BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ajfossey" data-source="post: 3543700" data-attributes="member: 17758">I have the older Swarovski 65 and the newer modular Swarovski 95 and they are indeed wonderful scopes! That said, so impressed was I with my MM3 50mm travel scope when it accompanied me to Costa Rica, Lesvos and Peru, that I also purchased the MM4 60mm version to give me just that little more 'reach' when needed on a recent trip to Borneo.When birding locally if I know I'll either not be walking far or need the reach to count distant specks on my WeBS count, I take the Swarovski 95. If I'm just going birding for fun and likely to be covering some distance or I'm on my bike, I'll reach for one of the Opticron's (which will depend on just how far I'm likely to walk and the habitat). I cannot believe what a joy they are to use, and to be honest, there are times when if I did not have this option, the Swarovski would have been left at home and only binoculars would have been used.If circumstances dictated that I could choose only one, the MM4 60mm would probably win. It's lightweight so this is also reflected in the tripod needed and clearly an advantage when travelling or walking far. It's inexpensive when compared to the Swarovski and personally, for general birding I find the lower starting magnifications more useful than the starting magnification of 30x on the Swarovski 95.</blockquote>