VortexOptics Razor HD Spotting Scope 22-48x65 Straight

You will have to take this with a grain of salt because I have never own Swarovski or used them in the field. The razor has outstanding clarity in both daytime and low light. I have used them at dusk spotting shots on targets out to 150 yards in my back yard in the woods. I have not used it out west in the wide open country yet but will be in December. I can’t wait to use it hunting elk. I can already see a significant improvement in clarity of images over my Leupold 12x50 binos.

Great for birding! Great SMALL scope. Sooooo glad I bought it! Would buy again.

great size and weight for my needs, which aren't extremely demanding--looking at backyard critters and lake scenery, and I plan to see how far it will let me sight bullet holes at the range. Bright and clear even at 30x+ power. Haven't done a side-by-side with Swar., Leica, etc , but this Vortex seems to be a reasonable quality and value. I'll be honest, I also bought a Roxant Blackbird 12-36 x 50mm to compare, and it's also excellent for one-sixth the cost of this, but also a good, honest value. I'm keeping 'em both!

So far so good. I received my order promptly and am very pleased with the optical quality. Took it on its first trip and it made it easy spotting deer several 1000 yards away. I strapped it to my ATV and took it over some very rough terrain with no issues so far. I paired it with a phoneskope and tested it the first night on some shots of the moon and they came out better than expected for cell phone captures.

Great construction, superb glass and resolution, BUT eye relief is too short, especially for people with glasses. Could not use without having some face contact with scope to see at any zoom over 30x, even without glasses. Vortex makes a long-eye-relief eye piece, but that's another $200, and it is fixed at 18x for this scope. Bummed.