Subject: Re: Spotting Scopes
Date: Mar 6 12:50:02 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


>My wife is interested in buying a spotting scope. Any suggestions on good
>scopes in the $200-400 range? Any suggestions where to go? Any help
>greatly appreciated.

I think the rubber-armored Nikon 15-45x60 zoom scope is a very good buy.
Not sure what it costs now, maybe in $350-400 range. It also comes in a
20x60 non-zoom model, which costs $100 or so less, but I think the zoom
capability is worth the extra money. The Bushnell Spacemasters, either
22x60 or 15-45x60, are quite good buys also, as they are about the cheapest
of the traditional spotting scopes. Probably $50-100 less than the Nikon
for the rubber-armored zoom model. You can go up to $1000 for scopes of
increasingly higher resolution, Nikon and Kowa, but I'm not sure they're *3
times* as good as a $350 model. The best place to buy them, of course, are
the many mail-order houses. A place I've used is Christopher's (advertised
in Audubon Magazine).

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416