When we tested the Tele Vue Ranger with a 90° diagonal, the scope earned one of the highest resolution scores of any scope we tested. It made a bright, beautiful … image, even in dim light.

A GREEN-BACKED heron probed an estuary's muddy bank, and I saw details [with the Ranger] absent from my recollection of countless other telescopic views -- pronounced light edgings to feathers on its sun- scorched back, faint gray streaking on its deeply shadowed belly, a tiny white crescent behind the eye. That's amazing detail on a 45-centimeter bird seen at a distance of 200 meters (the critter subtended 8'). I could even spot "field marks" on fiddler crabs scurrying in terror as this predator charged.

Ranger is just the right size and weight to use as a travel telescope for astronomy, wildlife, or sports.

The Ranger also has one of the most intelligently designed field cases I have ever had the pleasure to use. And the optical performance is nothing short of amazing. Whenever I have it in the field I get a line behind the scope-a line of people who want to see what the bird actually looks like.

Take out a dollar bill and examine the back side. Look at the great seal (the one with the pyramid). With a good magnifying glass, or a 30x pocket microscope, you might be able to see that there is detail in the sky right down to the horizon...that is not empty space there where it is lightest...there are some tiny dots of ink in the last row. If you can believe it, you can see those dots at 60 feet and 60x with the Ranger. To see them with the Nikon Fieldscope 78ED at its highest power of 56x, you have to move in to 50 feet. There is no doubt in my mind that the Ranger will provide significantly more detail than the best of the conventional spotting scopes, under any field condition, and that as distances and powers increase the Ranger's advantage will become increasingly obvious. This scope provides the best high power view you can get in an easily transportable, relatively durable, field-worthy package.

The tour leader spots a raptor in a tree ¼-mile away, puts his scope on it and shouts 'it's a Snowy Owl.' The group set up everything possible…Oos and ahs..Snowy Owl. I put the Ranger on it. "You know," I say, "there must be another raptor in that tree.' The tour leaders looks. Ouch! His Snowy is a Red-tailed Hawk with its head behind a branch, clearly visible at 20x in a Ranger. Everybody lines up behind the Ranger to see how they could have made such a mistake. People are simply amazed that a view can be that good.

Awesome for birding!

Excellent resolution for birdspotting.

Fabulous -- what else can I say!

The Ranger has surpassed my expectations. It is a fine scope.

Best reputation in price range for birdwatching.

It's amazing to me you didn't target the birding market more -- it's VAST -- and people only know to buy "K" or "S" -- the Ranger is comparable in quality and is a much better value.

Startling clarity.

Very satisfied -- excellent for night sky and day birding. I love it!!!

Better scope, less money than 'N' & 'K'. Good clarity. So far, I like it.

I feel it will do well in the birding arena competing against the very best. I love it.

Dear Mr. Nagler,
I want to write you to tell you how amazed I am with the Ranger I recently purchased. I was looking for a spotting scope to use for shore bird watching. After reading the reviews from 'Better View Desired', I knew I wanted the Ranger. This instrument is simply outstanding! I haven't' had much opportunity to use it for my original purpose yet, but I have turned it towards the heavens many times. My wife (who is now as excited about the Ranger as me) and I have watched Jupiter and Saturn many times and are still overwhelmed by the sharp images of both. The image through the Nagler 7mm eyepiece is stunning. Last night I viewed the Pleiades with my new Panoptic 15mm eyepiece. Breathtaking! Thank you for making such fantastic optics.

For astronomy, birding, photography, I chose Tele Vue because of the quality. I am very pleased.

I wanted a scope that was a blend of the virtues of spotting scopes & telescopes. This scope is worthy of a gold-plated edition!

Why did I wait so long? A companion commented on ducks 1/2 mile out on a pond. 'It's like looking at a portrait of the bird!' Startling colors and marking details.

First light (birdwatching) sharp as a tack!

