Re: Upgrading my spotter and need some opinions
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: coltar1</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Looking at a couple of used ones at the moment, but the main two I'm comparing are a 20-60x77 Leica (non-APO) and the older (light grayish)Swarovski 20-60x80 HD. Let me know your opinions of the two. I'm leaning towards the Swaro, but was wondering how it compares to the newer (green) ones as well.
Thanks in advance. </div></div>
The 77mm Leica Televid is an older, but still excellent scope. My experience with Swarovski 20-60X80mm HDs' is imited to the green rubber armored units, which have extreme clarity and color rendition. I don't care for the Swarovski's Helical Focus, but YMMV. If you're looking in the Swarovski HD range, you should definitely be looking at the [88mm] Kowa Prominar 883 ("Angled") or 884 ("Straight") scope. The 88mm Fluorite Lens Prominars are currently the Kings of image quality.
Lastly, if you want awesome image quality combined with a MIL-based reticle look at the <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">
Optolyth S80 ("Angled") HD Compact</span></span> or the G80 ("Straight") HD scope. Not only do the Optolyth Compacts have extreme clarity and wonderful color rendition, but Optolyth is the only manufacturer that I know of that offers WA MIL Eyepieces with ROTATING RETICLES. The reticles in the Optolyth 30X WA and 45X WA rotate 360 degrees independently of the Eyepiece Housing. This allows the observer to orient the reticle to be parallel with the horizon, or anyway they want to be to able to measure objects to range or call corrections regardless of the orientation of the spotting scope itself.
Non-rotating reticles work fine <span style="font-style: italic">if you always have the scope setup with the reticle at "12:00", but rotate the scope within it's Collar away from 12:00 and see what happens.</span> You can sort of "fake it" with a "straight" spotter by turning the spotter only in 90 degree increments, but forget in any other increments and with "angled" scopes.
<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">"Angled" spotter set-up with Eyepiece at 12:00. This is the only position an Eyepiece with a non-rotating reticle actually aligns the
reticle parallel with the horizon. A "straight" spotting scope can fake a parallel horizon if rotated in 90 degree increments only:</span></span>
<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">Gitzo GT1550T Traveller + RRS BH-30 LR and Optolyth S80 HD Compact w/30X WA MIL Reticle Eyepiece. Here the scope is set-up to
the Left of the shooter/spotter. The spotting scope has been rotated to the Right within it's Collar, while the Eyepiece's Reticle has
been rotated to the Left to remain "square" with the target area:</span></span>
<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">Gitzo GT1550T Traveller + RRS BH-30 LR and Optolyth S80 HD Compact w/30X WA MIL Reticle Eyepiece. Here the scope is set-up to
the Right of the shooter/spotter. The spotting scope has been rotated to the Left within it's Collar, while the Eyepiece's Reticle has
been rotated to the Right to remain "square" with the target area:</span></span>
Keith
