Good quality spotting scope around £300?

[DannyH]

Hello,

It's my dad's 60th in a few weeks and I'm planning on buying him a spotting scope to replace the poor one he currently has, but which scope should I buy? 

He target shoots mainly at 100m sometimes 200m which will be it's primary use, but also for some occasional pointing at clouds/sky.

£300 is pretty much the limit of spend, but the offer at FLO for the Opticron GS 52 GA ED with case looks mighty tempting at £329.   I was also looking at the Celestron 80mm and the Acuter DS Pro.

Before I hit the buy button I just wanted to get an idea on what is optically sound around this price point.

Thoughts welcome & appreciated

Danny

[ronin]

Spotting scope are usually for nature viewing, birds and other wildlife, and get little cover here.

If you have the time try: http://www.birdforum.net/

And ask the same there in whatever is the most relevant section.

To the best I know Opticron are good, however I will say I have found them a little more costly then I would have expected. Difficult to say why, but my impression. Equally the one you have picked out is reduced significantly and as said they are generally very good.

Shame the birthday is in a few weeks and not in the latter bit of August as I would have said pay a visit to the Birdfair at Rutland Water. There will be a whole marquee of binoculars and spotting scopes there that you can easily spend 2 or 3 hours in.

http://www.birdfair.org.uk/

Any RSPB places near you, they will often carry a range although to an extent their selection is "limited". The stock RSPB items and a few others, often Nikon, Swarkovski and Viking (I think Viking make the actual RSPB optics and brand them RSPB)

Trouble is it has been so long since I looked that I cannot recall what is on an approximate price match to Opticron.

Just checked the link - what does he presently have?

Have you checked the Opticron site: http://www.opticron.co.uk/

Ask as they have offers at present on there for 60mm and 70mm spotting scopes, as well as the one you have the link to.

I see FLO say Japanese, but Opticron are at Luton. Although I suspect general production is abroad.

[DannyH]

Hi Ronin,

Thanks for the detailed response. Yes, shame I left it so late 2 weeks doesn't leave much time to find the right thing. The idea of a spotting scope only came about recently. Just last week we compared Celestron 15x70 bins and his scope, the bins were noticeably better by day and night.

I'm not sure exactly what scope he has, it's a 30 year old ex military looking thing he bought for about £80 maybe 10 years ago. The clarity and brightness was definitely lacking, so I know he'll appreciate new optics.

Until the last few days I have never heard of Opticron, I believe they are a mid range offering, they do seem pricey. My Dad did mention Leupold as a brand but they are out of my price bracket. 

Looks like it's a stab in the dark between a 52mm opticron, 80mm Acuter and a 100mm Celestron. I'm sure there all good, and it would seem I'm in a battle between ED glass and aperture. Damn.

Thanks for the heads up about Rutland, I'm only half an hour away, I like Binoculars and my 18 month old boy enjoys feeding & watching ducks etc so that's a day out in the bag 

[John]

Opticron own Vixen with the latter being their astronomical ranges. Excellent quality but not the cheapest

[ronin]

I checked out Minox and Vortex but both cost more.

There is a nice Minox MD 62 ED but again well over the budget, £445.

For the life of me I cannot recall the makes I was looking through the last time at Rutland in the spotting scope line.

One would have been Bushnell as I have their binoculars.

Unfortunately the Birdfair web site does not list this years exhibitors yet as that may have jogged my memory.

Kowa were good but they also are a lot more, I have the idea that a few years ago they cost less.

Meopta are good but again way over budget.

The Opticrons are however good and at the reduced cost are likely a pretty good buy.  Also built for transporting easily.

If you go to Birdfair then take care in the optics marquee. You can spend so much time looking through binoculars that yoiu literally cannot walk straight after. I know, I did it. But I got a couple of good sets of binoculars because of it.

Avoid looking through the Leica's.

[DannyH]

The Opticrons are however good and at the reduced cost are likely a pretty good buy.  Also built for transporting easily.

If you go to Birdfair then take care in the optics marquee. You can spend so much time looking through binoculars that yoiu literally cannot walk straight after. I know, I did it. But I got a couple of good sets of binoculars because of it.

I figure this is the case - slept on it and it and I'm going to go for the Opticron offer - quality glass on promotion is probably something I should take up - it will also be more portable and it has a nice jacket. I have a gut feeling the other options I looked at might disappoint. 

I also didn't know about the vixen opticron link so I can see now where the price comes from. 

I was actually just mentioning the bird fair to a work colleague, he's been a number of times and said pretty much the same, so much to look at. He also advised leaving my wallet at home to prevent the inevitable purchase that happens there. 

