I'm back proper birding after an absence of too many years.
This return has been helped by a fantastic Christmas gift of a pair of Nikon Monarch M5 8x42's, which I love. The downside is that these binoculars have really shown up the shortcomings of my old Bushnell Spacemaster spotting scope. This was bought for me by my parents in the 90's and to be fair, it has served me well over many years. From a time when I had no funds for more expensive scopes through times when funds went on cameras, lenses and other shiny things.
When I look through it now though the image, with the 15-45x zoom is too soft, too dark and lacking in detail when compared to the Monarchs. The plan is to do some research, try and be sensible about what I need (rather than want) and then upgrade.
In the meantime, I decided to see if the Spacemaster could be improved by changing the eyepiece. A bit of trawiling on here suggested that the Vixen GL eyepieces would fit:
Post in thread 'Bushnell spacemaster II' Bushnell spacemaster II
So €37 on Ebay got me a Vixen GL20 to my door. The magnification isn't amazing, I guess about 17/18x on the Spacemaster, but it is noticibly sharper, than the Bushnell zoom.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting much but it has really improved the viewing experience through the scope. Before this I couldn't wait to replace the Spacemaster. I will still upgrade but the improvement is such that I can afford to wait and hopefully the right scope rather than the first one I can get my hands on.
So for anyone on a budget or who is looking at a second scope to leave in the car, then you could do worse than this combo. Maybe the GL25 would be a better option magnification wise though.
This return has been helped by a fantastic Christmas gift of a pair of Nikon Monarch M5 8x42's, which I love. The downside is that these binoculars have really shown up the shortcomings of my old Bushnell Spacemaster spotting scope. This was bought for me by my parents in the 90's and to be fair, it has served me well over many years. From a time when I had no funds for more expensive scopes through times when funds went on cameras, lenses and other shiny things.
When I look through it now though the image, with the 15-45x zoom is too soft, too dark and lacking in detail when compared to the Monarchs. The plan is to do some research, try and be sensible about what I need (rather than want) and then upgrade.
In the meantime, I decided to see if the Spacemaster could be improved by changing the eyepiece. A bit of trawiling on here suggested that the Vixen GL eyepieces would fit:
Post in thread 'Bushnell spacemaster II' Bushnell spacemaster II
So €37 on Ebay got me a Vixen GL20 to my door. The magnification isn't amazing, I guess about 17/18x on the Spacemaster, but it is noticibly sharper, than the Bushnell zoom.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting much but it has really improved the viewing experience through the scope. Before this I couldn't wait to replace the Spacemaster. I will still upgrade but the improvement is such that I can afford to wait and hopefully the right scope rather than the first one I can get my hands on.
So for anyone on a budget or who is looking at a second scope to leave in the car, then you could do worse than this combo. Maybe the GL25 would be a better option magnification wise though.
