Pentax PF-80 ED spotting scope?

This scope has caught my interest as it uses 1-1/4 inch eyepieces. I have a telescope, and would get dual usage for my eyepieces. My issue is that I have not heard much about this spotting scope. I would like to hear your opinions and experiences.
Also, has anyone tried the Pentax zoom eyepiece with the spotting scope?
Thanks,
Doug

Doug, two of the folks that I sometimes bird with have this scope with the zoom lenses in the straight configuration. I got very excited about it during a recent, (temporary) price drop. It's a good scope. The eyepieces made for it are good enough that I'm not sure that there would be an advantage trying to use others, (except for the obvious monetary one, if, in fact reg. 1.25"ers really do work... unknown to me at this pt.)

Anyway, my experiences to date have been solely as a very interested onlooker rather than as an owner. It's a good scope, but by birding standards, it's both long and heavy for the aperature. The feeling I had with it was that like a lot of other Pentax sport optics, it was very good, but maybe not quite great. (In my book it takes a heck of a leap to get into the "great" category. Usually I can't afford "great".)

The 20-60x zoom eyepiece really does work quite well through the entire range, but it take a robust tripod to get full use of it at 60x. Really, this scope is at it's best on a fairly robust tripod in general. I liked the big open feeling of the eyepieces, but was left just a little bit cold by the flat color renditions. Comparing it side by side to Leicas, Kowas, and Swarovski's was a very eye opening experience. I would recommend personal assessment of all these fine scopes since people vary in what's important to them.

The Pentax PF-80ED scope was recommended to me by two industry insiders as being specifically and somewhat uniquely suited to digiscoping; (one of whom went out of his way to recommend this product to me over his own similar product line). To date, I don't know of anyone locally using it for that purpose. Nor do I have any first hand knowledge of the angled version that would appeal to me the most. For my specific uses, I've decided that it's not quite right at this time, but that's based largely on extreme portability issues. It is a very good scope. I'd give it a solid A-.

Hope that helps,
Mike Swaim

I have tried both the straight and angled view. The straight has excellent star test for prismatic scope. The Angled is slightly softer in focus than the straight (perfect focus not as easy) but appears to be about as sharp once focus is reached and is easier viewing for astronomy. Yes, I have tried the zoom and it is incredibly sharp (can't tell much difference from my fixed Pentax XL eye pieces) but the FOV is much narrower and I prefer the "picture window" view of the fixed eye pieces. But one of the best zooms available (I have compared to Nikon, Leica, and Swarovski). This is a good scope to use for terrestrial and astronimical purposes that takes standard eye pieces. I am planning on selling either my straight or angled (don't know which I really prefer) for about $550. Interested? I also may sell my Pentax zoom for about $300. LNIB with papers. Check out Stephen Ingraham's article selecting it as the reference standard for 80mm spotting scopes at www.betterviewdesired.com. I have found his recommendations to be very accurate.

In comparing to Leica, Kowa, and Swarovski, which did you prefer and why?