2520years said:
Thanks for the replies, I've emailed Opticron for their recommendations but had no reply as yet. I'm thinking of getting a HDR 28x W or HDR 45x W. They're the same price on one of the websites below (£89) which seems odd to me. I suppose then it depends how far away from the birds I'm likely to be.
Cheers.
I presume you mean HDF rather than HDR.
I've had a Midget for a year, when I bought it I thought I might be buying something which was very limiting considering the huge prices 'real' scopes go for.
Found the opposite - firstly the Midget is so small & light it got used far more than I imagined it would - I either walk or travel pillion on a bike and a full size scope plus tripod wouldn't see much use, secondly the image quality is excellent - no abberations or weirdness - watched Bitterns at dusk with it.
I can't imagine using a scope with a fixed 45x eyepiece, unless the bird was dead or slow moving you would never find it, on the Midget I use a 12-36 zoom and more often than not it's towards the 12 end - 36 starts to get dark unless there's really good light and it's tooooo much magnification generally.
I watch a lot at a fair size estuary which can need high magnification but I would really not like to be stuck with it all the time - the Long-billed dowitcher we had here last year was never more than 50ft away and at 45x all you would get is some extreme detail of a feather.
I like zooms as I'm all over the place - sea, marsh, woods, reservoir, moon, dockyard - fixed eyepiece would drive me nuts and I'd probably prefer a cheap zoom if I was forced to choose - I just cut down on the fags 'n booze for a while and bought the HDF zoom - there's no point in compromising equipment choice if you can possibly avoid it.
If you get a fixed eyepiece 20-25 would be more useful.
I subsequently bought an ES80 ED MKII with a 20-60 SDL eyepiece (still have the Midget) for long rang ID - not that the Midget wouldn't do it - the ES80 just does it better BUT the ES80 doesn't get used that much as it's too big and heavy for my little legs.