I'm about to pick up some optics. I would appreciate any opinions on spotting scopes and rangefinders.

Spotting scope: Can't really afford over $800-1000. There are alot of "mid-range" scopes in the $400-800 range. Anybody have any experience with these?

Rangefinder: Probably a 500 or 800 yard model. Prices are pretty homogenous, it seems. Any brands that you can recommend?

Thanks.

Pentax 80MM spotter in the "large" class...do a search on the Optics forum..You'll be pushing your budget but it'll be worth it! Check prices at Cameraland....I don't know if your looking for a "portable" spotter....like in the 60-65MM range. Nikon Field III comes to mind...don't know the price though.

...go to:

www.betterviewdesired.com

Pentax is reviewed at:

http://www.betterviewdesired.com/Pentax/index.html

Rangefinder=Leica...period....

What do you want the spotting scope for? There are smaller ones for hunting and bigger ones for just spotting and really fancy ones for hard to see stuff.

If it's an upscale range spotter your after there was a lot of excitement a month ago at 24hourcampfire.com over some refurbished Zeiss spotters. They were about $850 to start and went up to $950 later. The consensis was that that was about as good as it gets.

I have a new Leupold Sequoia 15X-45X angle. It's just fair and adequate for my 200 yd range. The Bushnell Spacemaster was always a good value. The long range shooters here all use Kowa's.

On laser rangefinders the Leica 1200 Scan was the state of the art last year. I have one and can recommend it and wish I had got one earlier. Maybe there is something less expensive now that's adequate.

When you start throwing names like Zeiss and Leica around the money goes fast.