[fondofchips]

I have the Nikon ED50 spotting scope but it is the same price as the Opticron GS 52 without an eyepiece.  I have Opticron 8 x 42 binoculars and they are briiliant.  I would doubt that there is much difference between the quality of the 2 spotting scopes.  Easy to carry as well.

[Psychobilly]

I have the Nikon ED50 and a couple of EP's and recently bought the cheap  Celestron  80mm  straight thru as a "car scope" that I can leave in there and not worry too much about it...  Optically there's no comparison between them but then again The Nikon plus EP's is a grand worth compared against £130 for the Celestron with the Zoom EP...

When I bought the Nikon I did a side by side comparison between it and the Opticron and there was very little in it... 

But  that was when the Opticron was full price so I decide to pay the extra for the Nikon and know I would never have the nagging doubt in my mind.... If the Opticron had been on offer at the time it would have been a different matter...

I guess if he's target shooting the lighting isn't too bad? What's he using at the moment...

Peter...

[DannyH]

I have the Nikon ED50 and a couple of EP's and recently bought the cheap  Celestron  80mm  straight thru as a "car scope" that I can leave in there and not worry too much about it...  Optically there's no comparison between them but then again The Nikon plus EP's is a grand worth compared against £130 for the Celestron with the Zoom EP...

When I bought the Nikon I did a side by side comparison between it and the Opticron and there was very little in it... 

But  that was when the Opticron was full price so I decide to pay the extra for the Nikon and know I would never have the nagging doubt in my mind.... If the Opticron had been on offer at the time it would have been a different matter...

I guess if he's target shooting the lighting isn't too bad? What's he using at the moment...

Peter...

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the info, I have a feeling that the Celestron, even the 100mm at around £250 wouldn't be nearly as good optically as the Opticron / Nikon - so worth the extra £80. It's good to know that opticron can mix with the Nikon which has excellent reviews.

He's currently using an unbranded 30 year old scope - looks ex military. The optics are not fantastic and he's been using this scope for about 10 years. He deserves an upgrade for his 60th for putting up with it for so long.

I would say he generally shoots in decent light. I would hope the Opticron would be contrasty enough for viewing general UK weather/cloud.

Although not it's main use, I'd still be interested to see if a 52mm spotting scope can be used for some basic astronomy.

[Psychobilly]

It certainly can..  I have used my Nikon  a couple of times....

I find the CA annoying with the cheaper Celestron... I use them for birding and you get purple an yellow finging on high contrast out of focus portions of the image like tree branches... Not so noticeable on  ground based  viewing , for target shooting it might be ok...

Peter...

[pete_gamby]

Just a minor correction - Opticron doesn't actually own Vixen (although it would be nice if we did - perhaps we could get more sensible prices then!). We are the UK & Ireland distributor for Vixen's astronomy products and they are also an OEM supplier of some products in our range.

Coincidentally, the GS 52 is one of those products - we jointly developed it with and it is supplied by Vixen to us to sell under our own brand. The HDF zoom eyepiece is a modified version of the Vixen LV 8-24mm zoom eyepiece i.e. doesn't have the 1.25" pushfit but attaches using a screw thread.

HTH

Cheers, Pete

[John]

Just a minor correction - Opticron doesn't actually own Vixen (although it would be nice if we did - perhaps we could get more sensible prices then!). We are the UK & Ireland distributor for Vixen's astronomy products and they are also an OEM supplier of some products in our range.

Coincidentally, the GS 52 is one of those products - we jointly developed it with and it is supplied by Vixen to us to sell under our own brand. The HDF zoom eyepiece is a modified version of the Vixen LV 8-24mm zoom eyepiece i.e. doesn't have the 1.25" pushfit but attaches using a screw thread.

HTH

Cheers, Pete

Thanks for the clarification Pete and sorry if I caused confusion. I hope at least I was correct in saying that they are both quality brands !

[DannyH]

Excellent - we'll certainly point it to the heavens to test, the spotting scope was not the easiest to scan the skies, just general scanning last time was still fun, I'm sure the 52 will be better on a tripod. I may have to source a small finder though.

And thanks John & Pete G for clarification on the development and eyepiece type and Opticron Vixen collaboration - it really does look quality.

GS 52 incoming.

[Psychobilly]

The zoom ep is handy for finding and then zooming in... But I still struggld with an angled scope...

At least everything moves in the right dirrection  

[L8-Nite]

Consider the "Baader Vario-Finder" as a spotting scope. A high quality optic with erect image prism and 25mm eyepiece. Just because it doesn't say "spotting scope" doesn't mean it can't be a great alternative, and it use 1.25" eyepieces. Price currently about £230.oo  Didn't find it listed with our sponcer, but it can be seen on the Rother Valley Optics site.