Snow geese at Pulborough: and which scope is best?

[Anty Patty]

There are two snow geese at Pulborough Brooks RSPB, confirmed siting by staff. I saw them yesterday, apparently they flewn in about three weeks ago with some Canadas. Bit of a treat

Which scope in your opinion is best:
Nikon RA 111 WP A 65 with 30x eyepiece OR
Opticron GS 665 GA /45 with 30x eyepiece

I am on a tight budget no more than £500 for lot and case inc. would be nice

I was encouraged to go for Nikon - they said lenses were better in Nikon. Having looked around a bit the Nikon seems more elusive to find on the web. I want the scope to replace a cheap Adler Activ 80 with a fixed 15-45 zoom eye piece which has a small diameter lense - I need a large diameter eye piece as I wear specs. I find the 45x end of the zoom greys alot and I can see eye floaters! There is some colour aberation. I have been told that all high magnification lenses do this - what is the point of making them if they grey alot! (Maybe the high end scopes Leica, Swarovski etc don't do this!? unfortunately quite out of reach for my pocket though!)
I have Audubon bins 8 x 42 which have lovely big eye end lenses, but want the extra magnifaction for when I go to Pagham harbour esp, when the tide is right out. The Adler did pick up a ringed plover a long way out - but the small eyepiece lense is hard to use. Your thoughts please......

[aeshna5]

The Snow Geese are most likely to be feral rather than truly wild birds- especially arriving with Canadas. There are a few feral flocks scattered around now. Most genuine wild birds- usually with a good carrier species such as Pinkfeet, Greenland Whitefront or Barnacle- will be returning north now.

Still attractive birds to see though!

[astarsdad]

Hi,
Do you realise that the rubber surrounding the eyepiece folds down to give a flat surface, specifically for viewing with glasses on?
Greying image....The image you see is transmitted through the lens via prisms in the shank to a mirror. The image is delivered to the mirror at a fixed magnification (8, 10, 20, etc.). When you 'zoom' you are actually magnifying the image on the mirror. In much the same way that you loose clarity when increasing the size of a computerised image (you are actually increasing the size of the pixels contained in the picture), you are increasing the size of a given magnification or 'picture'
Terry

[solus]

Originally Posted by Anty Patty

Which scope in your opinion is best:

Your best bet might be to visit one of the RSPB Reserves shops or one of the In Focus shops near you or the open days they hold regularly at a nature reserve (all listed on their website) where you can try out various 'scopes, lenses etc. in "field" conditions and find what suits you best.

[Anty Patty]

Thanks for advice re scopes - I do know about folding or twisting down eyepieces when wearing glasses - it does make a huge difference. I have tried RSPB for comparing they didn't have both Nikon & Opticron. If any one else has any views would be very much appreciated - I will keep looking and trying out until I find the one that suits me and my pocket best.

Are there any old threads about scopes?

Thanks again for taking time to respond