. I have posted before that I don’t care for angled scopes. This opinion was based on two things. First, my dad always owned straight spotting scopes and I learned glassing with them. Second, a while back I briefly owned a Vortex Impact and found that scopes angled eyepiece to be very unsatisfactory. I fully expected to find the same here. I was wrong.
The difference between the two scopes was simple, yet very important. It was the presence on the Promaster of a ring around which the scope can rotate, allowing the user to change the direction that the eyepiece faces. The Impact did not have this feature so the eyepiece must always face up. This ring makes all the difference in the world, especially when trying to use the scope from a window-mount. It still wasn’t as intuitive or easy to get “on target” as with a straight scope but, I suspect this is simply because I haven’t had enough practice. It certainly was not difficult and I find that I may even prefer it for some applications. I may have to go find a good deal on an angled scope and spend a bit more time behind one. (Just don’t tell my wife I said that.)
The Promaster has a 15-45x eyepiece. According to their manual, the scope will also accept any standard 1.25” eyepiece. I don’t own any such eyepieces so, I couldn’t test this but, it might be a useful feature for someone who does. The Promaster also sports an ED objective lens which is intended to help control chromatic aberration (CA). Finally, the scope also include both “coarse” and “fine” focus wheels intended to give you the very best control over the image. So, how do they each stack up?
At 15x the scope is brilliant. It offers a stunning view that is bright, clean, and free of aberration. This image stays good up through the magnification range until about the 40-45x range. Here I had a lot of trouble and in fact, could never get a really well-focused image. I don’t know what the problem was as at lower magnification the scope performed very, very well but, at its highest power settings, it was pretty dismal. Eye relief was acceptable and I could see the full field of view (FoV) throughout the zoom range. I do think that manufacturers measure eye relief on spotting scopes differently than they do with their binoculars because it always seems that for example, 15mm of spotting scope eye relief is a lot shorter than 15mm of binocular eye relief.
The ED objective appeared to be serving its purpose well. I could still see a small amount of CA but, it was less than what I have seen in most non-ED scopes. Truth be told, I have yet to find any prismatic optic that was totally free of CA – which is no surprise as none yet exists.
The dual focus wheel is a great idea and I was very excited about it as none of my scopes enjoy that feature. The idea however, did not carry over into execution. The “course” wheel worked as expected but, the “fine” wheel was very erratic. Sometimes very tiny movements made huge changes in the focus and other times long movements of the wheel provided no noticeable change whatsoever. What’s worse, the whole effect was entirely unpredictable which meant that when I wanted to tweak the focus just a bit, I sometimes lost the focus altogether and had to start all over. This was very frustrating.
The Promaster also comes with a DSLR attachment adapter. You do have to buy a separate T-ring for your specific camera (usually about $12-$15). I tried this for about ½ hour and found that my results, while not spectacular, were entirely satisfactory. I’m absolutely certain that, with more time to fiddle with the system, I could have turned out some truly stunning photos.
I took the Promaster out with me to glass deer and antelope and also to sight in my rifle. While packing out this year’s mule deer, I dropped my rifle while climbing over some deadfall and wanted to verify that the zero had not shifted. It had. The Promaster proved more than up to the tasks at hand. I still couldn’t use the highest magnifications but, keeping things below 40x allowed for great viewing.
Which brings us to the final verdict. The Promaster retails for $799. The Pentax PF-65 II, which is the Promaster’s most logical direct competitor (same Objective lens size, also takes 1.25” eyepieces, similar size, similar weight, etc.) retails for $899 for angled or $849 if you prefer a straight eyepiece. Demo units however, are available at CameraLand for $799 and $749 respectively. Even without the discounted demo pricing, I think the value-conscious buyer would be better off spending the extra money and getting the Pentax. I wish I had a PF-65 with me to do a true side-by-side comparison. However, just going off of memory I can tell you that the view from the Pentax, even with its “lower end” XF eyepiece was stunning. More importantly, it was useful throughout its entire 20-60x zoom range. Of course, at 60x the image is pretty dim, fairly narrow, and atmospheric conditions will make it only rarely useable but it was, in point of fact, useable and was a full 15x more than the Promaster’s top-end magnification which was not useable.
Having read so many great reviews of Promaster’s new ED binocular in recent days, I was pretty excited to have a go at their flagship spotting scope. I was hoping it would be a similar optics-market party crasher. The Promaster is a very good scope. Unfortunately there are just a couple of little issues that keep it from living up to its full potential. As a budget-class (under $400) scope it would be a force to be reckoned with. However, it’s not priced as a budget-class scope. It is going up against better-known scopes like the Pentax PF-65 II, the 62mm Brunton Eterna, The Kowa 660 series, and even the 80mm Bushnell Elite and Vortex Skyline. Against this company, the Promaster is a bit underwhelming.
Let’s dispense with some of the particulars first:
• Objective Lens – 65mm, ED glass
• Magnification Range – 15x-45x
• Field of View – 171’@1000 yds @ 15x and 81’@1000 yds @ 45x
• Exit Pupil – 4.3mm-1.4mm
• Close Focus – 9.8’
• Waterproof (though specified as being up to a depth of only 1 foot and for no more than 2 minutes.)
• Weight – 2.78 lbs. (2.87 according to my digital scale.)
For comparison purposes I had my Bushnell Elite 20-60x80 and my Leupold Golden Ring 15-30x50 spotting scopes. To begin with, there are some definite differences in the physical sizes of these scopes. Here is a picture of them all placed “side-by-side.”
