Best Spotting scope

If you want to undertake extensive and demanding tours with your binoculars, you should equip yourself with a small, compact spotting scope. At first, 200 to 300 grams more or less may not sound like much. On an active excursion lasting six hours or longer, however, each additional gram will carry weight sooner or later – in the truest sense of the word. It is true that smaller binoculars are not quite as bright at dusk due to their smaller lens aperture. However, at such times one tends to be less often on the road. Compact binoculars (such as an 8×20 model) can usually be folded so that they fit easily into a trouser pocket and are always ready to hand.

For people who would like to observe nature or work as (hobby) ornithologists, we recommend spotting scopes with 8 to 10x magnification and a lens aperture with a diameter of at least 32 millimetres. What for? 1. An 8- to 10-fold magnification is important, because with a more detailed representation you can of course see bigger and therefore better.

2. The extensive lens aperture is needed because animals (especially birds) are mainly on the move early in the morning, when it gradually becomes light, and/or late in the evening, when it already dawns. In order to be able to observe the living beings nevertheless well, one needs an appropriate lens aperture. A 42 mm model is the best choice – as a good compromise in terms of spotting size and light intensity.

By the way, the color of the binoculars does not matter, since most animals only see black and white anyway.

Particularly compact and useful are monoculars through which the viewer looks with only one eye. Such utensils are ideal to complement a spotting scope or a very large pair of binoculars mounted on a tripod. Monoculars are also recommended for people who suffer from visual impairment in one eye. Some versions of this type of binoculars can even be used as triple to six-fold magnifiers at close range, which is often a quite useful side effect. But if you want to look far into the distance more often, it is advisable to purchase a binocular – for good reason: One-eyed vision is extremely difficult for most people.

For all those who like to hang around at night times, there are night binoculars or night glasses, as the corresponding models are often called. Night glass is a spotting scope with a high twilight index and/or high luminous intensity (about 7×50, 8×50 or 8×56). Even in critical lighting conditions, these binoculars can be used – and bring out good to very good results.

If you wear glasses, you should consider one thing in particular when buying binoculars: That the selected model is equipped with an exit pupil as far back as possible. In most cases, versions specially designed for spectacle wearers can be identified by the letter “B” as the type designation. Among other things, almost all binoculars made by Zeiss and Leica are ideal for people who regularly wear glasses. This means that the entire field of vision can be overlooked – without any shadows at the edges – even with the visual aid sitting on the nose.

Persons who like nautical trips are best advised to use a waterproof spotting scope with a built-in compass (e.g. for sailboat captains). In addition, the model should integrate a distance scale or even an infrared distance measurement. A higher binocular weight contributes to more stability when observing.