Trevor's Spotting Scope and Optics Review

I bought this scope because it is much lighter and portable than the Helios Fieldmaster A90R that I also use at the lakes for birdwatching, I no longer have to transport a big heavy scope around. The Viking also balances itself nicely on a lighter tripod. The list price of this scope is £1,000 pounds and the list price of the Fieldmaster A90R is £200 pounds. Is the Viking 5 times better? No, it is not, as the Fieldmaster is exceptional value for money and only loses out to the Viking above 35x magnification for chromatic aberration and resolution. But this is a moot point because the Viking is in a class of its own as far as the optics and usability are concerned. The Viking ED PRO is  almost as good as it can get from an optical point of view. There is no Chromatic or Spherical Aberration to speak of or any other distortions for that matter. The colours are  completely natural and bright and the images are completely flat right across the field of view. It is optically s...

 My wife and I went to the lakes at the bird reserve, we did not have a spotting scope with us. We met a bird watcher observing a Kestrel perched in a tree 200 metres away. The gentleman kindly gave us a look through his spotting scope. It was a Swarovski and  it was well used, it was obvious the the birder had been taking his scope into some rough country. The view of the Kestrel was almost perfect, the fine features of its feathers were really apparent and the colours were completely natural. What I liked about the scope was the focusing ring on the body of instrument and the fact that you did not really need to re-focus when you zoomed in. Also, there was a distinct lack of chromatic aberration or other distortions. The view was almost perfect across the field of view. My wife took a look through the scope and immediately said I want one.  She was really impressed with the performance. Later we looked through the scope at a Kingfisher at close range. The image was very...