Of course, the biggest and most important difference is the size of the objective lenses. Here’s a picture of the three scopes’ objectives. Notice how much extra glass there is as you jump from one class of scope to another. Each step up means more light entering the system as well as greater potential for resolving detail.
The Promaster fits squarely in the middle where I have traditionally categorized this class of spotting scope. It’s small enough that it can be carried most places without being too burdensome and yet it is big enough that it can handle most viewing chores with aplomb. It is the size of scope a person who is only going to own one should be focusing on (pun intended).
As you can see the Promaster has an angled eyepiece. I have posted before that I don’t care for angled scopes. This opinion was based on two things. First, my dad always owned straight spotting scopes and I learned glassing with them. Second, a while back I briefly owned a Vortex Impact and found that scopes angled eyepiece to be very unsatisfactory. I fully expected to find the same here. I was wrong.
The difference between the two scopes was simple, yet very important. It was the presence on the Promaster of a ring around which the scope can rotate, allowing the user to change the direction that the eyepiece faces. The Impact did not have this feature so the eyepiece must always face up. This ring makes all the difference in the world, especially when trying to use the scope from a window-mount. It still wasn’t as intuitive or easy to get “on target” as with a straight scope but, I suspect this is simply because I haven’t had enough practice. It certainly was not difficult and I find that I may even prefer it for some applications. I may have to go find a good deal on an angled scope and spend a bit more time behind one. (Just don’t tell my wife I said that.)
The Promaster has a 15-45x eyepiece. According to their manual, the scope will also accept any standard 1.25” eyepiece. I don’t own any such eyepieces so, I couldn’t test this but, it might be a useful feature for someone who does. The Promaster also sports an ED objective lens which is intended to help control chromatic aberration (CA). Finally, the scope also include both “coarse” and “fine” focus wheels intended to give you the very best control over the image. So, how do they each stack up?
At 15x the scope is brilliant. It offers a stunning view that is bright, clean, and free of aberration. This image stays good up through the magnification range until about the 40-45x range. Here I had a lot of trouble and in fact, could never get a really well-focused image. I don’t know what the problem was as at lower magnification the scope performed very, very well but, at its highest power settings, it was pretty dismal. Eye relief was acceptable and I could see the full field of view (FoV) throughout the zoom range. I do think that manufacturers measure eye relief on spotting scopes differently than they do with their binoculars because it always seems that for example, 15mm of spotting scope eye relief is a lot shorter than 15mm of binocular eye relief.
The ED objective appeared to be serving its purpose well. I could still see a small amount of CA but, it was less than what I have seen in most non-ED scopes. Truth be told, I have yet to find any prismatic optic that was totally free of CA – which is no surprise as none yet exists.
The dual focus wheel is a great idea and I was very excited about it as none of my scopes enjoy that feature. The idea however, did not carry over into execution. The “course” wheel worked as expected but, the “fine” wheel was very erratic. Sometimes very tiny movements made huge changes in the focus and other times long movements of the wheel provided no noticeable change whatsoever. What’s worse, the whole effect was entirely unpredictable which meant that when I wanted to tweak the focus just a bit, I sometimes lost the focus altogether and had to start all over. This was very frustrating.
The Promaster also comes with a DSLR attachment adapter. You do have to buy a separate T-ring for your specific camera (usually about $12-$15). I tried this for about ½ hour and found that my results, while not spectacular, were entirely satisfactory. I’m absolutely certain that, with more time to fiddle with the system, I could have turned out some truly stunning photos.
I took the Promaster out with me to glass deer and antelope and also to sight in my rifle. While packing out this year’s mule deer, I dropped my rifle while climbing over some deadfall and wanted to verify that the zero had not shifted. It had. The Promaster proved more than up to the tasks at hand. I still couldn’t use the highest magnifications but, keeping things below 40x allowed for great viewing.
Which brings us to the final verdict. The Promaster retails for $799. The Pentax PF-65 II, which is the Promaster’s most logical direct competitor (same Objective lens size, also takes 1.25” eyepieces, similar size, similar weight, etc.) retails for $899 for angled or $849 if you prefer a straight eyepiece. Demo units however, are available at CameraLand for $799 and $749 respectively. Even without the discounted demo pricing, I think the value-conscious buyer would be better off spending the extra money and getting the Pentax. I wish I had a PF-65 with me to do a true side-by-side comparison. However, just going off of memory I can tell you that the view from the Pentax, even with its “lower end” XF eyepiece was stunning. More importantly, it was useful throughout its entire 20-60x zoom range. Of course, at 60x the image is pretty dim, fairly narrow, and atmospheric conditions will make it only rarely useable but it was, in point of fact, useable and was a full 15x more than the Promaster’s top-end magnification which was not useable.
Having read so many great reviews of Promaster’s new ED binocular in recent days, I was pretty excited to have a go at their flagship spotting scope. I was hoping it would be a similar optics-market party crasher. The Promaster is a very good scope. Unfortunately there are just a couple of little issues that keep it from living up to its full potential. As a budget-class (under $400) scope it would be a force to be reckoned with. However, it’s not priced as a budget-class scope. It is going up against better-known scopes like the Pentax PF-65 II, the 62mm Brunton Eterna, The Kowa 660 series, and even the 80mm Bushnell Elite and Vortex Skyline. Against this company, the Promaster is a bit underwhelming.
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