4.3.2014

I had both of these spotting scopes side by side for comparison. My results are as follows.Design: I'll state the obvious first since you can see most of this from photos of the two spotting scopes. Both scopes have a kind of rubber like exterior with the Vortex being a little "tacky" feeling and the Celestron being a little smooth. Both have rotating rings and a foot for attachment to a tripod. The Celestron fit my tripod adapter, the Vortex did not. Different sizes so beware. Objective cover for the Vortex is soft rubber push on, the Celestron has a solid plastic two clip cover like on most SLR lenses. The eyepiece cover for the Vortex covers the eye cup and the Celestron covers the entire eyepiece down to the scope body and is made of metal and is screwed on to the scope body.Both have sliding sun shades. Biggest difference externally is the picatinny rail on the Vortex. Celestron does not have one. The rail is for mounting a very small "scope" for finding object quickly. Really nice idea. The "slow" and "fast" focusing is on the top right on the Celestron and directly on top on the Vortex. I liked the Vortex on top, my son liked the Celestron focus. So, each to his own. Both have rotating eye cups.Optics: Well, they were virtually tied in quality of optics as far as I can tell. Note that the Vortex costs about 150 more than the Celestron. One difference in operation of the scope was the eyecup and eye relief. When you put your eye up to the Vortex and touch the eyecup edge with your nose for example you see a darkening around the edge of the image. If you pull your eye away from the eyecup it will fill and be ok. The Celestron view is perfect the minute you put your eye to the eyepiece. I noticed I had to search around a little to find the best view with the Vortex, but the Celestron was much more forgiving of having my eye out of direct line or at the right distance. Image acquisition was much faster with the Celestron. Eye glass wearers would not have an issue with either of them. Incidentally the Celestron advertises the use of a groove in the sun shade to help find an object faster. It is totally useless in the 65 mm scope. You can't find any place to look down the groove, the body of the scope is in the way. Maybe you can in their larger objective lens scopes. Also, the Vortex zoom is 15-45 and the Celestron is 16-48. No real world practical difference.Conclusion: I ended up keeping the Celstron 65. There were things I liked about them both but what did it for me was the image acquisition speed in the Celestron and forgiveness of eye placement. Eye piece cover was also nicer, more secure on the Celestron. As I mentioned, they were pretty much identical as far as image quality. The focus and zoom operation seemed to be just a bit nicer quality on the Celestron also. I liked the picatinny rail on the Vortex. A nice design. I may try to put one on the Celestron.By the way, it would be nice if the mounting ring shoe was reversed on the Celeston scope since most of the scope weight is behind the mount. My guess is that the 80 and 100 mm scopes balance pretty well with the shoe mounted this way, but the 65 is shorter and lighter on the front end making it balance differently. It is back end heavy. I contacted Celestron a few days ago about reversing the ring and they said it was not possible.

19.11.2014

This Celestron Regal M2 LER 27x80 ED Spotting Scope is a rifleman's dream and would be a great choice for anyone who wears glasses while spotting. The eye relief is 32mm which means I can look at targets comfortably with my prescription safety glasses on, and without jostling the scope. It's important to note that the eyepiece comes with a long rubber eyecup installed which isn't glasses friendly, however included in the box is a very short alternate rubber eyecup for wearers of glasses that goes on and protects the lens of your glasses from scratching on metal. That's the ticket. The longer installed eyecup is meant for when not wearing glasses.Being a photographer I thought seriously of buying an adapter to allow me to use my Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L lens as a spotting scope,but I'm glad I didn't because although that's fine glass, it wouldn't have had the eye relief and it weighs a ton. This scope, although big, is quite light due to the magnesium body. I've read that it's a full pound lighter than the previous version due to changing from aluminum alloy to magnesium.I also have a Barska 20-60x60 scope so that my nephew and I can watch each other shoot and make derisive remarks regarding marksmanship, and that's a fine scope for the money, but here's what you get for the higher price of this scope.- Rotating mount. This is useful if you want to have your eyepiece at an angle just to the left of your rifle. Makes it so you barely have to move your head to see how you're doing on the target. This also allows you to use a medium tripod with the vertical tube inserted upside down so that you can hang it underneath and get it right down on a high shooting bench. I use a Sinclair bench clamp with this which works great at my range, but it's nice to have options.- ED glass. Minimized vignetting and virtually no chromatic aberration distortion. Crisp and clear all the way with no crazy prismatic colors messing up your view. Outstanding light collection in dark-ish conditions to boot.- Excellent focus control. One knob for big changes and another for fine adjustment. The fine adjustment knob is easy to turn with just a fingertip on the fly without displacing the scope.- With this particular model made for shooters, you get a very nice zipper case which can be left on at all times. It has a zippered relief hole for mounting and can be peeled away at both ends, then the peeled parts can be velcroed out of the way. Smart design.- This will vary from user to user, but I can easily see 30-06 holes on paper at 200 yards with my middle-aged vision, which is iffy even with glasses, but even worse using the Barska. Dialing in more magnification with the Barska doesn't help because it's more a function of clarity, which suffers greatly on inexpensive scopes at high magnification. My nephew does better with the Barska than I do, but he's got younger eyeballs.It was a friend's far more expensive Kowa ED glass spotting scope with an LER eyepiece that got me wondering if I could do well on my budget, so I took a chance and I think I did fine. I haven't done a side-by-side A/B comparison, but I'm sure this scope will compare well.

