I’m lucky enough to live on the Isle of Mull with views over open countryside, across the sound towards Morvern and Ardnamurchan. We have lots of wildlife on our doorstep, or on a clear night get great views of the moon and night sky. Been looking at getting at a spotting scope to keep and eye on the bird life and maybe what the neighbours are up to 5 miles away 😉. Looking at spotting scopes on Amazon and reading various reviews - not looking to spend £1,500+ that a birder on the local FB group suggested either - are the £160 jobs on Amazon any good, or are these false economy and maybe pay a bit more? It would also be nice to hook up a camera/phone. Most of the time it will be on a tripod in the lounge, but maybe tempted to go and stare at some 🦅 🦅.
This might be worth lokoing at - I have some Barr & stroud Sahara binoculars and while they're not as good a my more expensive glass, they're perfectly adequeate, especially for the price
https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/barr-stroud-sahara-20-60-x-80-spotting-scope.html
phone adapter is about £20
I have a similar level opticron scope, as before it's nowhere near as good as even the £500 RSPB scopes, much less the £1500 swarovskis, but it provides a reasonable image when at the 20x magnification - if you use the zoom then you do see darkening and fringing in the image.
I'd definitely go name brand from an indepenedent retailer rather than the "svbony" or "gosky" ones I'm seeing on Amazon though
I bought one of these to supplement some old binoculars. Turned out to be way to powerful for what we really needed i.e. watching kites/buzzards and the odd dolphin if we travel. It was so powerful you could see a pimple on a flies bum a mile away but... Very narrow depth of field and the slightest movement and you lost what you were looking at so no good for following a moving bird or whatever. Wex were fine so they got returned and refunded.
May well be what you need but thought I'd mention it.
https://www.wexphotovideo.com/hawke-vantage-24-72x70-spotting-scope-1575526/
Please do not buy some Chinese shite from Amazon.
Great call on Opticron, UK company using Japanese optics (at least they used to)
I had an Opticron scope which was pretty good albeit a bit heavy. I’ve upgraded to a Swarovski ATS 65 which is light but way out of budget for you.
A used Opticron or RSPB job would be my choice.
I may have a good scope & bino combination but I’ve never seen a bloody sea eagle!
Dammit. I was going to recommend Vortex optics as my small rangefinder monocular has really good optics, but they fall into the "pricey" category.
My missus has a celestron trail seeker that she loves.
Don't know quite how much. Same way she doesn't quite know how much my bikes are
