Athlon has produced some of our favorite products of late, with their new line being a serious competitor to the bigger names in the optics world. I’ve been very impressed with a couple of their binoculars I’ve been able to get my hands on (the Neos G2 and Argos G2 UHD), and was very excited to take their new spotting scope for a spin. The Argos HD 20-60x85mm falls into the perfect category of spotting scopes for high power use. It’s big and heavy, so you probably will mostly use it from your vehicle or a camp, but the power behind a scope this big is something awesome to behold.
This scope has one function: To get you close eyes on a subject far, far away. And it does that exceptionally well. The 85mm objective lens is massive and collects an impressive amount of light, leading to excellent image quality. This is also helped along by the full multi coating and phase coated prisms. Athlon was also smart enough to include a large eye piece, avoiding a huge mistake I’ve seen other optics companies make. Overall image quality is great. The only thing I wish the scope has would be ED glass. It’s in the price range where this could be an option. Although I will say that very similar to the Neos binoculars I reviewed, the image quality is impressively great for a scope without ED glass.
Functionally the scope works great. It has a very unique design that is quickly growing on me. Instead of a focus knob that sticks up off the middle of the scope, it has a ring running around the entire body of the scope that is used for focusing. While I was initially skeptical that this would lead to accidentally bumping the focus off, I haven’t had this problem at all. Instead, I’ve found it very easy to make finite adjustments to the focus thanks to the large size of the control. I think they are converting me to liking this style of focus ring!
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this scope, particularly in its price range. I wish it had ED glass, and it doesn’t give you quite the image quality that you get with a Swarovski, but for the price I’m more than satisfied with it and will no doubt use it in the field. You can check it out here.