Athlon makes a wide range of spotters but doesn’t have as storied name recognition as other bigger brands. The Cronus is Athlon’s top tier product line. Their Gen2 UHD 20-60x86mm spotting scope is not in the same class as a Kowa or Swarski, it still does not disappoint. This scope is a beast weighing in at nearly 5lbs, which isn’t surprising given it’s large 86mm objective. This large lens gathers in a lot of light providing a very bright picture especially during dusk.
The Cronus comes with a set of rubber lens caps. The front has a loop for a lanyard but no lanyard was included. The body is rubberized and armored for durability and grip. The body comes with an ARCA-Swiss compatible tripod ring which rotates 180º with indexing for an easy return to 0º. The eyepiece has a large diameter lens for a wide eyebox and a built in retracting eye cup.
The Cronus sports UHD glass which is Athlon’s term for their flavor of Extra Low Dispersion glass. While my testing camera does show some slight chromatic aberration at 60x, this is not noticeable with the naked eye. The image I was seeing was clean, accurate, and sharp from center to outer edge.
The only disappointing aspect of this scope isn’t the scope but its accessories. The padded sleeve style case is designed to allow you to keep the scope inside the soft case while mounting and using the scope on a tripod. While a laudable attempt, the materials and construction feel a bit cheap compared to the the scope. And the lens caps should have come with optional lanyards to keep them retained onto the scope. These issues are superficial and don’t detract from the actual performance of the Cronus.
Athlon sent me their new dual focus model with a fine focus knob sitting on top of the fast focus. This model is not yet released but their standard model with a large focus ring around the tube is widely available.
The Maven CS.2A 26-66×85 has the highest magnification and largest objective diameter among Mavens spotting scopes. The scope appears to be made or at least assembled in China unlike the Japanese S-series scopes. But don’t let Sino-Snobbery bias you, the glass and build quality is a match to Maven’s other premium optics. This scope uses the same ED quality glass Mavens other C-series scopes. Color balance, sharpness, and brightness were on par with other quality scopes in the 1K-1.5K price tier.
Its only disappointment is it’s lack of field-grade lens caps or backpack ready carrying case or skin. While many premium scope brands also eschew accessories, Maven took the time to produce a custom branded front lens cap; yet somehow didn’t design it to have a simple lanyard loop to help keep an outdoorsman from losing it in the field.
Despite this nitpick, the CS.2A’s body design is armored and ruggedized for harsher outdoor conditions. At 60oz, the CS.2A is impressively light for an 85mm spotter. This scope has the power, features, and style that a well heeled back-country hunters or birders can appreciate.
Maven is a new optics company that is arguably makes the most stylish premium sporting optics available. They sent me their top of the line spotting scope to test. The S.1A is an angled 25-50×80 spotting scope with a removable 5x eyepiece. The checkerboard texture pattern on its focus and power rings, look like the fine workmanship of vintage European photographic lenses from the 1950’s.
In my testing this scope checked all of the boxes for a premium higher end spotting scope. It was clear and bright and exhibited only a moderate amount of chromatic aberration. On the USAF-1951 chart the S.1 was able to resolve details comparable to a 60x scope. Its large eyepiece provided a generous eyebox for a spotter. It can be swapped out for either an MOA or MIL reticle tactical eyepiece for spotting in long range precision shooting.
The standard model comes with a grey rubberized armored body with black or orange metal accent rings that form the joins of its body sections. The body armor and accent rings can be individually customized on the Maven website to allow the buyer the widest possible aesthetic selection. No other optics company or sporting good maker comes close, not even Nike.
While this customization may seem like a gimmick, if you’re going to spend around $2000 for a scope, why shouldn’t you have a say on how it looks? Given that most major brand scopes in this price tier perform remarkably similar (eg. Vortex, Leupold, Nikon, Kowa, etc.) aesthetics may be the most significant differentiator.
Win an Athlon Talos 20-60×80 spotting scope with OSS lens cap, provided by OSS. Entries must be received no later than 12pm EST on June 22, 2024. Buy your own OSS lens cap on Etsy.
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I posted a review of the Athlon Argos, where I complained about lens covers being too easily lost when they are not attached to the scope. After seeing it, the owner of OSS (Outdoor Sporting Solutions) contacted me. He invented and produced heavy duty retained lens covers for his Argos and he wanted to get my input on them.
Is lens caps are high quality 3D printed and available in two colors: ranger green and black. The cap is connected by stretch cord to a retaining ring that fits next to the lens shade tube on the scope. The caps were designed for most 85mm scopes like the Argos. But I found that when I tested it on my 80mm Talos, the inner rim of the caps were just a tad too wide to lock into sunshade.
I mentioned this to the founder of OSS and he said he would design future caps to be 1 or 2mm smaller so that they would fit both 80mm and 85mm spotting scopes. That kind of problem solving really puts the “solution” in Outdoor Sporting Solutions.
