Nikon spotter XLII

[flims]

after having done a search which will somewhat equal the budget i had in mind, i decided on the nikon spotter. i had the option of going for a mid range spotting scope in the 2nd hand arena but i preferred to go for a new one. some spotting scopes are only used on ranges abroad and some are dragged around on hunting trips where they get to bounce off all sorts of things and some are plain too large for my likes. my 2 favourite where the US optics and the Leupold MK4 spotting scope but for the moment anyone of those will have to take a back seat for next year i guess.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327764938.jpg
back to the nikon. The nikon is a 16-48x60mm and i would say its most useable range is 16-30 where the picture is the sharpest. to get a good crisp picture at anything past 30x you will need to get yourself a KOWA or any of the upper end scopes like Swaros and Leica... and usually the best ones seem to come in a fixed Mag eyepiece as the one i had seen in Austria. those eyepieces alone will set you back about 600-900Euros
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327762754.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327762748.jpg

it comes neatly packed in a carrying bag which includes the factory tripod and another case which can stay on the spotting scope while in use. if you dont want to completely unzip it, you can place thick rubberbands around it just to keep everything from moving. the tripod is no bogen, however if you dont extend it to full height its sturdy enough. if you do extend it to full height its better to get the legs trapped by placing some light weight on them to keep strong wind from shaking the whole thing. it is not microadjustable as the professional camera tripod are, however with abit of fiddling you can get everything in picture and will only take a minute. the legs are collapsible in 3 sections and the central part will extend another 12 inches. I want to see if this tripod can be reversed so instead of placing the spotting scope on top, you place it under the tripod and you get the height using the extendable legs. i've seen in done on a couple of forums for field use and seems more stable indeed since the spotting scope is locked between the 3 legs and the center of gravity is low. the nikon tripod will extend high enough for you to sit on a chair and be able to have the spotter at eye level.

i placed some targets i had at home on a field not so far away from me and managed to see my 25caliber holes at 200meters on white plain paper no problem. i want to try at 250 and 300 to see what will happen. however one has to remember that over here in the mediterranean with the sort of temperatures we get, no spotting scope whatever the quality will never make it to spot holes on paper at past 300meters because the mirage will always barricade any proper vision. you will only see constant waves and the bigger the magnification, the more pronounced it becomes. if you look at it at mid day you might as well look at the sea, since around that time, its only waves of mirage.

performance: the magnification ring is somewhat stiff abit like that on my Falcon menace but i dont change magnification all the time after all this is a spotting scope not a rifle scope. the focus is smooth and quite fine for a scope of this kind. it does not have the ultrafine adjustment like some Leupolds which obviously are made that way to help the user finetune the focus to be able to pick up mirage for 'Wind reading'. Kowas are sinonimous for this as any high power rifle competition shooter can tell you.
i did take some photos, they are not the best photos of the actual image since i was holding the camera freehand close to the eyepiece not with some digiscoping kit!
here is an electricity pole with rust spots on it. this one stands at 150meters. you can pick them out easily and some are as small as 22caliber circles when the pellet hits the metal plate.
here are some bricks at 250meters. 20xmag by the way the white tank at the top of this picture is at 400meters. notice you can see a dent at the center of the tank.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327762749.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327762740.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327762752.jpg

a tvbox at 170meters
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327802171.jpg
here are some water tanks at 785meters( range courtesy of Leica laser range finder
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327762767.jpg
the ring at the front is for the mag and the one closer to the eyepiece is for focus.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327762750.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327762754.jpg

for all the nuts amongst us, this is where you will all retire, a view of the mental hospital at 16x, 40 and 48x. i might just see one of you waving at me in the morning or tell you which clothes you washed yesterday ;D range is about 900meters cant remember the exact number though.

[flims]

http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327762747.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327762745.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327762744.jpg

here is a view of a place around 3.3 kilometers away. I checked distance using Google Earth. in the process i also discovered why the other photos are bright at the center. the camera's brightness was at +0.7 from the other night.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327768453.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327768448.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../327768444.jpg

looking at that flag i would secong a wind guess of 12mile/hour wind
at 16x and also at 48x.