ix264@sdcc6.UUCP (ix264) (11/27/84)
One place people interested in buying both spotting scopes
and binoculars should know about is an outfit called Birding,
P.O. Box 5-E, Amsterdam, NY 12010. Send a stamp for their price
list and literature. I myself have never done business with them,
but my professional birding friends use them as the standard
reference for prices on optics. Their prices are *much* lower
than others I've seen. They advertise regularly in Audubon,
American Birds, etc.
There are several things to be thought about in buying a
scope. Optical quality is obvious: a poor scope, even if it
boasts high magnification and a large aperture, may lack
definition and be worse for viewing distant birds than a good
pair of binoculars. Ruggedness is perhaps less obvious but is
very important. You may not think about it because you are used
to binoculars which hang around your neck, but it is amazing
what sorts of things happen to a free-standing spotting scope.
Although I am pretty careful with mine, it has been dropped
out of a car door, been kicked over by my wife, and fallen into
Lake Superior when its tripod sank into the sand as I was
discoursing on sandpiper plumages. Accidents like these can,
of course, destroy even a well-made optical instrument; but the
sturdier your scope the better your chances when these things
happen. Depending on what you plan to use a scope for, field of
view may be crucial. It is hard to compare the numbers
different manufacturers use (what's better, 1.02 degrees or 97
feet at 1000 yards?), but it is worth the effort if you plan to
use a scope to track distant gulls in flight. Nothing is worse
than struggling in vain to find a moving bird in a tiny field of
view while your friends get ecstatic about how rare it is. Of
course, if the only use you plan to put a scope to is viewing
stationary flocks of shorebirds, this may not be so important.
Zoom lenses can be nice, but sometimes come with a cost of lower
image quality.
Also, don't skimp on a tripod. A good tripod will cost
money and will be heavy to lug around, but at high magnifications
you need a very steady mount. This is especially true in wind,
which often accompanies shorebirds. My own tripod was
unfortunately chosen with weight and cost as considerations,
with the result that my scope verges on useless in the windy
conditions we often have here.
Finally, talk to friends and look at scopes before you buy.
It's a bad idea to commit yourself to spending hours looking
through an instrument you haven't used.
For my uses, the best scope I've seen may be one a friend
of mine owns, which is made by Nikon. It has a fixed
magnification of (I believe) 25, which is relatively low.
Its image quality, brightness and field of view are such that
more detail is often visible through it than through my own 55
power Celestron, however. The Celestron was, I think, a bad
choice. Higher magnifications also are much more affected by
heat waves rising from mudflats, which are always present unless
you do all your birding at dawn.
Does anyone read this newsgroup who sees any birds to
tell us about? I miss the migration in the Midwest, and would
be happy to have someone tell me what's happening there now,
even if it's all Swamp Sparrows and Common Grackles. It's not
fall without those guys, you know.
____________________________________
"So what sparrow goes Zeeeee-zit-zit-zit?
Tim McLarnan, ..sdcc6!ix264