Subject: [Tweeters] Do My Spotting Scope Selection Homework for Me
Date: Mar 26 10:42:54 2015
From: Rick Tyler - rhtyler at gmail.com


Hello Tweeters,

Thanks to my wonderful wife ("your birthday is coming up, go ahead and
pick out a new scope"), I'm shopping for a replacement for my stolen
spotting scope. I'm trying to keep to a budget of $1,000-1,200 for the
tripod and scope, and my inclination is to buy a good tripod and head
and a more-modest scope, with the thought that I will upgrade the
scope in a couple of years but would want to keep the tripod for the
new scope.

Any suggestions? My first scope was a 20-60 zoom 80mm Alpen, which
performed way better than I thought it would, and is now selling for
$425 on Amazon. I would just buy another one, but I thought I would
ask if anyone else has had good luck with under-$1k scopes? That 80mm
scope was pretty heavy, too. What about 60-65mm scopes? How does
winter birding in Washington work with a smaller objective lens?
$3,000 is Not in the Budget.

Thank you in advance for sharing your opinions and experience.

--
Rick Tyler
Redmond