Binos and spotting scopes

[rotorhead]

I have got the go ahead, I need a spotting scope and a good set of binos. Here is the trick. I cant afford swars or lieca.
I have hear bad stuff about windriver by leupold so whats the best for the money that won't fog. To start I'm thinking about the Nikon xl spotter.

What are your ideas, Thanks
RH

[Buffalobob]

Some of it depends on what it is you intend to do with it.

I used the Kowa 820 with regular glass (not fluorite). With the 32WA I could see the tine of a spike deer at 1350 yds. I could count the points on a bull elk at some distance beyond 2500yds- perhaps as far as 3500 but I didn’t have a rangefinder to measure a distance that far. With the 82mm objective the scope gathers a lot of light for early morning and late evening. Under overcast conditions (not much mirage) I could easily see 6mm holes at 700 yds, perhaps I could have seen them to 1K on that kind of day.

For closer work I have a 22WA lens. Some people like the LER long eye relief lens.

Bad point is it is big and heavy. I used a full size backpack to carry it and the tripod as well as all of the other necessary gear. Cost with two lens will run abut $1,000 give or take some.

[lazylabs]

I have a 20-60x80 pentax scope and I think it's as clear as the swaro and better than lieca/zeiss. It's a super scope and goes for less than 700 on ebay.