Chris Oates
Why does a Black-headed Gull have a brown head...
Just got one with an SDL 20-60 zoom, in good light at close range my Mighty Midget II + HDF 12-36 zoom is just as good and much more usefull as it weighs about the same as my bins and is tiny therefore goes everywhere and can be used hand-held.
At long range or in bad light the ES 80 is much better but does mean a tripod and some thought as to which camera etc I take with me.
This is the first angled scope I've used and I'm a convert - I suffered with neck pain last winter from using a straight scope for long periods - looking at the moon is now possible without kneeling on the floor - the anticipated problem of looking down or over hedges really haven't materialised, either there is no problem or you can swivel the scope sideways to lower the eyepiece.
Aiming an angled scope isn't so easy but you get used to it, you can put markers on the case, rubber band an elevation guide to act like WWII gun sight.
It balances perfectly on a Manfrotto 701RC2 head and and mates with the anti-twist peg.
The SDL eyepiece is different to the HDF, the zoom ring is in a different place, it's shorter, it's a millimetre larger in diameter, the twist-up eye cup moves twice as far and is wobbly at max extension but I like it as the FOV is greater at max zoom, it's supposed to be more user friendly not requiring eyecup adjustment when zooming.
It hasn't got coarse/fine focus which I wouldn't know if is a good or bad thing.
The Opticron stay on case seems to do what a case should do and is pretty user friendly except for the lens/eyepiece cover stowage poppers - they are either in the wrong place or fiddly - velcro (as used for the flaps) would have done.
I could have bought pretty much any scope but got this one as I've not heard anything bad, I've got another Opticron, weight & size were as far as I wanted to go - so far I'm very pleased and have got what I wanted...bad light long distance performance.
At long range or in bad light the ES 80 is much better but does mean a tripod and some thought as to which camera etc I take with me.
This is the first angled scope I've used and I'm a convert - I suffered with neck pain last winter from using a straight scope for long periods - looking at the moon is now possible without kneeling on the floor - the anticipated problem of looking down or over hedges really haven't materialised, either there is no problem or you can swivel the scope sideways to lower the eyepiece.
Aiming an angled scope isn't so easy but you get used to it, you can put markers on the case, rubber band an elevation guide to act like WWII gun sight.
It balances perfectly on a Manfrotto 701RC2 head and and mates with the anti-twist peg.
The SDL eyepiece is different to the HDF, the zoom ring is in a different place, it's shorter, it's a millimetre larger in diameter, the twist-up eye cup moves twice as far and is wobbly at max extension but I like it as the FOV is greater at max zoom, it's supposed to be more user friendly not requiring eyecup adjustment when zooming.
It hasn't got coarse/fine focus which I wouldn't know if is a good or bad thing.
The Opticron stay on case seems to do what a case should do and is pretty user friendly except for the lens/eyepiece cover stowage poppers - they are either in the wrong place or fiddly - velcro (as used for the flaps) would have done.
I could have bought pretty much any scope but got this one as I've not heard anything bad, I've got another Opticron, weight & size were as far as I wanted to go - so far I'm very pleased and have got what I wanted...bad light long distance performance.
