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Bird Watcher's Digest Mid-Price Scopes Review (1 Viewer)

mooreorless

mooreorless

Well-known member
Hello, I had to pick up a book for my son at the local bookstore and happened to notice the May/June issue of Bird Watcher's Digest. The top of the cover has Mid-Priced Scope Review and this caught my eye.:)
http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/publications/mj2009-binocreview.aspx?sc=hom_banner1

I bought this magazine for the first time and read the reviews of 5 50mm scopes, Nikon Fieldscope 50ED13-30x,Leupold Golden ring 15-36x, Bushnell Legend Ultra-HD 12-36x50mm, Yukon Firefall 12-36x50 Kit and the Minox MD 50 W 16-30x. They used a resolution chart to compare the scopes. Of course I would of liked if they used boosters as well as star tested these scopes as well.;) I guess you can not have everything. I won't say how all these scope did but will say the 50mm that got the best score is a well known 50ED.;):t: I will say one of the 50 mm higher priced scopes was beat by one that cost only $80 in fact you could buy 4 of the cheaper scope for the price of the other.

They also compared 4 60mm-70mm [one was a mirror type scope] scopes and 3 80mm scopes.
Regards,Steve
 
Hello Mooreorless:

yep i saw that one too, and purchased the copy from the local B&N bookstore earlier in the month. i also was a bit surprised to see BWD move toward something a little more quantifiable in the way of testing protocol, as opposed to what i have seen in the past in such reviews, basically: "well you know most of us thought [Brand "A"] looked really decent, really sharp, but a few thought [Brand "B"] was a little better", or something to that effect. At least a step in the right direction, i'd say.

the lil 50 Nikon just keeps getting rave reviews all over the place, and i for one have to say it's just about the only spotter of the three birding specific scopes i own that sees any action these days.... simply stunning view!

regards,
UTC
 
UTC, Yea they are trying to get me to buy one of these Nikon 50ED scopes;)
The resolution part is kind of strange to me, with 60x with lower score, I guess they were going with comparing these scopes with the Zeiss and it was image QC at the top power. I would of liked the results of the resolution tests. I agree this is a lot better than what they have done in the past.

Sorry not to post results, this is pretty new copy and really I don't want to get in trouble.:eek!:;)
Regards,Steve
 
Ok Steve. Send them to me and I will post them.

:)

Seriously, this is twice now I have seen that Yukon Firefall mentioned in 24 hours. I am going to check out the review to see how it faired but if it was the overachiever then I may have to pick one up for that price!
 
I paid the price to see the test. Like Steve, I don't think I'll violate the Porters' intellectual property rights by posting the results, but I will say that their methods for measuring and presenting resolution figures are so muddled that I would just ignore that part. And without a diagnostic star-test we have no idea why these particular specimens performed as they did.
 
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Ok Henry...now you have me intrigued. I am going to renew my subscription (let it lapse a year or two ago) and see what all the hubub is about.
 
FrankD said:
Ok Henry...now you have me intrigued. I am going to renew my subscription (let it lapse a year or two ago) and see what all the hubub is about.
Click to expand...
Frank,

I read it when it arrived last week and it's much ado about nothing. Big surprise...the Nikon ED50 "won". Read BF and you already know there are many happy ED50 owners.

Sorry, the $80 scope garnered near bottom and bottom scores in two optical categories. Do you really believe $80 is going to deliver a quality spotting scope?

Bird Watcher's Digest is a good read...the Gray Catbird, a daily spring and summer delight for me, graces the May/June cover! Articles are insightful, informative and useful to birders of all ages.

John
 
Hi John, So do you think the Minox MD 50 W at more than four times the price and was at the bottom is worth it compared to the cheap Yukon Firefall 12-36x50mm?

