Vortex Scopes

[Jason.P]

Has any one used a Vortex Impact Angled 70mm or a Vortex Nomad Spotting Scope 60mm as i am unable to find comparisons.
How clear are they at 90m

[primal]

Hay Jason,

ihave use the impact at urban and after toying with it in the shop have decided to buy the missus (aka "i'll just boorow your scope honey") one.

they are crystal clear and have excellent zoom.

very impressive for the price and size

[apexrob]

I've been told the quality is excellent in there spotting scopes, similar to a lieca . Gecko Archery ( Gold Coast ) is the new appointed Sole Australian Distributor for Vortex Optics.

http://www.geckoarchery.com.au/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=26

[Jason.P]

i have use the impact at urban and after toying with it in the shop have decided to buy the missus one

That's where it is :(

How clear are they at 90m. As the design and cost are very different i was unsure of capability.

[Marcus]

Don't worry Jason, more on the way soon

[Jason.P]

Don't worry Jason, more on the way soon
Great

[Jason]

I just got the nomad 60mm angled spotting scope from marcus, i was shooting 90m with it yesterday and it was crystal clear. Deffinatly one of the best quality scopes ive used over the years. Very good value for money.

[Marcus]

Was shooting a Canberra today and at 60m I was having trouble telling my green Beiter nocks apart from Hannah's blue ones using an Alpen scope. With Erika's Skyline the difference was incredible. I even swapped back and forth and with the Vortex they were clearly different colous, but with the Alpen you could not tell.
Looks like I'll have to buy myself a Nomad. :lol:

[Eberbachl]

Was shooting a Canberra today and at 60m I was having trouble telling my green Beiter nocks apart from Hannah's blue ones using an Alpen scope. With Erika's Skyline the difference was incredible. I even swapped back and forth and with the Vortex they were clearly different colous, but with the Alpen you could not tell.
Looks like I'll have to buy myself a Nomad. :lol:

Damn it!

I just bought an Alpen too.

Now I have to blow more dough!

:rofl:

:D

[wareagle]

If Lieca don't stop stuffing me around, like they've been doing for the last two months, I might buy one myself.

[apexrob]

Has any one used a Vortex Impact Angled 70mm or a Vortex Nomad Spotting Scope 60mm as i am unable to find comparisons.
How clear are they at 90m

I picked up my Vortex Impact Angled 70mm today, very impressed so far. Only 10.5 inches in length yet it packs a punch. The clarity and zoom is outstanding, 90m is not a problem, I can read the easton graphics on the arrow from there.

It's water proof, 25 X 75 zoom and has nitrogen purged lenses.

I will road test this one for a month in all types of weather and conclude with a write up.

Retail price for the Vortex Impact Angled 70mm is $320 A.U.D. Great value for money.

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/1235/vorteximpactangled70frtch9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://www.vortexoptics.com/spotting_scopes/view/6

[CMB50]

Agreed, i was playing with this scope a couple of weeks ago at urban and the quality is excellent. :thumb:

[James Park]

I picked up my Vortex Impact Angled 70mm today, very impressed so far. Only 10.5 inches in length yet it packs a punch. The clarity and zoom is outstanding, 90m is not a problem, I can read the easton graphics on the arrow from there.

It's water proof, 25 X 75 zoom and has nitrogen purged lenses.

I will road test this one for a month in all types of weather and conclude with a write up.

Retail price for the Vortex Impact Angled 70mm is $320 A.U.D. Great value for money.

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/1235/vorteximpactangled70frtch9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://www.vortexoptics.com/spotting_scopes/view/6
That looks like a catadioptic telescope instead of a refracting telescope (because of the aluminized centre of the lens. That would also explain its short length. Is that correct, or am I seeing things?

My guess is that it is a Maksutov Cassegrain configuration (although the web site says nothing about the configuration). Optically, that is a good choice and could be expected to give excellent images. Aside from optical clarity, a key parameter to test is the eye relief (how far back from the eye piece you can have your eye and still see the whole field).

[2Dogs]

Noooo!....mortagage your house and buy a Leica :)

[James Park]

The Maksutov Cassegrain has this configuration:

[Marcus]

Yeah Jim you are correct in the configuration.

[apexrob]

Yeah I noticed that too James, though I didn't know for sure what the config was.

[James Park]

If it is a Maksutov Cassegrain then the main optical aberations will be off-axis coma and astigmatism. That is, as you get to the edge of the field the images can be expected to elongate radially. Because of the use of a thick meniscus lens at the front of the telescope it will have some on-axis chromatic abberation (the images will be slightly coloured).
Usually, to keep those abberations in check the focal length of the telescope is made quite long - that is: you usually do not get very low magnifications.
Usually, those abberations will only be noticable when you are looking at stars, and for terrestrial use the images can be expected to be very good.
This does, of course, also depend upon the quality of the eye piece, and there the designer has many choices, some much better than others. It is the eye piece that sets the eye relief, and that is especially important in ease of use of the telescope - it is quite annoying if the eye relief is small as you then need to get your eye just about on the eye piece to see the whole field of view.

Hence, so long as they have done a few things correctly, it should be a pretty nice telescope and work well. It is an inherently good configuration.

[James Park]

I should add that to get better performance than a Maksutov Cassegrain from a refracting telescope (just lenses) you need to go to a pretty fancy design (and hence it will be quite expensive).
An alternative catadioptic design is the Schmidt Cassegrain, and that can be expected to perform better than the Maksutov Cassegrain, but it will be more expensive because the front lens is a complex shape to manufacture.
Hence, overall, it is a very good choice of design and could be expected to be pretty good for our applications.

