31.1.2016

Added 2/9/2016: I've used it on 300-yard targets now, and my .223" / 5.56 mm holes are visible, especially on white paper. Holes in the colored part are harder, of course, but visible.I also want to mention that the focus knob is perfect. It turns easily and smoothly, without being loose. It's placed on top, just behind the tripod mounting point, so you can rest your hand over the balance point of the scope and gently roll one finger over the focus knob, causing very little motion in the image.[Original text -->] I read a lot of reviews and Q & A's on Amazon before purchasing the Celestron 80mm Ultima Zoom, and I have a little to add for future shoppers.While I hope to use this for viewing wildlife and maybe the moon and neighboring planets, I bought it mainly for rifle shooting, to see little holes in paper downrange. The photos I'm posting today are all the same shot through the scope, left full-frame to show how my smartphone camera sees it, and cropped to better see the holes. The target is 200 yards away, and the holes are .223 inch / 5.56mm. The grid lines on the targets are spaced at 1 inch / 25mm. Camera was an LG G4 smartphone, mounted to the Celestron's eyepiece with a Gosky Universal Cell Phone Adapter Mount, also purchased from Amazon. Photo conditions were less than ideal: a very gray afternoon, shooting through 200 yards of light rain.The full-frame photo was reduced in size from 5212 x 2988 down to 1600 x 900, in hopes Amazon won't ruin it with extreme compression. The other two were severely cropped, but left at full resolution to show detail. It was taken at 60X, the maximum zoom, and the image suffers a bit from being pushed to the max, but not terribly. The colors aren't as sharp as at the lower end of the zoom range, and as other reviewers have mentioned, that's a compromise. If you want perfect sharpness through the whole zoom range, buy the ED (Extra Dispersion) version of the scope. It's built with lens elements made of more exotic glass that corrects the focus of the different colors of light. It will cost you about 4 times as much. This Ultima 80 is good enough for me.Something I hadn't noticed until I viewed the photos is the curvature of the bottom board of the target frame. That's not bent wood, it's a defect of the scope, called pincushion distortion. If I was using the scope for some kind of architectural photography, where straight lines must show straight, this would be a problem, but I bought this to see where holes are punched in paper, and a bit of curvature is no problem at all. If you're photographing duck on a pond surface and don't want your water horizon to be curved, position the scope so that horizon is in the center of the frame. The top board of the target frame is centered, and it doesn't look bent at all. Better yet, back off the zoom to a lower ratio and get straighter lines and a sharper image.The two detail shots aren't perfectly sharp, but more than good enough to see every hole, even the ones in the dark blue target. I'm impressed. The range I go to also has targets at 300 yards. That might be pushing this scope's capability. I'll try it some time when I have better weather and have settled on ammunition I can trust to fly straight that far.On the drive home from the range I passed a tree with a huge new nest in it, and today a bald eagle was perched near it. But I was cold and tired, and if I'd stopped and got out of the car to reach the scope in the back, the eagle would have left. Would have been a great inaugural wildlife shot for my new spotting scope, but I'm left with only the memory of it, and you'll have to picture it in your mind until you get your own spotting scope and venture into eagle country. Hope you like yours; it's just right for me, at a price I can justify.

16.2.2009

Bought this after comparing many different spotting scopes including some very expensive ones; mostly all the cheaper ones have fairly poor optics, there might be some good ones but I couldn't find any. It seems fairly difficult to get any objective reviews of the Celestron Ultima scope, most reviews are either advertising hype or people who haven't used it and based on conjecture. The Ultima build quality is very good, optics are nothing short of great especially considering this is not ED glass, image does go a bit dark at 60X but that's in the nature of the beast, at 22X to about 50X it is really excellent. Eye relief is fairly good too, I can keep my spectacles on even at full magnification.

6.3.2012

Humm, hit the tab key and my review in progress disappeared!The scope has a very nice overall fit and finish with good deep coatings on all visible lens surfaces. The focus knob is silky smooth with no detectable backlash. The eyepiece eye-relief is ample (I don't require glasses when viewing--see below) and the zoom is smooth. An audible sliding sound is heard when zooming, but it isn't objectionable.Speaking of glasses, if your glasses just correct for near or far sightedness, you don't really nead them at the scope; the focus range of the eyepiece will compensate for your correction without glasses. Those with astigmatism problems will need glasses however.Owning a premium 80mm ED telescope,

22.12.2012

the only reason i'm dinging this scope at all is that the large lens cap that came with it doesn't fit the scope right or its ridge is damaged such that it barely fits on it and falls off if you sneeze or look at it wrong. so total F for the lens cap....but the scope!!!the scope itself is so worth well beyond the money. i stared through leupolds and vortexes that were many many times the price of this scope while shopping around, but based on the reviews here at amazon decided wth, i'll give this celestron a try. i had purchased a celestron microscope for my kids in the past and was impressed with its quality so i thought why not. well, i'm so glad i didn't shell out 4 digits for a more expensive scope because this scope delivers.

24.8.2013

Taking everything into consideration (where this is made: China, the price, the lack of tripod, the nice padded carrying case) I've got to say that I am more than impressed. After the easy assembly on the eye-piece to the body of the scope I took a quick look out the window, unsupported on low magnification. I bought this for scoring on the target range, at 100, 200, and 300 meters. My first test was to examine some stuff at around 100 meters. I found a tree and scoped in at 20x. At first I was a little disappointed because of the image delivered, the focus was good but the eye relief was leaving all kinds of crazy shadows. When I finally lowered the eye relief (you gotta get your face up against the rubber eye-piece)

17.12.2012

To those who are wanting to take the next step in birding because you can't get a good view of birds far away, then this is the ticket. At an affordable price and with a college budget, this scope outperformed my expectations. I am regularly around guys who use Swarovski scopes and those scopes perform well and give a great image, but this scope doesn't fail at doing the same. I am not saying that it will be an equal quality image, but this scope performs well at what it is supposed to: being able to get you close so that you can identify birds. The only thing is lacks in comparison is a solid eye-piece. While both scopes see some lesser quality at higher magnifications, the Celestron Ultima 80 seems to lack more.

