Hi Dan. This is Daniel Bastaja up in Vancouver, Canada chipping in on Thur.
Jan. 2nd, 2003. In my opinion there is nothing out there to compare to
Swarovski. I think it is the absolute best money can buy. BUT I would
strongly recommend going for the 65mm HD. This is the new model Swarovski
just introduced in 2002. It is the same price as the 80mm HD yet it is much
lighter and more compact. With the quality of Swarovski optics, and
especially if you use the 30X wide angle eyepiece, you won't notice the
difference much between the 80mm objective lens and the 65mm lens. BUT you
will notice a huge difference in portability of the two. The 65mm will be a
joy to pack around, compared to that massive, cumbersome chunk of metal that
is the 80mm. I say this because I own an 80mm HD. It really is an incredible
piece of optics but it is just too darn big. That is it's ONLY drawback. I
think reluctance by birders to buy the 80mm because of it's size is THE
reason Swarovski decided to come out with a 65mm birding scope.
By the way....if you do decide to purchase an 80mm, let me know. I have a
brand-new, never-been-used, green cordura cover for an 80mm Swarovski scope
that I could let you have for half price. I think this cover retails for $80
U.S. at ABA Sales. I could let you have it for $40 U.S. It's the cover that
came with my 80mm when I bought it but I don't like using it. If I see
something that looks hot and need to draw a quick bead with my scope, the
cover just gets in the way. Too darn many zippers and things to figure out.
I like simplicity and to me that means a naked scope.
Regards,
Daniel Bastaja
e-mail: birdingfaqs at hotmail.com






>From: "Dan Clark" <danclark at seanet.com>
>Reply-To: danclark at seanet.com
>To: "'Tweeters'" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Subject: RE: Pentax Spotting Scope?
>Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 22:07:11 -0800
>
>Brendan,
>
>Have you looked at, http://www.betterviewdesired.com/RefSet.html? Pretty
>good site and they have reviews of several scopes.
>
>I'm not quite ready for a scope yet, but I've been thinking about the
>Swarovski ATS-80 HD. At about $1500 (without the eyepiece), iIt's more
>than your target, but it looks like a great scope. The same scope in
>non-HD is about $1100.
>
>What other scopes have you looked at? How does the Pentax compare to
>the Swarovski?
>
>Regards,
>
>Dan.
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
>[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Brendan McGarry
>Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 9:03 PM
>To: Tweeters
>Subject: Pentax Spotting Scope?
>
>
>Hey Tweets,
> I am wondering if anybody out there own an 80mm
>Pentax spotting scope. I have been doing a lot of research on scopes
>lately and I believe this is the scope I want, but I also haven't really
>been able to look through one. Even if anybody could tell me if they
>would reccomend my investment or not. They are about 1000 dollars which
>is what I want to spend and it has all the features and from reviews is
>a very good scope. Still 1000 dollars is a big investment and I don't
>want to just buy the scope based on a web sites reccomendation. Any
>help would be really appreciated.
> -Brendan
>
>Brendan McGarry
>Seattle, Washington
>Pica_pica417 at hotmail.com
>
>


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