The scope for birding is "far" superior to any spotting scope I have seen. I'm ecstatic. Thanks for designing it.

The best for stargazing & birdwatching. Thank you for making such a fine product.

At 10 yards, the view is exactly like using a 4X magnifier at less than an inch. In the field, with a 20X eyepiece at anything under 50 yards, you still get more feather detail than you could see with the naked eye, even if you had the bird in your hand. At 64-power I was able to see every plumage marking, every feather of a female merlin at close to a half-mile across open water and fields. In direct field comparison, the more difficult the situation -- long distance, poor light, heavy contrast, whatever -- the more clearly the Pronto excelled. Every birder that looked through it was simply, and vocally, amazed. Typical comment: "I wish we had this scope here last weekend when we were trying to id that Glossy Ibis!" or, with the addition of the wide field Panoptic eyepiece "What a scope for breeding bird surveys!" In bench tests, the Pronto scores just slightly above any of the other scopes, but in the field the difference is marked enough so that your immediate impression is: "Oh, so that's what the view through a scope is supposed to look like!"

If the optimum view is your main interest, you may never be satisfied with a "standard" spotting scope again!

The "Pronto" is extraordinarily versatile; astronomy, birding, panoramic observing, photography and more are within its grasp.

I bought it for astronomy, but my wife keeps borrowing it for birdwatching.

A very impressive accomplishment, and a fine birding scope for those who dare to be different...and who are dedicated to the best view of the bird possible.

A 'Better View Desired' Reference Standard: "Products so outstanding that they set the performance standard for their class."

The Tele Vue 85 goes beyond need. The 85 shows, at any distance and any power, right out to the limits of daylight viewing, all the detail, I am convinced, that there is to see. In direct comparison with the finest scopes on the market, the Tele Vue 85 consistently shows a brighter, more subtly detailed, image of the bird. You can see things in the Tele Vue's image that just aren't there in the Pentax 80 mm or the Nikon Fieldscope. You can see things in the 85's image that aren't there in the Ranger. In the testing situation pictured above on the Kennebunk Plains, the detail was especially evident in the breast feathers of the hawk. All of the scopes clearly showed the feather pattern of the breast. The 85 showed individual feathers. At closer range, the 85 is the equivalent of a long range microscope, showing more detail than you could possibly see with the naked eye, even at 25x.

One of the things that impressed us most was the scope's whopping field of view at high power. In fact, at 60x … the Tele Vue 85 has a field of view as wide as that of most other scopes when they're used at low power. And, the 25x-75x zoom provided a bright, crisp image all the way up to full magnification.

The scope [Tele Vue 85] really proved its value last fall at the Montezuma Muckrace - an annual birding competition and conservation fundraiser held each year at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge - where it was used to scan shorebirds on a massive mudflat. The clarity and brightness of the scope made it possible to make accurate bird identifications at staggering distances. By changing eyepieces, this scope was dead sharp at all powers, surpassing the image quality of any other scope.

[U]sing the equivalent of a 25x-75x zoom lens, the Tele Vue 85 attained an almost unimaginable level of brightness and edge-to-edge sharpness. As the day became more and more overcast and dusk was approaching, the Tele Vue provided a significantly superior image at 75x than either the Swarovski or Leica could muster at 60x.

[T]he Tele Vue took me for one of the best birding rides of my life. Scanning across the lake at 75x, I spotted a whitish speck in the distant heat waves that I thought might be a loon. I then inserted a 2x Barlow lens between the zoom eyepiece and the scope, doubling its magnification to an incredible 150x. I could then clearly make out the face pattern and upturned bill of a Red-Throated Loon. This local rarity was not even visible through my 10x binoculars.

The clarity of the image for terrestrial applications is stunning. I can't wait to use the scope at our local bird sanctuary.

Far superior picture to anything else we looked at. Ideal instrument for stargazing & birding from our beach house. Looking forward to many years of exciting viewing.