[James Park]

One thing you should test with this type of telescope:
The usual focussing mechanism is to move the main mirror back and forth. One imperfection that you can then get is that as the mirror is moved it can change its tilt slightly. That moves the image a little as you change focus. This can be pretty annoying when you are using a high magnification, so it is worth checking. So long as the mechanicals are well made it should only be a small effect.

[2Dogs]

sounds like a fantiastic scope for the price.

The important thing for me when getting a scope, was to be nitrogen purged so that it didn't fog in wet weather.

Even though I forked out the $$$$ on the Leica, one thing I noticed when using a scope for long distance (non archery) work is that heat haze has a big effect on image quality. Something I never accounted for when buying it.

[CMB50]

Even though I forked out the $$$$ on the Leica, one thing I noticed when using a scope for long distance (non archery) work is that heat haze has a big effect on image quality. Something I never accounted for when buying it.


Yep....thats a big problem here in Vic. :D

[Friar Tuck]

Eye relief 18 - 15mm :thumb:

Australian Vortex website coming soon...

[apexrob]

Eye relief 18 - 15mm :thumb:

Australian Vortex website coming soon...

yep, 15 mm-20mm just tried it then.

Had the scope setup towards my Bee Hives in the paddock today, 110 m away and could see them flyin around. i'm really impressed.

[James Park]

A typical Maksutov telescope will have a focal ratio of about 15. For an aperture of 70mm, that gives an effective focal ration of a bit more than 1 Metre. The magnification is then that 1M divided by the focal length of the eyepiece, which gives about 14-42 mm, which seems about right. That is consistent with the stated eye relief.
Probably the greatest contributor to performance degradation will be the eye piece. Usually any eye piece that allows for variable magnification has many design trade-offs that reduce its performance. That is why astronomers never use them - they always go for a fixed focal length eye piece and get much better results. However, you almost never see that for standard spotting scopes - I guess it does not have the marketing appeal, even though it would give very much better images.

[James Park]

I had a look at one today at the Monash tournament. Altogether pretty impressive (especially for the price).

[paulrb]

A typical Maksutov telescope will have a focal ratio of about 15. For an aperture of 70mm, that gives an effective focal ration of a bit more than 1 Metre. The magnification is then that 1M divided by the focal length of the eyepiece, which gives about 14-42 mm, which seems about right. That is consistent with the stated eye relief.
Probably the greatest contributor to performance degradation will be the eye piece. Usually any eye piece that allows for variable magnification has many design trade-offs that reduce its performance. That is why astronomers never use them - they always go for a fixed focal length eye piece and get much better results. However, you almost never see that for standard spotting scopes - I guess it does not have the marketing appeal, even though it would give very much better images.


Jim, do any spotting scopes that you know of accept proper eye-pieces? I have a number of Celestron and Vixen 1.25mm plossl eye-pieces for my telescope and would love to use them. Could even find a use for my barlow lens at 90m.

I have thought of buying a refractive telescope just for this very thing... but would rather use something made for short range use... My 8 inch reflector would be over-kill of the shooting line... not to mention the equatorial mount....

Any thoughts???

[James Park]

Jim, do any spotting scopes that you know of accept proper eye-pieces? I have a number of Celestron and Vixen 1.25mm plossl eye-pieces for my telescope and would love to use them. Could even find a use for my barlow lens at 90m.

I have thought of buying a refractive telescope just for this very thing... but would rather use something made for short range use...

Any thoughts???
No, I don't know of any that allow use of "proper" eyepieces. They inevitably come with variable magnification eyepieces, which is regretable. A single, fixed magnification would be much better quality and a larger field.
However, from my brief look at the Vortex scope, the eyepiece seems to be a reasonably one, and the eye relief is fine.

[patto10]

I recently bought a Vortex Impact scope from Marcus.For the price (i.e.$215) as compared to say a Bushnell at $300+ approx dollars I consider it to be of similar performance. I was using a Bushmaster which cost $99 and the
difference especially in colour clarity and brightness of the image was immediately apparent.
My Bushmaster was struggling to have enough detail to pick if you had a liner
or not, the Vortex no problem.Zooming and focusing are quick and smooth.
I have noticed that you need a good quality SOLID
tripod mount and wind buffetting is quite noticeable at high magnification
but I suppose this would be the case for most scopes.I have not used it past 70 mts at this point but it more than competent at this distance. With up to 75x magnification even at 70 mts have found around 35x adequate.

[OldDog]

Had a look through captain blings vortex today. While it isnt in the leica class its one hell of a good scope for the bucks. I would have to say its about the best bang for the buck for sure.

[James Park]

I think the Leica's have a larger aperture? Are they 90mm? That would certainly show up as a better image.

[Jason.P]

I've ordered a Vortex Impact Scope from urban archery.

Thanks for the help guys:thumb:

[stejac]

Mmmmm .... I shall stick to my Nikon 80A Spotting Scope ....

Just Brilliant! :thumb:

[Jason.P]

I took my Vortex Impact to the Club to check it out.
At 90mtrs you can clearly make line calls with ease, it was windy so having it set on 75x magnification made it a little jumpy but set on 50x was fine.
IMO for the price its great for archery. small compact, clear.:)

Thanks again Marcus :thumb: