Expert: Tom Hall - 2/12/2004

Question
Hello Tom,

Do you have any info or experience with the
"Yukon 25-100x100mm" scope?

It's priced just under $300.

I have a Nikon Coolpix 4500 and just starting
to look around for scopes.  I'd like to be able
to stay around the $400 price range but not sure
if there's anything of real value in this range.

I might be better off waiting and saving for a
"good" scope.

What do you think?

thanks,
Linda

Answer
Dear Linda,
I have not had any experience with the Yukon scope - I did find the web listing for it and viewed the specs but to be fair I have never looked at one. I will say you can get pretty good quality with the Nikon Sky & Earth series of spotting scopes. They make an 80mm version with a 20x-60x zoom eyepiece that can digiscope pretty well. If you don't want to handhold the camera behind the eyepiece you would need to use one of the clamp style adapters like the Lens Plus 28mm version- they run around $170. The straight thru 80mm Nikon scope can be had for $460 including the case and eyepiece.
To get into the better quality scopes, Bushnell will be marketing the old Bausch & Lomb Elite spotting scope series with ED glass ( sharper image than regular glass types ). They will again call the scopes the Elite series, just with the Bushnell logo instead of B&L. These will be out in spring and cost around $700 or so. The ED glass  types will definitely get you better images with the Nikon Coolpix cameras - I have the older 995 model myself and have had very good luck with images taken thru the Elite 80mm scope.
 Please fell free to e-mail any followups- I'm working thru a bad cold but should get to my mail every day or two!

Thanks- Tom Hall.