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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dalat" data-source="post: 1642450" data-attributes="member: 65207">Of course absolutely 50 cm difference seems not much, but it still is 35% more of FOV in the 27x wide, which means 80% more of area seen. Eg. when trying to find a bird in a tree, I think that does make a difference. I don't really agree to the panning argument neither. When you try to get a bird in the scope, you're panning anyway, so any larger field will help you to get the bird quicker.Ok, I admit I do not have much experience with other scopes and eyepieces, and have not much used zoom eyepieces myself (I use now the ED50 with the 27x wide). But as I understand, a zoom mostly is usefull for two things:1) scanning an area at low mag for finding easily finding birds due to larger FOV and then zooming in to see it at high magnification.2) lowering mag. in bad light conditions to get a brighter image.Comparing the 13-40 zoom and the 27x wide, I don't see that the zoom really offers an advantage in that sense (with the 27x having almost the same FOV as the zoom at 13x). So when you can live with the limitation to use in bright daylight, I think the 27x would be the better choice (that is the reasoning why I bought it myself).But as I said, I have little experience with this, so please correct me if I understand sth. wrong.</blockquote>