Celestron, Hawke, Pentax or Vortex? Please help :) (1 Viewer)

[PeakDBird]

Good afternoon!

I enjoy causal birding but have never owned a spotting scope. I have been reading online and narrowed my search to the below 4 scopes:

Celestron Regal M2 100 ED
Hawke Endurance 25-75x85 ED
Pentax PF 80 ED
Vortex Viper HD 20-60x85

Ideally I would visit an optics store and try each spotter however COVID is just not allowing me to do so. I would value the opinion of anyone who has experience with these scopes. I hope to use the scope for birding and to introduce myself to phone/digiscoping.

Thanks in advance

 

[Haltontwitcher]

Good afternoon!

I enjoy causal birding but have never owned a spotting scope. I have been reading online and narrowed my search to the below 4 scopes:

Celestron Regal M2 100 ED
Hawke Endurance 25-75x85 ED
Pentax PF 80 ED
Vortex Viper HD 20-60x85

Ideally I would visit an optics store and try each spotter however COVID is just not allowing me to do so. I would value the opinion of anyone who has experience with these scopes. I hope to use the scope for birding and to introduce myself to phone/digiscoping.

Thanks in advance

 

[GeorgeL]

The main deciding factor for me was the scope’s ability to use most any one of my astro eyepieces, with apparent field of view between 68 and 82 degrees.
I have the Pentax 80mm angled and the 65mm straight. I purchased the scope bodies only, no zoom eyepieces. The scopes use twist locks to secure the eyepieces, just like my astro telescopes, which I really like. No eyepiece adapters required.
The views, using fixed wide angle eyepieces are very immersive. ....you don’t get that with zoom eyepieces.

 

[Richie008]

Good afternoon!

I enjoy causal birding but have never owned a spotting scope. I have been reading online and narrowed my search to the below 4 scopes:

Celestron Regal M2 100 ED
Hawke Endurance 25-75x85 ED
Pentax PF 80 ED
Vortex Viper HD 20-60x85

Ideally I would visit an optics store and try each spotter however COVID is just not allowing me to do so. I would value the opinion of anyone who has experience with these scopes. I hope to use the scope for birding and to introduce myself to phone/digiscoping.

Thanks in advance

This reply is a bit late, PeakDBird, most probably!
I bought the Hawke you mention above at Christmas and it's a belter. It's weight at 1.8kg is upper end-ish but it carries well on my Viking Tripod S'Port and it's a great performer in low light. Seemingly beautiful quality. Great for birding and I'm digi-scoping as well with my Panasonic G9 and T2 Adapter.
Very happy indeed.