anyone tested the bushnell elite 80ed scope? (1 Viewer)

Howdoo all,
someone out there must have tested or at least looked through the bushnell elite 80ed spotting scope, any reviews or comparisons gladly accepted.
cheers JMI

elite scope info

having done a bit more delving on this scope, i have just discovered that you can also buy 30x ww & 20x ww eyepieces for this scope, which to my mind would make it a cracking buy.
I'd still love to hear from someone who has looked through one though before taking the plunge.
surely someone stateside must have tested one!?

justmissedit said:

Howdoo all,
someone out there must have tested or at least looked through the bushnell elite 80ed spotting scope, any reviews or comparisons gladly accepted.
cheers JMI

Click to expand...

The 80mm Bushnell Elite ED is a great scope. The image quality is great, the price is fantastic, and it has an available adapter that allows it to mount directly to my DSLR allowing for fairly simple digiscoping efforts. Of course, being an 80mm scope it is definately not "lightweight" but then again, it's only about 3-4 ounces heavier than the 60mm Swarovski so; it's not really a "heavyweight" either.

The included 20-60x zoom is quite good. Obviously it gets a bit narrow and dim at the full 60x but, since I rarely use it at such magnification, this poses no problem. I also know of no other prismatic scope that does much better at high magnifictations so; this isn't really a failing at all. As already mentioned, there are indeed 22x and 30x wide angle eyepieces made for it. I haven't yet tried them but I think I will be getting the 22x very soon. (The 30x eyepiece appears to be basically unavailable anywhere.)

This scope can be readily found for about $650. The DSLR camera attachment costs another $80 (plus maybe $15 for the T-Ring adapter specific to your camera.) The 22x wide angle eyepiece runs about $160. All things considered, it would be quite difficult to get a better value in a scope.

lucznik said:

As already mentioned, there are indeed 22x and 30x wide angle eyepieces made for it. I haven't yet tried them but I think I will be getting the 22x very soon. (The 30x eyepiece appears to be basically unavailable anywhere.)

Click to expand...

Have you tried obtaining the 30x directly from Bushnell? They do direct sales, so I'd give them a call to determine if this eyepiece exists. It is shown on their website, so I'd be surprised if it weren't available. I'm not surprised, given the low interest in anything other than zoom eyepieces in this country, that it hasn't found distribution.

I'll be driving past the Bushnell world headquarters and factory outlet on January 1. If they are open and I have the time I'll stop in to try this scope and check on these eyepieces.

--AP

Alexis Powell said:

Have you tried obtaining the 30x directly from Bushnell? They do direct sales, so I'd give them a call to determine if this eyepiece exists. It is shown on their website, so I'd be surprised if it weren't available. I'm not surprised, given the low interest in anything other than zoom eyepieces in this country, that it hasn't found distribution.

I'll be driving past the Bushnell world headquarters and factory outlet on January 1. If they are open and I have the time I'll stop in to try this scope and check on these eyepieces.

--AP

Click to expand...

I have not tried them directly. I was unaware (until now) that they did direct sales. Thank you for the information. I will definately give them a ring.

I didn't think I was going to have time to stop by the Bushnell showroom after all, but I had a tire blow out on December 31 and the tire shop to which I was directed is, coincidentally, next door. I didn't have my own scope with me to make comparisons, and I only had half an hour before closing, but I took a look at the 20-60x80 Elite (angled) scope. They only had the zoom eyepiece on hand, and when I asked about the fixed eyepieces that are supposedly available, they looked them up on the computer and found that they are for European distribution only!!! (This pattern of availability seems to be typical of products that I seek: e.g. Cannondale's Europe-only commuter bicycle models). However, they thought there was a good chance they could order the fixed eyepieces in. As for the scope, it was quite serviceable--good eye-relief, brightness, and overall image quality, even at 60x--but the build seemed uninspired (plasticy, somewhat bulky), the FOV with the zoom was narrow (like all zooms), and the particular unit I tried had astigmatism and probably some other flaws such that at 60x even the view in the center field was not as sharp as it should have been (some oddly asymmetrical chromatic aberration; vertical and horizontal lines didn't quite come into best focus synchronously). I've seen much worse performance in scopes at 60x, but I've seen MUCH better as well (such as in my own 78 mm Nikon Fieldscope).

--AP