Thanks so much to you both and especially you Doc for the kind offers and such a helpful thorough response. I've plumped for the 95. 0% credit card means even paupers like me can afford one.ð Apart from the two reasons you mentioned it appeared to make no sense to go for the 85 in terms of performance. Thanks again. Greatly appreciated.

I wish I could afford either they are both superb-I have looked through other peoples regularly and to me they are the best scopes I have ever looked through :) you can't go wrong with either .

Hi Chris

Here at Focalpoint selling these allows me to do a sort of poll as to which is the more popular! Both sell in high numbers, the ATX/STX range of scopes are easily the best sellers since they were launched. The 65 is possibly the least best of the three models available, so you have asked a question regarding the two most popular.

Going on sales figures the 95mm objective model shades it with probably about 3 of those sold against every 2 of the 85mm. The extra light gathering of the 95 model and its wonderful field of view obviously blows a lot of folk away when they test it. The slight increase in zoom power is popular too, it has a 30x-70x range against the 25x-60x of the 85mm. This makes it a superb scope for seawatching, I have just been on holiday in Cornwall & using it off Pendeen Watch I was able to see detail in distant shearwaters that my colleague using a 20x-60x Zoom could not. I have also used it looking for Surf Scoters off the N.Wales Coast & it was fantastic. Against that is the extra weight. Forget looking at the number of grams each is, come & lift one up, carry the two models around a bit and decide whether the extra weight is a deciding factor or not.

As a digiscoper I do find the 30x bottom end of the zoom on the 95 is sometimes too high and stops me getting the whole bird in shot, especially with close subjects. Then the 25x bottom end zoom of the 85 seems more attractive. I use the straight (STX) version too, but that is just my preference, if you were going to pop out & wanted to see a straight then let me know beforehand & I'll bring mine in for you.

Best bet is to try the 2 side by side and carry them round. Take lots & lots of time & even come out on different weather condition days! Try the straight & angled versions too. They're a helluva lot of money sio the choice has to e right for you. I doubt whether scopes can get much better than this. I base this on visits to both Zeiss & Swarovski factories in Germany & Austria respectively and asking them leading questions. Looks like differences in the future will be mainly cosmetic (like the new Swarovski EL SVs - same optics, slight design change).

I hope this has helped. In the end the decision has to be yours, we all have opinions but for your own optics only your opinion really counts!!!

Hi All I was just wondering why you'd buy an 85 over the 95 or vice versa? Many thanks Chris