7.8.2013

I received the scope today and immediately set it up. I liked that the eyepiece had a really nice eyepiece cover made out of a solid metal. Probably brass or something. I then put on a tripod and started focusing on objects in the distance. I used the sighting line on the lens shade to help site in. I found this easier than other spotting scopes I have used. Others have a tiny sighting scope that just seems to make the scope bulkier. I have a Nikon spotting scope and the spotter is plastic. Once I felt I was lined up I was able to use the course focus adjustment to focus on the objects. Once this was set the fine adjustment really brought in the object crisp and clear. The focus adjustments were easy to use,

26.10.2020

The Celestron range of scopes are outstanding in both value for money and quality?I'm a bird watcher and spent a lot of my free time sea watching,i've had the Celestron M2 Regal 80ED for just over 3 years,and was very happy with it.I decided to up grade to the 100ED,as I wanted more light/brighter images in poor weather conditions.On the 27th August 2020 I ordered the Celestron Regal M2 100ED scope from Amazon,I was more than happy with the scope.Its a little longer than the 80ED and because of that you get a little more magnificent from the eye piece.Ive used this scope most days when I'm not at work as a Support Worker,and it was not until last week I spotted a area of condensation about the

22.9.2013

I am an avid birder and have been looking for a scope for a few years now. I finally decided to look through some scopes and do my due diligence on finding a great scope at a great price. This was not an easy task. Fortunately for me I live close to Cape May point where many birders come from all over the world. This enabled me to talk to many people about their scopes and actually look through many of them, which if you have been looking for a scope you know this is not an easy thing to do. Most stores are limited in what they sell. The hawk watch is sponsored by Swarovski so this enabled be to look through the top of the line scopes of the birding world. They were very nice,

11.10.2020

Despite some initial serious difficulties with the receipt of a completely internally broken telescope and unacceptably difficult initial warranty problems, the company's warranty manager finally and wisely over rode a profoundly, ugh, ... , much less than intelligent, service agent and, at long last, sent a valid, properly working replacement. The Chinese made, apparently zero or near zero quality control and final inspection department was entirely absent, at least initially. The final, personally inspected here in America by American personnel resulted in the diligently fought for superb for anything near it's cost spotting scope. Please note, as I am an Electro-Optics / Plasma Physicist,

15.10.2020

First, I would like to highlight the quality of the image delivered by the ED lenses. I did an image comparison with a Celestron Skymaster 15x70 binocular and the image is much sharper and the colors are much more natural. No chromatic aberration can be perceived, and the focus is very precise. Definitely it is worth the money if you are pursuing image quality.The telescope is highly portable, fits in your backpack, and can be deployed very quickly. For astronomical use, by using separate 1.25" eyepieces the 65 ED can give you a very bright image with a 40mm eyepiece (10X, 6.8 mm exit pupil), or high power with a 4mm eyepiece (96X). 96X is the maximum usable magnification in this case.

17.11.2013

Summary: If you're on the fence, and at the time of reading this review the price is still $729, buy it before the price goes back up or the product becomes discontinued.I researched for "the best" spotting scope for under $1000 two years ago and the Regal M2 100ED remains the highest regarded in the birding, casual astronomy, and shooting/hunting circles. But at $850, the price was still a little steep for me, so I held out.Two years later in early October 2013 Celestron released a rebate, dropping the price on the Regal line. The 100ED became $729, then $723. I couldn't pass up this discount since the 100ED price does not move up/down like other products. All other stores will honor the $729 price since it's set by Celestron.

