Spotting Scope vs Binoculars – A Detailed Comparison

You need a different optical instrument in Every situation depending upon you and your preferences. It is a difficult task to select from spotting scopes or binoculars. As both are optics and mostly have the same features, it becomes difficult to prefer the best one for your specific activity.

The question is that which one is the better choice?

Both optics have almost the same features but different in construction and shape. So, here we have written a detailed comparison based on features and the activity you want to use them. Hopefully, this article will answer your all questions about spotting scope vs binoculars.

What is a Spotting Scope?

Spotting scope also known as monocular (one eye) that has one objective lens and one eyepiece. They have a single tube. They are heavier and bulkier than binoculars.

They can be used in those activities in which your desired object is stationary and you are in a stable state. Best Air Rifle Scopes have larger objective lenses than binoculars.

[su_panel background=”#ffe3e3″ color=”#000000″ border=”1px solid #f49c9c” radius=”5″]Spotting scopes come in various high magnification powers. You need spotting scopes when you want to see those objects that are far away from you.[/su_panel]

They come in different sizes and are manufactured by a variety of brands in the market.

Spotting scopes can be used in various outdoor activities like hunting, birding, astronomy, and sports watching etc. they enhance your experience of watching nature with natural color fidelity and high resolution of image can be achieved.

What is a Binocular?

Binoculars is the type of optics that have two objective lenses and two eyepieces for both of your eyes. This is the main difference between spotting scope and binoculars although they almost have the same features.

[su_panel background=”#ffe3e3″ color=”#000000″ border=”1px solid #f49c9c” radius=”5″]Binoculars are available in various magnifications and variable zoom power can be achieved from binoculars.[/su_panel]

Binoculars are small in size and portable. Most of the binoculars don’t need any tripod stand to stabilize the image. They are lightweight enough that one can easily hold them in his hands. They can be hanged on the neck with the help of a neck strap.

Here is the quick feature comparison of spotting scope vs binoculars based on pros and cons. As already mentioned, both have almost the same features so it is difficult to select the best one. Here we have compared both and selected the winner that has the best features.

Magnification:

Magnification is the main feature in spotting scopes and binoculars. Spotting scopes have high magnification than binoculars. They have magnification power greater than 100x and they can be used easily for astronomy. Here you can get spotting vs high power binoculars guide.

Binoculars have magnification power less than spotting scopes. The binoculars that have high magnification from 60x to 100x require a tripod stand to use them because they have large size.

Weight, Size and portability:

As it is already known that binoculars have variable sizes. Binoculars are available in every size even you can put binoculars in your pocket. But the spotting scopes always have bigger size and they can be used only with the tripod stand.

As size is small, the weight of the binoculars is also less than the spotting scopes. Spotting scopes have much more weight than binoculars.

Portability depends on the shape, size and weight. As we know that binoculars have less weight and small size so they are easily portable than spotting scopes.

Objective Lens:

Larger the objective lens and optics have larger the field of view you get and more close focus you can get. Spotting scopes have larger objective lenses than binoculars.

So they can be beneficial in stargazing and the activities that have stationary objects. Binoculars due to small size have small objective lenses.

Price:

Price is one of the main factors to be considered by the user. Most of the people think about the price of how much they should spend. I think it is good to select and undertake the price.

Binoculars have less price than spotting scopes. Spotting scopes are more expensive because of larger magnification power and larger objective lenses.

Binoculars and spotting scopes both have their own demand in outdoor activities. Luckily, I have discussed with users and experts the preference of spotting scope or binoculars and introducing to you their uses with pros and cons in every field.

So, give thorough read to this comparison for better understanding.

Spotting Scope vs Binoculars – For Birding and Nature Watching

Spotting scope vs binoculars birding is also a very confusing thing that which one you should take with you for birding. If you want to see a rare bird then you definitely think about spotting scope or binoculars for birding?

As birds do not stay at one place they fly in random positions. So, in that case spotting scope is not suitable because you can not stable at that time and you can miss the chance to see a rare bird.

As binoculars are very handy. You can adjust and stabilize binoculars in your hands. So, binoculars are best for birding.

But for nature watching spotting scopes are best because of large magnification power. Spotting scopes provide a close experience of nature to you.

Spotting VS Binoculars – For Hunting

Animal Watching and hunting is one of the best hobbies. Wild animals are dangerous, they can attack you. So, it is good to maintain a suitable distance from then. It is possible with the help of spotting scope or binoculars for hunting. But it is difficult to choose spotting scope vs binoculars for hunting.

If you know about the prey that is in a stable state then you should select spotting scopes rather than binoculars. But if prey is running very quickly then you should use the binoculars. spotting scope vs binoculars for elk hunting also have the same case.

Target Shooting

Target shooting is also an interesting activity. Target shooting like cardboard shooting or any fixed object shooting requires a more stable image to shoot. Spotting scopes can be stabilized in a more proper way with tripod stands.

As they have large and high magnification power so spotting scopes are best for target shooting.

So, spotting scope vs binoculars for target shooting was also very confusing. But with the help of this article you can easily differentiate between spotting scope or binoculars for target shooting easily.

Stargazing and Astronomy

Spotting scope vs binoculars for astronomy is also an important question to differentiate. As astronomy is nature. Astronomy requires the optical instruments that have more magnification and that are more stable.

So, from spotting scope vs binoculars for astronomy, the spotting scope is best to use. But if you have a low budget you can use the binoculars that have high magnification power.
So, the winner is spotting scope for astronomy by overall comparison.

Conclusion

Hopefully, I have cleared all of your confusion about the spotting scope vs binoculars. Selection of suitable optics totally depends on your choice and the situation in which you want to use these optics. Both of the optics have their places in each situation.

So, be wise and select or purchase the best that suits all your requirements. If you have enough budget to purchase the both spotting scope as well as binoculars so that you can use them according to your activity or situation.