Wildlife photography is one of my favorite ways to decompress, ground myself, and re-connect with nature. I enjoy hiking to peaceful places, searching for serene views, and observing wildlife through my Vanguard Endeavor HD 82A Angled Spotting Scope.
Using a spotting scope on my hikes allows me to be as unobtrusive as possible with how I’m interacting with my surroundings. It helps me keep a respectful distance from wildlife, capture organic moments, and gives me access to levels of magnification that aren’t possible with even my biggest telephoto zoom lenses.
What is a Spotting Scope?
A spotting scope is a compact and high-powered telescope, built to allow observation of distant objects in the daytime. It is built to offer image magnification levels beyond what is possible with a standard pair of binocular. A spotting scope is comprised of a primary objective lens, a fixed or detachable eyepiece, a tripod mount, and a focusing mechanism to focus the images that are viewed with the eyepiece.
The size of the objective lens on a spotting scope greatly impacts the magnification of the images that it can deliver. The Vanguard Endeavor HD 82A Spotting Scope features a large 82mm objective lens. This is why it’s capable of up to a massive 60X of magnification. Thanks to its high quality glass elements, the images do not lose quality as the magnification level increases.
Types of Spotting Scopes
Spotting scopes typically offer two types of eyepiece designs. There is straight-through, where the eyepiece is on the same axis as the spotting scope body. There is also an angled design like the one on the Vanguard Endeavor HD 82A, which is at a 45-degree angle to the scope body. These eyepiece designs come in fixed magnifications or in a convenient zoom configuration, like the 20-60X zoom eyepiece on the Vanguard Endeavor HD 82A.
Eye-relief is an important consideration when choosing a good spotting scope. The amount of eye-relief adjustment that a spotting scope provides will determine the distance your eye can be from the eyepiece while still able to see the full field of view of the spotting scope.
It’s something to consider for people who wear glasses. They can benefit greatly from a spotting scope like the Endeavor HD 82A, which offers an impressive 19mm of eye relief. This allows for comfortable scope viewing for long periods of time while wearing eye glasses.
Key Features of the Vanguard Endeavor HD 82A Spotting Scope:
- 82mm objective lens with fully multicoated optics, and built-in sunshield
- Extra-low dispersion glass elements, with BaK4 prisms
- 19.7 ft close focus distance (at 20x)
- 20-60x magnification detachable zoom eyepiece
- 19mm of eye relief, with rubber eyecup
- Separate coarse and fine focus control dials
- Magnesium body, with textured rubber armor
- Nitrogen-filled, fog-proof and waterproof housing
- Arca-Swiss compatible tripod mounting shoe
Body and Design
The Vanguard Endeavor HD 82A Spotting Scope offers excellent build quality throughout its body and optical design. It’s 82mm objective lens features a fully multicoated optical path, using extra-low dispersion (ED) elements, and phase-corrected BaK4 prisms. The fully multicoated optical design of the Endeavor HD 82A serves to maximize light transmission and produces sharp images with excellent contrast. The built-in sunshade extends and retracts. This is great for protecting the front element, and for minimizing sun flares.
I had no concerns with taking the Endeavor HD 82A into the elements. The rugged housing features rubber armor for protection, is weather-sealed, and fog-proof. Vanguard offers a lifetime warranty. It also includes an additional protective cover for the HD 82A in the box. This offers another layer of protection against the elements, and accidental bumps and bruises.
Focus and Zoom
The stacked focusing mechanism of the Endeavor HD 82A makes it super easy to achieve critical focus. It features two focusing dials that separate coarse and fine focusing. This setup makes it super easy to quickly get within the approximate range of focus with the coarse-focus dial, and accurately achieving critical focus from there using the fine-focus dial.
The detachable eyepiece has a nicely textured rubber zoom ring that is tactile and smooth. It’s built well, and I find it easy to zoom throughout the 20-60X magnification range.
Mounting
Another one of my favorite design elements of the HD 82A is the tripod mounting collar and integrated base-plate. The base-plate is Arca-Swiss compatible, which makes it convenient for me to quickly mount the scope onto my VEO 3+ T tripod. Vanguard has even considered the design of the tripod collar on the HD 82A, as the scope can be rotated around the collar at preset hard-stop intervals by loosening the knob on the side of the collar. This is a pretty convenient feature that is usually available on telephoto zoom lenses, with built-in tripod collars.
Advantages of Spotting Scopes vs Telephoto Camera Lenses
Spotting scopes have four main advantages compared to telephoto zoom lenses. They are smaller, weigh less, have longer reach, and cost significantly less.
Choosing a spotting scope over a telephoto lens can save you a significant amount of money because you don’t need to buy a separate camera to use it with. It’s also easier to pack and carry a spotting scope thanks to its smaller size and weight. Spotting scopes offer significantly longer reach than telephoto lenses for viewing distant objects. Even the most expensive telephoto lenses would struggle to reach anything near a 3000mm equivalent focal length.
Common Spotting Scope Use Cases
Spotting scopes are essentially small telescopes, which can be useful in a number of different scenarios.
I personally like to use mine for wildlife, bird watching, and nature. Having the ability to be unobtrusive, and watch birds in their natural habitat is a completely different experience.
Bird watching may be one of the most popular use cases for spotting scopes, but they are also used for archery and target shooting. Archers can setup a spotting scope on a tripod, and get a better view of the target before taking aim.
Astronomy is another popular use for a high-powered spotting scope like the Endeavor HD 82A. Spotting scopes are generally designed to be used in the daytime. Although, that doesn’t mean that you can’t use them to watch the stars or see the moon. It’s fun to view the moon with a 3000mm lens, so I really enjoy taking advantage of the amazing reach of my 20-60X mini-telescope.
Digiscoping with A Spotting Scope
Digiscoping is when you use your digital camera or mobile phone to take photos and videos with your spotting scope. The Vanguard Endeavor HD 82A offers two different digiscoping mounts. These can attach your digital camera or mobile phone to the spotting scope.
The Vanguard PA-202 Digiscoping Adapter is built specifically for the Endeavor HD 82A. It can attach your digital camera and lens directly to the scope, as long as the lens is either 52mm or 58mm in diameter.
I personally prefer to use my smartphone for digiscoping, and use the Vanguard VEO PA-65 Digiscoping Adapter to take photos and videos with my scope. Using a smartphone like the iPhone 13 Pro Max, combined with the high quality optics of a spotting scope like the Endeavor HD 82A, can result in some amazing images that are hard to capture otherwise.
I love being able to capture birds in their natural habitat without disturbing them and changing their natural behaviors. Digiscoping allows me to remain unnoticed, and get amazing images with my smartphone that aren’t possible any other way.
Final Thoughts
Spotting scopes are powerful tools to have in your creative toolkit. They offer the amazing magnification powers of telescopes in compact and lightweight form factor. I really enjoy using my Vanguard Endeavor HD 82A to capture photos and videos with my iPhone because I can travel light, enjoy nature, and capture organic moments without disturbing the balance of the environment.
To ensure that you get the best experience with your own spotting scope, don’t forget to pair it with a sturdy tripod that can minimize shake and movement. Viewing images at extreme magnifications can reveal even the slightest of movements, so using a high quality tripod with a fluid pan-and-tilt head will greatly improve your outings.
Vanguard offers a wide range of tripods and fluid heads that you can check out. Be sure to explore the options — and continue creating — by reading some other 42West nature and wildlife articles below:
