Spotting Scopes

Spotting scopes...what do you need them for and what can you do with them? The answer is, just about anything! Do you have a house with a view? If you have an ocean or mountain or even a city view, you should have a spotting scope. How about nature watching, target shooting, birdwatching, hunting, security or watching ships and whales go by? A spotting scope can enhance your experience with any of these activities and more!

Most spotting scopes start off at a magnification of 20x and zoom through to 60x or higher. That means that if you set your scope at 20x and were looking at something 200 metres away, it would look like it was only 10 metres away. Quite a difference, especially when you consider that a standard pair of binoculars is 7x. This much magnification means you need a tripod to mount the spotting scope on to hold it still - most spotting scopes come with a small tripod. Generally anything over 10x cannot be hand held still enough to see the image clearly.

As with all things, spotting scopes can come in basic (low) quality, medium quality and good/really good quality. Reflecting these quality differences, prices range from $150 through to $2500; remembering that the magnifications and sizes are about the same, this can lead to some confusion. The big difference is in the clarity of the image you see. At the cheaper end of the market, the image might be slightly blurry, the colour might be a little bit off and the area you see (known as the field of view) could be smaller/narrower. There can be many differences. Some models are camera adaptable. Some are small enough to put in a back pack when you go hiking.

If you are a birdwatcher you would go for a higher end spotting scope so you can see, with clarity, the finest details of your object. However, if you just want to check out what’s going on across the road, maybe a cheaper model will do the job perfectly well.