Thread: Spotting Scope vs High Zoom Camera

Originally Posted by High Country Boy

I used the cannon sx60and 70 as my “spotter” for quite a few years, have also had access to the Nikon p1000 for a couple trips . Always thought it was a far better and compact option over an actual spotter. Last year I purchased a Leica televid 82. Since changing to spotting scope I would never go back, in my opinion the difference for evaluating animals is chalk and cheese. The clarity of the image is just far better especially on tahr and chamois.
Definitely the spotter is a lot larger and heavier, however when you trade the camera out of the pack it offsets a bit, I just use iPhone for photography currently, maybe change in future. I think the extra weight and bulk is well worth it as once you’re in a hunting area a considerable amount of time is spent glassing. I have also found it great using the spotter on lower magnification for glassing for game not just evaluation, where as I never found it easy to do with camera.
Other benefits is limited risk to water damage. Also, you can tank out a camera battery pretty quick especially if zooming in and out a lot if evaluating a lot of tahr/Cham. A dying batter with several days tahr hunting ahead isn’t the best feeling as you’re suddenly pretty much limited to either binos or rifle scope for evaluating.

I haven’t put my eyes through the Swarovski ATC you mentioned but I was keen to run it side by side with my leica to see the difference and if I could go to a more compact model but haven’t got that far yet. Interesting comment around not being able to judge a chamois at 500m.

Awesome first hand feedback. An 82 is a big bastard! Maybe a 65 would be a good compromise.

I was looking down on the chamois sitting on a rock so the horns were not silhouetted and it was a bit gloomy but all the animals we saw I kept trying to wind the zoom up past 40x