First Spotting Scope Advice Needed! (1 Viewer)

[Vogelschau.Berlin]

hello birdforum! I’m looking to buy my first spotting scope and would love some guidance from this awesome community.

Here’s what I’m looking for:

• Budget: Up to 1500€

• Use Case: Mainly birding, and I’d love to record videos through the scope using my smartphone

• Portability: I’d prefer something that’s not too heavy – I’m a petite woman and plan to carry it on short hikes (~5km)

• Durability & Ease of Use: I’m a beginner, so user-friendly setup and build quality are important

• Optics: I’m hoping to get the best image quality possible within this price range

• Servicing: Ideally a model that can be serviced easily within the EU

• Current Gear: I currently use 8x42 binoculars, which are great, but I often find myself wishing for more magnification, especially for distant or smaller birds.

I’m wondering what zoom range you’d recommend for a spotting scope, especially for someone coming from 8x42s. Also, open to any suggestions for tripod and digiscoping setups that pair well with an iPhone (currently using iPhone 12 mini).

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[4John]

hello birdforum! I’m looking to buy my first spotting scope and would love some guidance from this awesome community.

Here’s what I’m looking for:

• Budget: Up to 1500€

• Use Case: Mainly birding, and I’d love to record videos through the scope using my smartphone

• Portability: I’d prefer something that’s not too heavy – I’m a petite woman and plan to carry it on short hikes (~5km)

• Durability & Ease of Use: I’m a beginner, so user-friendly setup and build quality are important

• Optics: I’m hoping to get the best image quality possible within this price range

• Servicing: Ideally a model that can be serviced easily within the EU

• Current Gear: I currently use 8x42 binoculars, which are great, but I often find myself wishing for more magnification, especially for distant or smaller birds.

I’m wondering what zoom range you’d recommend for a spotting scope, especially for someone coming from 8x42s. Also, open to any suggestions for tripod and digiscoping setups that pair well with an iPhone (currently using iPhone 12 mini).

Thanks in advance for your help!

Vogelshau,

Only you know what's not too heavy for you, and don't forget you need to add a tripod and head which can weigh as much, if not more that the scope. The best way for you to check it's not too heavy for you is to try one, which is also the best way to check the user-friendliness and the image quality.

I know how and where to try scopes in the UK but I have no idea how you do that in Germany. But Hermann does, and I am sure he will be along shortly.

 

[Hermann]

Sorry I'm a bit late, I've been busy over the past few days.

Many topics to cover here, so I think it's best to go through your list for a start.

Here’s what I’m looking for:

• Budget: Up to 1500€

Does that include the scope AND the tripod+head? A half-way decent tripod and a decent video head will cost you about 300€. There are cheaper tripods available, sure. However, a tripod needs to be stable and reliable. I'd look at Sirui, for instance. They are pretty good. Which model depends on your own height (how tall are you?) and the weight of the scope. Check Tringa's excellent tripod primer in the "Tripod and Heads" forum.

• Use Case: Mainly birding, and I’d love to record videos through the scope using my smartphone

If you want to get videos using your smartphone you'll need some kind of smartphone adapter. Hand-held doesn't really work for videos. That will add to the cost, I'm afraid. And you also need to take into account that you won't get a top-class scope given your budget limit. So you'll be limited in the kind of quality you'll get when videoscoping.

• Portability: I’d prefer something that’s not too heavy – I’m a petite woman and plan to carry it on short hikes (~5km)

Excellent point. So you're probably looking at small to medium-sized scopes, i.e. 50mm-65mm, rather than a big scope (~80mm-115mm). I've got three scopes in different size classes, and I find I use the smallest (and lightest!) a lot the moment, especially on my local patch. Would I take it to a trip to the coast? Not really, I'd take a big scope. With scopes, size matters ... 😁

To give you an idea of the weight differences: My smallest scope (Nikon ED50) weighs with a lightweight tripod and head ~2300 gr., my big scope (Nikon ED82) with a stable tripod and a heavy duty video head weighs ~4900 gr. What you need to take into account is of course that I'm pretty tall, so I need tall tripods as well. You won't need such tall tripods.

• Durability & Ease of Use: I’m a beginner, so user-friendly setup and build quality are important

• Optics: I’m hoping to get the best image quality possible within this price range

Sure. Actually, a user-friendly setup depends more on the tripod than the scope. And of course the head - a video head is definitely better than, say, a ballhead or a gimbal.

• Servicing: Ideally a model that can be serviced easily within the EU

That excludes most of the Chinese manufacturers. That's actually not bad, with some of the Chinese manufacturers you never know whether you'll get a good scope or a lemon. Even the top European and Japanese manufacturers sometimes have problems with lemons, however, they're more likely to help you if the scope doesn't perform as it should.

• Current Gear: I currently use 8x42 binoculars, which are great, but I often find myself wishing for more magnification, especially for distant or smaller birds.

I’m wondering what zoom range you’d recommend for a spotting scope, especially for someone coming from 8x42s. Also, open to any suggestions for tripod and digiscoping setups that pair well with an iPhone (currently using iPhone 12 mini).

Good question, and one that's pretty hard to answer. I myself use different scopes, from 50mm to 82mm. The 50mm allows a maximum magnification of 40x, the 82mm a maximum magnification of 75x. I find I mostly use magnifications between ~20x and ~40x. It all depends on where you want to use the scope most. In parks, woodlands and a smallish lakes a magnification range of 20-40/45x works nicely, at the coast you may want to have higher magnifications, say up to 60x or more.

I'm not in Berlin and don't know the birding scene in Berlin at all, so I can't help you with ideas how to meet people there to look through different scopes. Are there any WhatsApp groups in Berlin, like a local rarities hotline? Any hotspots where you may just bump into people with scopes?

BTW, do you wear glasses? If you don't, you might want to look at a Nikon ED50. A small scope, with a zoom with a pretty narrow field of view, but optically very good, light and not too expensive. The zoom is not suitable for most wearers of eyeglasses. If you find you really like scopes, you can get a bigger scope later and keep the ED50 for travelling.

Any more questions? Feel free to ask, if you want to by PM in German ...

Hermann