Thread: Spotting scope opinions

Team, I’m in the market for a spotting scope & would love to go buy a Swarovski but alas it’s a bit out of my range!

Funds allow me $1,000 tops to spend.

Last year when I was at shot show last year I looked through the vortex stand & thought they had good optics.

At the moment I’m eyeing up a Vortex Viper HD 15-45x65 Angled Spotting Scope - V500 as an option.

Anyone got one of those they use?

What are you thar & chamois hunters using?

A mate won won at a comp which he sold on here last year. It was pretty nice. The easiest spotter to get behind is a leupold gold ring 12-40x65. It’s a straight scope. I have the mk4 version with reticle. Another option i have seen was the Nikon monarch one I think it was hunting and fishing had in that price range, compact light and pretty decent.

I would save a little longer and spend a bit more. $1000 gets you pretty average quality. These shots are from a Vortex Razor, but the Vortex Viper is nothing to scoff at for around $1650. The razor goes for closer to $3000 Not my photos.

Not a traditional "hunting" brand but very reputable glass

Kowa, comes in many forms and price brackets probably dont compare a 501 ( for about $550 ) to a more expensive spotter but 601 etc start at about $1200

have a look at the sightron spotting scopes. they have mint glass for the dollars

Save some more money @Seventenths if you can wait , depending on what you are trying to do but if you are trying to judge animals at long range with say a 50 power zoom it’s even hard with a Swarovski to see the little details , cheaper glass will mean you need to get closer which kinda of defeats the whole purpose.

has anyone yet tried out the cheap green ones on trademe??? at less than $200 it almost worth the gamble they might be ok....

The $1000 vortex diamondbacks are very average. I’d be amazed if those ones on Trademe are much chop.

Thought about using a camera? like the nikon p900. Under 1k and plenty of zoom

Nikon is another cheaper option I have an ED50 very compact and lightweight but not the magnification of bigger scopes, there are multiple nikon eyepieces that are available for it and you can buy the eyepieces and body separately, i did this, found a near new body out of japan on ebay and managed to sneek in under the customs limit for both parts. https://www.rokslide.com/forums/thre...nox-md50.5613/

Originally Posted by In2thewild

Thought about using a camera? like the nikon p900. Under 1k and plenty of zoom

our cannon camera on full zoom (60x) is about the same as 10x binos...eg you cant get any better view... you run out of optical zoom and just get pixals bigger so it gets grainy fast.