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Spotting Scope advice needed (1 Viewer)

B

Bobgaffer

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Hi. New to forum and am looking for guidance as to a good scope for my needs.

My wife and I just bought a house on the water in New London CT. We are about 15-20 feet elevated from the water.

I am looking to upgrade from cheap Barska scope and am considering a Swarovski STX (85 or 95) or the Kowa TSN 883. Will the angled eyepiece of the Kowa be an issue when looking down onto the water?
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Just realized Kowa makes the 884 which is a straight version so my question now is what are pros and cons of an angled scope?


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That thread helps explain a lot. My deck is about 15-20 feet above the water line so a straight angle scope might be best because I will be pointed down at the water most of the time
 
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Hi,

if you plan to use the scope with multiple persons (ie. you and your wife), please do yourself a favor and get an angled scope.

With a straight model, the height must be just right in order to use it, just a bit off means bending your neck in a very uncomfortable way. And adjusting the height means fiddling around with the tripod and in most cases loosing whatever object you were observing...

With an angled scope, you can easily set up the scope so the smallest user can reach up and the others just bend down a bit which is easy to do.

Straight scopes might have their place if you are mostly using them from a car or hide or shooting bench. But for birding (or generally observing) with multiple persons, please get an angled one.

I don't think that your elevated observing position will change a lot - how far away are the objects of your interest? Unless you are going to look down from your deck in an angle of more than 45 degrees and that is your only use, I would consider a straight instrument.
If you are 15-20 feet above the waterline, stuff just below you is going to be fine with binoculars anyways... and if it's farther away, the scope is going to be essentially horizontal and a straight instrument is no fun to use for multiple users.

Kowa 883 with the wide angle zoom comes warmly recommended.

Joachim
 
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Lots of people will rave about their choice but the vast majority of birders - certainly in the UK - go for angled and I've never met any one who has switched from straight to angled regretting it. I used to have straight scope but switched about 30 years ago. I'd never consider a straight one however big a bargain it was.
 
Steve Babbs said:
Lots of people will rave about their choice but the vast majority of birders - certainly in the UK - go for angled and I've never met any one who has switched from straight to angled regretting it. I used to have straight scope but switched about 30 years ago. I'd never consider a straight one however big a bargain it was.
Click to expand...

Same here. I switched over 35 years ago. I do have a straight scope as well though - exclusively for use from the car. That's the only situation where a straight scope has some advantages.

Hermann
 
I agree with others that angled scopes are a much better choice when sharing. They are also nice in environments without lots of near-ground vegetation, where they can be used on a shorter (lighter) tripod. Nevertheless, I own both types because I much prefer straight scopes when I am birding on my own or from a vehicle window mount. Another advantage of straight scopes is that they are much better for scoping when must keep one's eye on the target to follow it while moves. A straight scope necessitates looking in a different direction from the target when switching between naked eye and scope views, and so it doesn't allow tracking by eye and simply inserting the scope into line-of-sight, as is possible with binoculars and straight scopes. For some of my fieldwork, involving digiscoping momentarily visible swimming/diving/surfacing turtles at 60-96x to document presence of rare species, my Kowa 884 works _much_ better than the angled equivalent because I can get on a turtle almost instantly and get a photo before it disappears from view. Since I usually bird alone, and often in environments with lots of high vegetation, I use straight scopes 99% of the time.

--AP

PS - Steve's note below, about looking up at raptors, brings up another (less important) advantage of straight scopes for my turtle work. Much of the viewing involves looking slightly or steeply downward to rivers/creeks from bridges or high banks, for which a straight scope works best. For that matter, most of my scope-intensive birding (which is in open grasslands and marshes, preferably from a high vantage point) involves seeing birds that are on the horizon or below, meaning the scope is generally level or pointed downward, in which case a straight scope is much more comfortable, at least when birding alone.
 
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"Nevertheless, I own both types because I much prefer straight scopes when I am birding on my own or from a vehicle window mount."

Well it seems some who have tried both prefer straight but in my experience this is rare.

