Celestron Regal 65 F-ED Spotting Scope
-
Jason
- Uber Master Poster
- Posts: 3002
- Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:36 pm
- Location: Snohomish, WA
Celestron Regal 65 F-ED Spotting Scope
I've been wanting a better spotting scope, but have been scared away by the price tags on the Kowa, Swarovski, and Leica scopes that I've looked at. I knew that I wanted ED glass, but spending $850+ was hard to justify for something that is only used in decent light at targets that I already know the location of. When I ran across reviews of a cheaper option at the high-end birding optics sights, I was very skeptical. According to those reviews, though, the Celestron Regal line with the fluorite lenses were all that and a bag of chips, especially for their quoted price of $500. Here's an example of one of those reviews.
http://www.optics4birding.com/celestron ... eview.aspx
After reading more and more reviews from birders, as well as long-range shooters that are flocking to them, I started looking around. I happened across one listed as new in the box on Craigslist today for $320, so I grabbed it with the idea that I could easily get back my money and then some on eBay. After using it a bit, there's no way I'm selling this thing. It's amazingly good compared to the two other $250 to $350 spotting scopes that I have. I'll hopefully get to compare it directly to upper end Kowa glass at the next highpower match at Pe Ell on the first weekend in April. It even came with an adapter for attaching a camera. The only weakness that I see is that the padded case isn't designed to stay on it during use like I have seen some other cases do. My wife says that it won't be much of a challenge for her to make one that will do that if she can see one to copy, and I think I know of one other brand cover that will work just fine with this scope.
For now, though, I'm shocked that a spotting scope this good can be had for such a low price compared to the other brands with flourite-coated ED lenses. My $320 deal was luck, but I've seen them for sale for $370 or so lots of times over the last few months.
http://www.optics4birding.com/celestron ... eview.aspx
After reading more and more reviews from birders, as well as long-range shooters that are flocking to them, I started looking around. I happened across one listed as new in the box on Craigslist today for $320, so I grabbed it with the idea that I could easily get back my money and then some on eBay. After using it a bit, there's no way I'm selling this thing. It's amazingly good compared to the two other $250 to $350 spotting scopes that I have. I'll hopefully get to compare it directly to upper end Kowa glass at the next highpower match at Pe Ell on the first weekend in April. It even came with an adapter for attaching a camera. The only weakness that I see is that the padded case isn't designed to stay on it during use like I have seen some other cases do. My wife says that it won't be much of a challenge for her to make one that will do that if she can see one to copy, and I think I know of one other brand cover that will work just fine with this scope.
For now, though, I'm shocked that a spotting scope this good can be had for such a low price compared to the other brands with flourite-coated ED lenses. My $320 deal was luck, but I've seen them for sale for $370 or so lots of times over the last few months.