8.4.2014

All shooter's take notice! This scope is very good. For all you Leupold lovers, just look at the price! You will never convince me to buy a Leupy spotting scope now. I use this for 200 yard Bench rest shooting. I had a Simmons 20-60X60 I bought in 1998 and it was for the 50 and 100 yd range. But it never did very well @ 100 (very dark and fuzzy from day one and that was with much better eyes), especially for plain paper and .223/5.56 or .22LR. No way.I was really worried about seeing this @ 200 and man-oh-man was I amazed! At 30 power I (and everybody else) can see easily @ 200 yds. any sized holes in any paper. And I wear Trifocals---but not when using this scope--I take them off.

23.2.2010

I first looked through a spotting scope on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. A chap had set his scope up looking at a family of otters and let us have a look. The view was really amazing, and although I never thought to see what make his scope was I had to have one. I read as many reviews as I could in my price range when I got home, and decided on the Celestron Ultima 80. I have not been dissapointed. I think that for the money this scope is very good. I have been birdwatching at Rutland water with a mate who has a Kowa scope. This is a quality (read expensive) scope, but the Celestron very nearly matches it, and actually has a more powerfull zoom. I must admit that the brightness of the image decreases at the max 60x,

31.12.2012

I've had this thing for about 5 days and wanted to comment on my initial reactions.First: it is an esthetically beautiful instrument, but then I love good design and technical tools of nearly any sort.Second: I wish I had got the 45 degree eyepiece version. I mounted this on a very good camera tripod but my tripod does not extend far enough to get the scope high enough that I am not still bending over to look through it - after about 3 minutes, my back is killing me.Third: Amazon has the list price at $317.95 and offers it for $149.95, which seems like a really good deal, but Celestron has it actually priced at $209.95 so it is actually not all that great of a deal.

27.9.2012

I purchased this spotting scope to replace one that had only a 60mm objective lens and was a 20x60 zoom magnification.My old spotting scope did not perform well at all at higher magnifications.Images became increasingly difficult to see as you increased the magnification because of the amount of light that was lost. At anything around 100 meters a 22 caliber bullet hole on a white background was difficult to distinguish and on a black background could not be seen at all.The Celestron with the 4 inch(100mm)objective lens eliminates all of the light loss problems.This is a really awesome piece of glass for target shooting.I can now see 22 bullet holes at 300 meters.One word of caution.Do not buy

12.9.2010

For the money this is a very impressive scope. It is also the winner of an award for its type and price range by top British scope users (the sky at night).The only draw back I can find with having a scope is the additional weight and that is true for all scopes not just this one. Perfect for those who want to enhance their wildlife watching experience but do not want to invest in the expensive brands which cost £300 - 1500.With the saved money you could invest in a carbon fibre tripod to help combat the weight issue.I chose to buy the Velbon Sherpa 500R from Amazon as well for around £70 and its a sturdy but versatile scope which suits the need of not just wildlife scoping user but also photography.

24.8.2015

Purchased the Ultima 80 - 45 degree spotting scope about a month ago and for the purpose of sighting in my Remington 700 SPS 7mm Rem Ultra Mag. I used it a couple times around the house with the RetiCam Tabletop tripod, familiarizing myself with the features before taking it to the range. The spotting scope has some weight to it and feels very well put together.... feels like a quality product.Got to the range today and the spotting scope was overkill for 100 yds, as our rifle scope were adequate for that range. Targets could be seen easily on 20 or 40 power. At 200 yds the spotting scope clearly shows every detail of the target when properly focused. At one point, while my buddy was steadying for his shot,

2.9.2019

Overall I'm happy with the price / performance of this scope both for bird watching / wildlife and some casual astronomy. As some have commented there is some chromatic aberration using this scope, but as is usual with CA this is noticeable in areas of extreme contrast, looking at the Moon for example, but for the price point this is not a surprise and not especially noticeable when bird watching. If you want zero CA you're looking at the wrong price range!Overall the image is quite sharp and bright and very pleasing, certainly good enough for my eyes when bird watching to pick out details and identify the species being observed. the scope is relatively light for it's size and the carry bag is reasonably handy.A couple of niggles,

22.2.2012

Very happy with this, great value for money . At 22x the image is bright, gorgeous and beautiful but it doesn't really do 66x as advertised. I use it for spotting shipping (and the occasional whale or dolphin) from a veranda overlooking the ocean. I need to read fishing licences, names and registration details off ships at up to 1.5kms. It can do this but I have found that while the readability improves from 22x to about 38x the resolution actually decreases after that and I never use it from 40-66x, there is no point. Maybe it would have been better to have optimised it for 22-40x. Nevertheless, 66x is extreme and the range in which it works well is actually what I need.

16.2.2014

I bought this scope for spotting target hits when shooting. I mounted it on a camera tripod that I already had. It is a little shaky at the higher power but that would be expected.When I first got the scope I sighted it in on a "Dead End" sign that could be seen through my back door. The sign was about 300 yards away. The sigh looked as if I was standing about 3 feet away from it when I looked through the scope. It was clear and bright. I could see the screws that mounted the sign.I wear glasses and tried the scope both with and without my glasses, I was able to adjust for a clear image with glasses both on and off.Using the scope on the range will take some getting used to. I usually shoot at 25 yards.

Celestron Ultima 80 - Reviews

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