As far a reviews of spotters on this site I don't see anybody posting what some would call going by what I am reading here an excellent review. Some people post a little on thread and that is all. I had the use of my Brother-in-Law's 65 Prostaff for a little while and thought to review it and did take some resolution tests and found it a pretty decent scope, did it have CA sure. I just didn't bother to write up anything.
Regards,Steve
 
mooreorless said:
Hi John, So do you think the Minox MD 50 W at more than four times the price and was at the bottom is worth it compared to the cheap Yukon Firefall 12-36x50mm?

As far a reviews of spotters on this site I don't see anybody posting what some would call going by what I am reading here an excellent review. Some people post a little on thread and that is all. I had the use of my Brother-in-Law's 65 Prostaff for a little while and thought to review it and did take some resolution tests and found it a pretty decent scope, did it have CA sure. I just didn't bother to write up anything.
Regards,Steve
Click to expand...
Steve,

I have no idea because the ratings are meaningless to me.

John
 
Well, for what it is worth I ordered the 20x50 Firefall and the 12-36 Firefall. For the prices they are selling at how could I not?

I don't have a 50 mm scope and could surely find a use for one it is actually half decent. Of course I will post my thoughts once they arrive.

;)
 
Hi Frank, Good luck with the scopes.:)

I just noticed that this thread has over 600 hits so there is some interest in mid priced scopes. If anybody is interested in more info you can PM me. I hope I don't regret that.;)
 
As with binoculars I think folks are looking for most bang for your buck. In my limited experience with scopes I would say the Pentax 65 ED represents just such a value. However, with one of the better eyepieces we are still talking about an $800 scope. I don't have too much experience with scopes in the $400-$600 range...at least recent models. It could be in this range and even down to about $300 that there is a missed market. That Vortex Nomad 80 is a very nice scope for the $200 it is being sold for but I wonder if I would feel the same way at $400 or $450. Probably but who can say.

That little Bushnell Legend Ultra ED 50 mm was something I was looking forward to trying as well.
 
The data has been published (and there is no protection right on data just copyright on expression) so why not summarize it.

For example how did the Bushnell Legend Ultra ED 50 mm do?

How did it compare to the ED50?

What did they think?

First time we know anyone has had their hands on this scope!

I think with the Firefall perhaps you buy four of them and pick the best one ;)
 
The main reason I'm not inclined to pass along a summary of this review is that I think it's completely unreliable. Perspective buyers are better off knowing nothing than being positively misinformed. I found the Porters' measurement techniques too sloppy to be accurate and the scoring system for the presentation of the sloppy measurements incoherent. But, even if those things had been done well the results would still have been useless without first testing the scopes for defects, so that poor specimens would not be compared to good ones. Individual sample defects could easily account for most of the results in this test.
 
FrankD said:
Well, for what it is worth I ordered the 20x50 Firefall and the 12-36 Firefall. For the prices they are selling at how could I not?

I don't have a 50 mm scope and could surely find a use for one it is actually half decent. Of course I will post my thoughts once they arrive.

;)
Click to expand...
I agree, Frank. I also ordered the Yukon 12-36 50x scope, on the strength of this article. Folks on this forum can gather by now that the article liked the $80 12-36 50x . I've been wanting a very small scope for times when I don't want to lug around my Pentax PF65. I'd never dare spend only $80 for a scope, but they liked it, so what the hell. I do agree that there could be a lot of variation between samples on such a cheap scope. Hope I get a good one!
 
henry link said:
The main reason I'm not inclined to pass along a summary of this review is that I think it's completely unreliable. Perspective buyers are better off knowing nothing than being positively misinformed.
Click to expand...

Cartalk once had a philosophical argument about were two people who knew nothing about a subject knew less than one person who didn't know what he was talking about (following the "Electric Brakes" call in).

OK, what did they say for entertainment value about the Bushnell Legend ED. ;)
 
Well, they actually said very little of substance about any of the scopes and I defy anyone to make sense of their scoring system. Please, please don't take this review seriously.

If you're just busting to know I would suggest a trip to your local Barnes and Noble for a free peek.
 
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