One of my memories of having a straight scope is trying to get on raptors high so I was looking almost straight up in the sky which involved getting into very uncomfortable positions. Much easier with an angled scope.
 
Steve Babbs said:
...it seems some who have tried both prefer straight but in my experience this is rare...
Click to expand...

It's impossible to know what percentage of fellow birders have tried both, but putting that aside, in my experience in the USA, the vast majority of scopes that I see in use by birders are straight models. Could simply be ignorance, tradition, etc, rather than deliberate choice that accounts for this. Regardless, around here, one is in good company choosing a straight scope.

--AP
 
Alexis Powell said:
It's impossible to know what percentage of fellow birders have tried both, but putting that aside, in my experience in the USA, the vast majority of scopes that I see in use by birders are straight models. Could simply be ignorance, tradition, etc, rather than deliberate choice that accounts for this. Regardless, around here, one is in good company choosing a straight scope.

--AP
Click to expand...

An interesting difference between the US and the UK then. I'd estimate 95% of keen birders have an angled scope here. Of birders I know well - which tend towards the fanatical end of the spectrum - I'm not sure I know a single one with a straight scope. When I started - in the 80s - I suspect the ratio favoured straight scopes by some margin.
 
Steve Babbs said:
An interesting difference between the US and the UK then. I'd estimate 95% of keen birders have an angled scope here. Of birders I know well - which tend towards the fanatical end of the spectrum - I'm not sure I know a single one with a straight scope. When I started - in the 80s - I suspect the ratio favoured straight scopes by some margin.
Click to expand...

Yes, angled scopes are rapidly gaining favor here, but I noticed that they caught on in Europe much earlier. Where I live, in the Great Plains, and elsewhere in the USA when driving roads or levees around marshy wildlife refuges (often set up as "loop drives") much birding is done by car, including much scoping from window mounts.

--AP
 
Alexis Powell said:
Yes, angled scopes are rapidly gaining favor here, but I noticed that they caught on in Europe much earlier. Where I live, in the Great Plains, and elsewhere in the USA when driving roads or levees around marshy wildlife refuges (often set up as "loop drives") much birding is done by car, including much scoping from window mounts.

--AP
Click to expand...

This so true. I just returned from a national wildlife refuge in Missouri. The Kowa 883 (angled) was great at the board walks and lookouts but a cheap straight scope spent the day on my window mount. Now I'm seeking a shopping for a better straight scope.
 
Angled scopes are quite a bit easier on your neck. Not only is it easier to look down, but you can rotate most angled scopes to a position/angle that fits your eye better. Alex Powell is right on with the shorter tripod comment. You should go for the Kowa, it will do anything you want. It will be a bit more portable if you plan to do anything else with it.

Straight scopes have advantages true. If you have a LER eyepiece, it's a bit easier to get behind a straight scope, although at the expense of your field of view...
 
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Angled best....I haven't seen a straight scope in quite sometime...

An angled will take a 'bit of getting used to' to locate your objects. But after awhile you won't have an issue with. Much easier to dig-scope with angled too, if you are inclined to go that route down the road....

Good luck...sounds like solid scope choices though, jim
 
Angled is more comfortably looking up; at the stars, raptors, trees.

Straight is very fine for seawatching, watching from the car and when you have a bird hide with gates at the height of the average person (1.6-1.8 meters).
 
I wonder if the original poster ever purchased a spotting scope. The last comment from Bobgaffer was that a straight angled scope would suit best from an elevated position.
 
There are many companies that do not offer straight in spotters. I can only speak for our sales which are about 8 to 1 Angled to Straight
 
I can understand why a few still prefer straight-scopes for certain pursuits.

But for long-spells of relaxed quality birding, where you study intricate detail, an angled scope ticks so many more boxes.

I love the Kowa 883- just superb.
 
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I'll throw another "angled" onto the pile here. I wouldn't even consider a straight-through spotting scope. The birds might be on ridge-line trees while you're in a valley, or you might consider astro use. And having some experienced with mounted 25x100 straight-through binoculars, I can say using a straight-through mounted spotting scope/binocular can literally be a pain in the neck (or back!) if you're looking past 45° up.

--Phil
 
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