Celestron Ultima 65 2.6"/65mm Spotting Scope Kit

Comments about Celestron Ultima 65 2.6"/65mm Spotting Scope Kit:

I bought this for my wife's backyard birding and she's delighted. Well-suited to the purpose in the 20-40 yard range without zooming. Eye relief isn't bad, but could be better. Decent for casual celestial browsing as well.

Comments about Celestron Ultima 65 2.6"/65mm Spotting Scope Kit:

I bought this Celestron 65 after first trying a generic Chinese 60mm spotting scope for shooting. I immediately return the junk product as the eye relief was so bad as to be unusable. An experienced competitor advised me to avoid 80mm spotting scopes as he found his too large and a bit cumbersome (albeit with great optics however).

This scope does the job. Nothing to particularly rave or rant about. Optic quality seems decent for the price but the eye relief is poor at anything about 18x. I try to leave it as close to 18x as possible when using at 100yards.

I compared this to a 50mm Bushnell at the range and expected this be quite a bit better but I found them similar. This is not an amazing product for the price but neither is it terrible. If you are looking for middle of the road like I was give it a try. Don't expect to wear glasses and zoom in however.

Comments about Celestron Ultima 65 2.6"/65mm Spotting Scope Kit:

The morning after I got this scope the (angled) Ultima 65 let me watch as a Great Blue Heron a half mile away stalked then speared with its bill and guzzled down a writhing fish. After dark, with Jupiter centered in the field of view @55X, the planet was very sharp with surface banding and four moons easy to see. This spotting scope is well made and has good optics (all Ultimas use BAK4 prisms). There is some pincushion distortion noticeable on straight lines and the inevitable false color at high magnifications. About 15-20% of the outer field of view at high mag. is a bit soft, but I did not find that any of these were so extreme as to interfere with the pleasure of using the 65. I highly recommend this scope for land use and nature study, but it also does well on the moon and brighter planets, and at 18X can be used for scanning the Milky Way. Smallish and light weight, there's no reason to leave this behind when you want to see the world outside up close. A sturdy tripod is necessary for the best viewing, but it can be used handheld at lower magnifications.

Comments about Celestron Ultima 65 2.6"/65mm Spotting Scope Kit:

This is my second scope. First one (another brand) was returned for having a horrible eye relief. This scope has decent eye relief and very good overall results and build quality is not cheap.

Comments about Celestron Ultima 65 2.6"/65mm Spotting Scope Kit:

I use this product as a spotting scope to view indoor pistol targets at a range of fifty feet; both for 22 and 45 calibers. I was very pleased with the edge to edge crispness of the scope and overall clarity. The range is poorly lit with fluorescent lighting and I could see a "period" on the score section at this distance. The overall build quality of the scope is very good and the lifetime warrantee encouraged me to "give it a try." My experience with this scope is limited to the above use. I intend to use it out doors to view wild life. Although not a compact scope the image for my use more than compensates for the slightly larger size.

Comments about Celestron Ultima 65 2.6"/65mm Spotting Scope Kit:

I bought it for use with my DSLR camera but the result is orrible. Inusable at low zoom and too much distorsion at hight zoom. Don't but it if your target is photo. Acceptable for spooting view.