Spotting scopes

["michael hunter" <>]

        Having tried various scopes and eyepieces,  about five years ago I
settled on a Kowa with straight zoom eyepiece, essentially to watch waders
and for seawatches.
        The straight eyepiece lets you stand or sit looking with a straight
painless neck for hours, and I find it easier to pick up birds by pointing
the scope straight toward them, although the line of the eyepiece is
slightly offset to the line of the body of the Kowa.
         The big disadvantage is that looking at birds in trees sometimes
needs going down on bended knee, not necessary with an angled eyepiece.
          If I trade it in it would be on a new Swarovski with angled
eyepiece, have used them on birdtours and they are the bees knees, with the
added advantage that the lens of some of the Panasonic Lumix digital cameras
fits exactly into the Swarovski eyepiece for supersimple digiscoping.
                                                               Cheers

Michael