Testing three spotting scopes(Vortex and Meade)

[Matteman]

I have been looking for a good spotting scope for a while, but was unsure what to get. Today a few of the club members brought their spotting scopes to the range and i did a quick comparison. It should be said that all of the images were taken with my Iphone, and that they looked slightly better IRL. EU prices.

Meade Wilderness 20-60x80 320$, had a lot of chromatic aberration(blueish tint on sides of dark/white parts), small field of view, sharpness good in middle of image but gets soft too the edges, image a bit fish-eye distorted. Not very easy to see bullet holes in paper from 330 yards.

Vortex Diamondback 20-60x85 700$, better image, not so much chromatic aberration and better sharpness. Bullet holes can bee seen from 330 yards.

Vortex Razor 27-60x85 1900$, a lot better than the two others, but amlost three times as expensive as the diamondback. Much less chromatic aberration and the field of view is a lot wider. Bullet holes can be seen easily on new targets without too many stickers on them. Contrast is also better.

I hope this test is of use to someone woundering about what you get for your money when buying a spotting scope, its a big investment with the more expensive ones.

 

[houndog]

Bottom pic says Razor 27-60, which is the newer version of this scope. The earlier model was 20-60.

BTW - Midway is currently selling the 20-60 version for $999, which is $600 off of list ... if you can live with the discontinued model.

OP - probably doesn't help you if you're in Europe.

 

[pk5333]

I don't think the picture does it justice, seems heavily compressed. Maybe hosting it on something like imgur would be helpful.

 

[Matteman]

I tested the newer version, 27-60x85, fixed the typo!

 

[TheShooter]

I use a Konus as do a lot of other f class and high power guys. At $250, it really can’t be beat for value and the optics are great.

 

[Matteman]

I don't think the picture does it justice, seems heavily compressed. Maybe hosting it on something like imgur would be helpful.

The images in the scopes were a bit better in real life, digiscoping with a Iphone didnt really do them justice.