How We Tested the Best Spotting Scopes We invite manufacturers to submit any new spotting scopes introduced from mid-2022 through 2023. Because this particular category of sports optics is expensive to manufacture, and because the market isn’t nearly as dynamic as rifle scopes or binoculars—after all, once you’ve purchased a spotting scope, you’re unlikely to be in the market for another—we test spotters only every two or three years. Low-Light Performance We also measure the low-light performance of each submission by mounting them to tripods and focusing them at 200 yards at a black-and-white resolution target at twilight, all in order to measure the brightness of the glass. The scope that can “see” the longest into the gathering darkness gets top marks. The scope that loses its night-vision earliest gets the lowest score. Scopes in the middle receive scores somewhere between those two poles. How We Score and Grade Optics We break our 10-point scoring into four general categories
Post: 29 January 17:50
