Trying to decide which style spotting scope to purchase. Sinclair only carries angle body in the Nikon. Cabelas only carries straight. I will be using the scope for range work and hunting.

Any Suggestions or preferences?

chronic

www.cameralandny.com is the first suggestion.

Second suggestion is to look at the Minox spotters - superb optics at a great price.

Third suggestion is to check Camera Land's demo list.

Doug at Cameraland knows his stuff - and he's a big supporter here at ARF, 24hour CF, and other sites. It's a good place to do business with.

As to straight vs. angled? If all you do is benchrest or view stars then angled is better. If you sit and scope land for hours, straight works better. Straight is easier to site. Angled is better off the bench. Straight works better off a car window mount.

It's all about compromise. I went straight and while it's marginally inconvenient at the range, it excels in the other places I use it.

It's all compromise.

The issues with straight body scopes is that they sway in the breeze. Just like a long sight radius, any motion is magnified in a longer scope body.

I have a Baush Lomb straight body, 14x to 60x. It works fine. I've used it for birds and spotting whales, ships . . . But it's not as stable as an offset design.

straight bodies also are easier to use in the field. looking up or down a hill with an angled scope gets uncomfortable very quickly.

i just could never get used to the angled body. they were handy in hi power comp., but otherwise it was weird to look someplace other than at what you wanted to see

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
i just could never get used to the angled body. they were handy in hi power comp., but otherwise it was weird to look someplace other than at what you wanted to see

Never thought about that much. But I do sight over the top of my scope to find objects.

Never owned an angle body spotter for many years. My newest spotter has an angled eye piece, and I love it, for bench shooting.
If I wanted a spotter to use in the field for hunting, I'd go with a straight eye piece.

YMMV

quote:

Originally posted by DMB:
Never owned an angle body spotter for many years. My newest spotter has an angled eye piece, and I love it, for bench shooting.
If I wanted a spotter to use in the field for hunting, I'd go with a straight eye piece.

YMMV

+1!

Went on a 3-week elk trip back in 08. My spotter has a strait eye peice. My friends had a angle. We switched for a morning. He did not want to switch back and I could not wait to.
I much prefer a strait eye peice especially for a hunting application. I had mine for over 12yrs and never used a angle type before. He had his for about 3yrs and also never used any other type eye peice. He has since sold his W/the angle and bought a spotter with a strait eye peice.

If you plan on spending endless hours looking, strait IMHO is the ONLY way to go.
See if you can try both and see what you like.

Just a vote for the other side of the discussion: once you become accustomed to the angled eyepiece, it's hard to find a situation where it doesn't offer significant benefits. It can be mounted much lower, allowing you to have a natural neck angle rather than straining to look straight through a scope mounted on a too-short tripod. Keeping the tripod shorter reduces the effects of wind or vibration on your sight picture. If intervening brush or obstructions require a higher viewpoint, angled scopes can be rotated 90 or 180 degrees, so that you can look sideways or even upwards as circumstances dictate, making them preferable for uphill/downhill or window mounts. This rotation feature also makes them perfect for two or more people of different heights to share the scope without readjusting the height each time...the taller can look down, and the scope can be instantly rotated sideways for the shorter person to use without disturbing focus or alignment. They are, as others have stated, much better for bench shooting.

The only catch is that it takes some practice to become proficient in finding your object of interest in an angle scope, as it is not as intuitive to use as a straight one. Some scopes have open rifle-type sights, or even a peep sight, to assist in rapid target acquisition. Even without this assistance, it doesn't take long for this to become second nature.

Good luck with whatever choice you make.