Help! Advice on Field scopes Wanted please! (1 Viewer)

Could anyone please tell me what the best field scope to but just now is? I am going to get one today (Hopefully!) but i don't know which to get because i have never had one before. It will be used only for birdwatching/wildlife watching and i have no problem of size or weight. But, it must be reasonably priced and be very good for seeing birds from far away (obviously) This is my first time for owning a field scope and i can't wait to do birdwatching even more and to appreciate birds even more than i already do.
Your help will be very, very much appreciated!

Thank you very much,

If weight is no issue then it will be worth buying one of the bigger scopes, one with an ~80mm objective lens. It's also worth buying an ED/APO/FL scope if you can afford to as this will give a better image than a standard glass one.

As for which is the best this is a matter of opinion and the best thing to do is to try them for yourself and see which suits you. The ones I'd recommend comparing are Leica APO 77, Swarovski 80HD, Zeiss 85FL, Nikon 82ED and the Kowa 823/824. All are excellent scopes and I'm sure you'd be happy with any of them, however there are little differenecs so it is best to try them all. The Swarovski and the Nikon both have barrel focus, while the Leica and the Zeiss have a twin focus wheel system and the Kowa has a single small focus wheel.

All are optically superb, so it just comes dwn to personal preference and I doubt anyone on here could honestly claim that one is better than the others.

Additional - just noticed the comment about it being reasonably priced... the ones I've suggested are at the more expensive end. In the mid-price range the Opticron ES80ED is well worth a look. Do you have a budget, if so what is it? Also it's worth remembering that you will also need to buy a triod, a good one will cost you about £90-130.

Thank you for your advice. I don't exactly have a budget because my mum is getting me something i want (a late birthday present) so not to extravegant. I have an oldish tripod at home that i can use for the time being but i could get a better one next week in glasgow.

If you can get a ball park figure it will be much easier to give you some idea of what might be worth looking at. Scopes range massivelyin price - you can spend anything from £100 to £1500.

Eagle Owl,do you live near any of the BF members,Scotland is quite big.

Its much much better to go somewhere where they will allow you to spend some time looking through lots of choices.... Somewhere that you can actually use the scope and watch a few birds.

Scope vary enomously, and many have cult followings. I own a Zeiss and would certainly recommend that one, others own Swarovski, Nikons, or Opticrons and would probably all recommend their own. None are bad, but I have found that some suit someones eyesight better than others. What some find bright I found dullish, when some see colour fringing I don't, etc etc... its a personal choice.

I would certainly not just go into a town centre store and buy one because of price or someone elses say so.... I have had lots of guys ask me if they can look through mine in bird hides, and I am always happy when they do. Go to a reserve and ask to use a few scopes find one that suits you best. That way you will not be dissapointed and much poorer!

Eagle owl , There really is only one choice if you want exellent optics at a decent price .The pentax PF80 or pentax PF65 .great scopes at a reasonable price.You have a far greater choice of eye pieces as they use 1.25 astro EP,s of which there are 100,s. Pentax own eye pieces are as good as any others too.Just look up [better view desired] & other reviews of thes scopes.You can get them from the US for about $800 & 500 respectively .Spend the money you save on birding trips.
good luck Brian
ps I love Scotland & visit there quite often.