Hi,
it depends if 32x will be sufficient for your use - it's not so much more than 23x...
If you can look through a fellow birders scope some time and check if 30 times mag is enough for your gulls, a 30 wide EP is going to be brighter than a zoom at the same mag due to less lenses (provided the coatings are comparable) and is also going to be wider than a zoom at 32x (zooms with a 3 times zoom range are usually fairly narrow at the lower end).
Btw. is there currently a 30 wide EP available from Opticron - I don't see one on the MM4 page?
The zoom on the other hand allows you to get even closer if necessary - at the price of a narrower field of view especially at the low mag end.
Btw. the SDLv2 is kinda expensive but also very good and with the MM4 it would give a fully waterproof kit - unlike the HDF zoom (and fixed), which aren't waterproof.
Joachim, who loves his SDLv2 dearly - usually on an old TSN-3
it depends if 32x will be sufficient for your use - it's not so much more than 23x...
If you can look through a fellow birders scope some time and check if 30 times mag is enough for your gulls, a 30 wide EP is going to be brighter than a zoom at the same mag due to less lenses (provided the coatings are comparable) and is also going to be wider than a zoom at 32x (zooms with a 3 times zoom range are usually fairly narrow at the lower end).
Btw. is there currently a 30 wide EP available from Opticron - I don't see one on the MM4 page?
The zoom on the other hand allows you to get even closer if necessary - at the price of a narrower field of view especially at the low mag end.
Btw. the SDLv2 is kinda expensive but also very good and with the MM4 it would give a fully waterproof kit - unlike the HDF zoom (and fixed), which aren't waterproof.
Joachim, who loves his SDLv2 dearly - usually on an old TSN-3