Re: Curtis, Howard, Jerry, Randy, Rick

My opinions -- perhaps not fair -- are based upon the comparison between a
$299 non-HD-non-ED-non-anything-special Orion scope and a $1500 or
thereabouts (in 2002) Swarovski HD (= ED) scope. The "rest of the story" is
that when I returned the Orion scope to my friend and let him look through
my new Swarovski, he agreed that the Swaro was a lot better, but not $1100
better in his opinion. It just shows that we weigh these matters
differently.

I suggest that in your situation you want the best scope you can afford. If
you were just going to a local pond twice a year to look at the ducks, then,
sure, a cheap scope might be fine. You just live with its known
shortcomings and use the rest of your money for gas, better binoculars,
keeping your honey happy -- whatever. But if you're watching these eagles a
lot, for extended periods, and at high power with a zoom, you may start
cursing the fact that you pinched pennies.

Once or twice every winter we go to Lake Hemet to look at a pair of nesting
Bald Eagles on the far shore, in company with a USFS naturalist and some
other birders and just interested folks. The naturalist brings along a
scope and usually there's one or two other scopes. We're looking at the
highest powers we can muster with these scopes (the nest itself is hard to
see), and -- IMHO -- most of the scopes are terrible. Everybody comes over
to look through my Swarovski.

I've never looked through a Kowa scope, but they have a fine reputation, and
I'm sure you'd be happy with Kowa as a brand. Some of the 35 mm cameras
they made 40 years ago were a bit cheezy IMHO, but they've concentrated on
scopes (and a fine 2-1/4 square camera they used to make) and done a good
job, or so I often read. However, spotting scopes have short focal lengths,
which exaggerates the chromatic aberration inherent in any scope with a
lens. The effect is magnified -- literally -- at higher magnifications.
That's why the view through the cheap Orion scope was decent at 15x and
horrible at 45x. Therefore, if you anticipate doing much high-power
viewing, I'd go for their best glass. The extra $$ would be worth it. The
non-ED Kowa is probably a very good non-ED scope; but their ED scope is
going to be much better. There's no way around it.

As an aside, I know most Americans probably pronounce it "COW-ah," with the
first syllable sounding like a bovine. But in Japanese it would be a short,
evenly-stressed "koh-wah." It uses two standard Japanese syllables.

My scope is angled, which makes it easy for other people to look through it.
I'm accustomed to astronomical scopes where looking through a scope sideways
is no big deal, but, even so, I do find it a bit difficult at times to point
the Swaro correctly. All it has for a "finder" is a little sight tube,
which is a very nice piece of precision Austrian plastic, but which is still
not very helpful. When I bought this scope, I kept thinking about a time,
years ago, when we were looking at desert bighorn sheep high on a mountain
in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Someone had a military-style right-angle
scope pointed at the sheep, and I kept thinking that it would be exceedingly
uncomfortable to try viewing them through a straight-through scope. That
was the clincher for me when deciding angled or straight. I'm 63, and such
things are more important to me now than when I was 23.

My scope is 65 mm rather than 80 mm. I chose for less weight and closer
focus (useful for watching hummingbird feeders). Sometimes I've wondered if
I should have gone for the 80, for its brighter view in dim light, but I
have to say that the 65 has never failed me. 99.9% of the time, light is
good and it's been a non-issue.
--
Curtis Croulet
Temecula, California
33°27'59"N, 117°05'53"W


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