I tried briefly to use an older, used store brand 60mm spotting scope. It was dim and hard to see much in.
Coming at birding from an am. astro bent, I thought that I had a better idea. I started out with a Celestron 100mm Mak-cass that has variously been marketed by Celestron and Orion. The trouble was that at low magnification the C.O. was visible as a black spot and the views always had a slight blur to them like the lens was lightly coated with fog or something.
Figuring that the concept was sound, but the optics needed improvement, I again tried to outfox the experts by getting an Astro Rubinar 100mm Mak Cass. Aside from numerous problems with the mounting ring that the US distributor flatly refused to correct, this thing was reasonably large and clunky and harder to put into quick action in the field than proper birding scopes. Trying to quickly put together an erect image diagonal and fit the right eyepiece meant that I was futzing with gear while the shorebirds were flying away, and I always worried about water, salt and sand. Images were pretty good once I settled on Meade super plossls, (after trying and rejecting numerous TV plossls for land use). But comparing images in this scope to dedicated birding scopes by Swarovski, Leica and Kowa really highlighted the fact that even a 100mm mirror scope is no real match for a high quality ED scope in the 77-82mm range. I was very surprised by this, and would've done well to learn from that lesson.
But I'm hard headed and really wanted something much lighter. So I got a lightly used straight 60mm Nikon Fieldscope III from a fellow Astromarter. It's a darn good scope, but the 20-45x zoom eyepiece doesn't do it justice. It's really at it's best at around 30x. This is in marked contrast to a friend's 77mm Leica which routinely handles 60x.
Summary: If you're going to get a spotting scope for birds and wildlife, do it right from the very beginning. Get a waterproof, lightweight, medium large aperature, high quality ED or APO dedicated spotting scope such as those by Kowa, Swarovski or Leica. If I would've done that, I could've saved a ton of money, lots of time and aggravation and would've spent more time looking at the birds than goofing with the equipment.
Mike Swaim
Coming at birding from an am. astro bent, I thought that I had a better idea. I started out with a Celestron 100mm Mak-cass that has variously been marketed by Celestron and Orion. The trouble was that at low magnification the C.O. was visible as a black spot and the views always had a slight blur to them like the lens was lightly coated with fog or something.
Figuring that the concept was sound, but the optics needed improvement, I again tried to outfox the experts by getting an Astro Rubinar 100mm Mak Cass. Aside from numerous problems with the mounting ring that the US distributor flatly refused to correct, this thing was reasonably large and clunky and harder to put into quick action in the field than proper birding scopes. Trying to quickly put together an erect image diagonal and fit the right eyepiece meant that I was futzing with gear while the shorebirds were flying away, and I always worried about water, salt and sand. Images were pretty good once I settled on Meade super plossls, (after trying and rejecting numerous TV plossls for land use). But comparing images in this scope to dedicated birding scopes by Swarovski, Leica and Kowa really highlighted the fact that even a 100mm mirror scope is no real match for a high quality ED scope in the 77-82mm range. I was very surprised by this, and would've done well to learn from that lesson.
But I'm hard headed and really wanted something much lighter. So I got a lightly used straight 60mm Nikon Fieldscope III from a fellow Astromarter. It's a darn good scope, but the 20-45x zoom eyepiece doesn't do it justice. It's really at it's best at around 30x. This is in marked contrast to a friend's 77mm Leica which routinely handles 60x.
Summary: If you're going to get a spotting scope for birds and wildlife, do it right from the very beginning. Get a waterproof, lightweight, medium large aperature, high quality ED or APO dedicated spotting scope such as those by Kowa, Swarovski or Leica. If I would've done that, I could've saved a ton of money, lots of time and aggravation and would've spent more time looking at the birds than goofing with the equipment.
Mike Swaim