8.3.2017

Purchased for spotting rifle targets up to 300 meters and limited digiscoping.Fit and finish are excellent. All controls work smoothly and positively. No chromatic aberration seen during day, desert conditions. Lens cover and eyepiece cover feel robust and attach firmly to the scope to protect the glass. Can see individual leaves on trees over 400 yards away at 60x with no apparent image degradation. Some folks reported problems with the nylon storage bag; however, mine fits perfectly.My only minor gripe is that the zoom function on the eyepiece twists counterclockwise (left relative to the user) to increase, which is counter-intuitive to me. All my other zoom riflescopes and binos twist right/clockwise to increase magnification.

27.2.2015

I purchased the Regal M2 100ED as a quick grab scope for astronomy. I have thoroughly evaluated the sharpness of images at 22-67x and have found that the sharpness is exceptionally well. One of the main reasons that I opted for the Regal over the Ultima was the 1.25" eyepiece housing. I have tried a few of my other eyepieces, and have had very good success in their performance. The two of the eyepieces that I used to determine the range of magnification was my Orion Status 5mm (108x) and 3.5mm (154x). My target was a backyard flood light. My findings were at 108x that the image was very sharp. The light covering had a distinctive pattern that was easily visible. At 154x,

23.4.2016

First off, the optics are great. I took the attached pictures (base, 20x, and 60x magnifiation) around 6pm, so the light wasn't great by any means, but even at 60x magnification, the images were bright. I think you could easily get 100x or more with a different eyepiece. Apologies that on some of these I didn't do a great job focusing, but the scope itself can be focused very well, with both coarse and fine knobs. The 45 degree angle can make it hard to sight in. The slot on the extendable shade can help a bit with that. After comparing to many other scopes, I went for this one for a few reasons - on sale with rebate, fully multicoated with no chromatic aberration at default magnification range,

3.12.2016

This 65mm scope is good value for the money. I got this mainly so I could have an angled scope when I take groups birding. My straight scope needs too much adjusting with a group.It has ED glass which is a good start. The zoom eye piece is good to 30-35X. I have a Pentax ED scope that does better at 45x. Since they can both use a 1.25 inch astronomy eye piece, I put a Vixen zoom on them, and the Pentax was quite similar in view at 45x to the Celestron. With the Celestron eye piece, the view was breaking up a bit at 45x.(I put the Celestron eye piece on my Pentax as well and it was good to 30x).Look for the Vixen eye piece here, it runs about 200 dollars. I bought one so I have it on both scopes now.

24.9.2020

I could not be happier with this spotting scope. Especially after finding an adapter for my android that allows me to take pictures. I also purchased a celestron regal tripod and it seems like a perfect fit for this scope. I had no previous experience using a spotting scope and am not very knowledgeable in optics. I was relieved at how easy setup and transport of this spotting scope is. The viewing and photo images are great. I have used it primarily for wildlife, ocean viewing, the moon, planets and spotting aircraft that have been working the wildfires in California. One beginner tip...be careful not to adjust tripod on a slope than move to flat area without readjusting legs (just sayin).

22.1.2019

Not the prettiest spotting scope out there but optics and ease-of-use are exceptional. It compares very favorably with other scopes I have tried (we do quite a bit of birding). Someone pushed it over onto a concrete side walk once and it picked up a few scratches and a very slight crack to an internal lens but it has not affected the performance. The zippers on the case managed to come un-tracked (and continued to despite my attempts at repair) and Celestron sent me a new case and lens cap free of charge, despite being outside of the warranty period (they didn't even ask). Great customer service! My only regret, and it's minor, is that I didn't pick up the 80mm version instead of the 65.

4.8.2018

The telescope is excellent, ergonomics, sharpness, performance are at the rendezvous. An excellent price-quality ratio, there is not really equivalent to this price, for such a performance. Aesthetics is also very nice. The object deserves its 5 stars without hesitation, although I would not say the same for the tripod Celestron 82052, a little complicated to mount and especially to adjust. Stability is essential when you raise x40 or more. I would have prefered to take another tripod than the one recommended because of the documentation that is not clear enough for its complexity of the tripod. Anyway, the purchase of the Regal M2 100 ED can be made eyes closed.

Celestron REGAL M2 80ED - Reviews

Info

Analysis