On Tue, 25 Jul 1995, Stuart MacKay wrote:

>
> I suppose the most typical use I would put a scope through would be looking
> for color bands on shorebirds, so high mag and good light gathering would be
> desired. So far it looks like the Swarovski is currently out in front with
> Kowa starting to lag a little. Fujinon, Leica and Optolyth are still in the
> running, however they are still dark horses - anybody got some info.
>
Stuart--

Not to muddy things up too much, but...

If you want you're really looking for high magnification, it's tough to
beat a catadioptric scope...they're more compact mirror types scopes that
fold the image back and forth and gain amazing power. Celestron makes a
C-5 and there are other good short, fat scopes in that category..
disadvantage of a cat scope is they're not as durable as refractor scopes
like Swarovski..however, the Questar ($2-3k+ investment) has
interchangeable lenses that go to 160 power with a Barlow doubler that
gives you twice that power!!...critics of these high powered cat scopes say
after a certain point, the haze and heat waves make it impossible/impassable
anyway, so why bother...but, these cat scopes are 90mm 125mm and let in a
lot of light..and they are actually less expensive the the others in some
case..the Celestron C-5 listed for $800 or so..their C-90 was the industry
standard for a while and is still available at $380-
I think you should look at a lot of scopes and see what's good for
you...a cat scope may not have as much utility for general birding as the
Swarovski..

Most of the #800 houses have catalogs and informational material they
will send on request at no cost...call 'em up and tell them you're thinking
about a scope...ask them the current price of Swarovski and request they send
catalog, price list, and any explanatory information...(Christopher's in
Oklahoma has little printed brochures on binoculars, scopes etc..)

1-800-356-6603 Christopher's..Norman, OK
1-800-289-1132 Eagle Optics...Madison, WI
1-800-624-8107 National Camera Exchange, Golden Valley, MN

Stephen Ingraham, Editor/publisher of the esoteric little mag BVD
(Better View Desired) wrote this in a letter to me last Spring..

"There is no doubt that the Swarovski zoom is far superior to the Kowa
zoom at any power-and that its superiority becomes increasingly obvious
as you crank it up. The Swarovski HD series should outperform the Kowa
fluorite in most situations... [snip..snip] If you don't need waterproofness
you should look at the Nikon fieldscope 78. The zoom is better than Kowa's
by far, but you still have to live with the helical focus. Performance is
exceptional at all powers. The size and weight of the scope make it much
easier to handle in the field. Still, all in all, I carry the regular
60mm Fieldscope ED with the 20-50x zoom 90% of the time, and find that it
rarely to never disappoints me in the field."

Big decision is what you will be using the scope for...

Don't make the decision until you get the information from the different
optics houses..

See you Friday night and I'll try and remember to bring some copies of BVD
and other optics stuff..

Tom