Phones have changed how we take photos and videos in our personal lives. Phones have also become ubiquitous in the world of telephotography, birding, and astronomy. Many entry level spotting scopes and telescopes come with plastic and metal phone mounts.
As anybody who has used these free or inexpensive mounts has discovered, getting them aligned properly and keeping them in place can be challenging. And if you need to remove the phone momentarily to adjust the eyepiece or make an optical adjustment, you have to re-align the phone from scratch every time you remove the phone.
APEXEL sent me a 3-axis phone mount for telescopes and binoculars. The mount is made of aluminum alloy for rigidity and stability. It has geared controls knobs that slides your phone along 3-axis of motion: vertical, horizontal, and toward and away from the eyepiece. In my testing I was easily able to align my phone.
It does have 2 shortcomings well 3. The third can’t be helped as it’s a rather large device. The other issues are eye relief and the phone clamp. You will not be able to use this mount on most rifle scopes; which have ≥3″ of eye relief. The APEXEL doesn’t have enough range of adjustment; toping out at about 1″. The other disappointment is the phone mount itself, which is a pinch style claw mount. Your phone is simply held in place by spring tension. APEX should have added a ratcheting mechanism instead.
While this mount isn’t perfect, it’s nearly so. At less than $60 currently, it is a good value compared to specialized other telescope mounting systems of the past. I hope APEXEL comes up with a solution for using it with long eye relief optics like rifle scopes.
Athlon has revamped their Midas binoculars and Cronus spotting scope. These are Athlon Optics top tier field scope models. Their binoculars have been updated with a bevy of ergonomic and usability enhancements including a redesigned diopter for better functionality.
Their flagship optic, the Cronus spotting scope now features a tandem fast and fine focus dials instead of the single barrel focus ring. I tested a Cronus tactical spotting scope earlier this year and it was a super clean and bright. This high magnification model promises to be every bit as sharp.
Midas binoculars are available on Amazon through this affiliate link: https://amzn.to/49zuSyC
Cronus G2 spotter is available on Amazon through this affiliate link: https://amzn.to/48t5mtI
Tract was started by Jon Allen and Jon LaCorte, two former scope guys who used to work for Nikon USA (before Nikon exited the sporting optics market). Tract made a name for themselves in ELR competition shooting. I was pleasantly impressed when I tried their Tract Toric 4-25×56 rifle scope a few months ago and I was eager to test out their Toric UHD spotting scope. Their Toric line of rifle scopes that are built in Japan (known for its high engineering and manufacturing standards) and utilizing German Schott glass for clarity and low-light performance.
This spotter is rugged with a rubberized armored skin over a fully sealed body that is Argon purged and IPX7 rated; meaning it can withstand full water immersion down to a 3m depth for up to 30 minutes. IPX7 is remarkable because the scope also features a user-replaceable 27- 55x eye piece. The Toric UHD is compatible with Vortex eye pieces and Tract also offers MOA or MRAD reticle eye pieces. The body features a built in retracting sunshade, indexing eye cup, and an indexing 1/4″ tripod mount ring.
The Toric UHD offers a rather basic 2x magnification ratio, chosen to reduce both weight and price. Unfortunately its low end is 27x which is rather narrow and zoomed. This limits this scope’s usability for hunters wanting a wide field of view for scanning. Lacking a wide field of view could also be a problem if you’re spotting for a buddy that needs help seeing where their shots are landing.
At max 55x, the image is still quite crisp and bright. There was a modest amount of chromatic aberration at 55x but this did not effect its practical clarity for target spotting. I could easily make out .22cal holes on paper at 100 yards. The Toric UHDs performance on the USAF-51 resolution chart easily matched or surpassed 60x scopes I have tested.
Tract keeps costs down by using a direct to consumer model so these scopes aren’t available at big box sports stores or optics companies.
After my review of the Athlon Range Finder Binoculars, Athlon asked me to test out their new Gen 2 Cronus Tactical spotting scope. Its a straight line 7-42x60mm optic. While other traditional spotters offer higher magnification, Athlon engineers chose 7-42x for a wide field of view and not sacrifice sharpness and brightness.
It has a ruggedized and rubberized body to withstand impacts and bumps under combat-like conditions. For additional protection, it comes with a neoprene sleeve for the body and leashed neoprene lens caps. It comes with a set of thin rubber lens caps but these are for tranport and storage, not for field use.
The magnification ring has a rubberized surface for good traction but was a bit stiff to turn; as is the focus ring next to it. A stiffer focus ring is good so as not to lose sharpness once set. But having a stiff to turn magnification ring is a hinderance for a tactical or competition spotter that has to switch between targets at different ranges for a shooter. It would be helpful Athlon designed the magnification ring to accept a throw lever.
One unusual feature found on the bottom of the scope tube, are twin photo screw mounting holes. You can use either screw ports to screw the scope onto a tripod or mounting plate. It comes with a ARCA/Swiss adapter plate with unique twin screws that fit into both holes in tandem. This twin screw design makes it impossible to twist the scope out of of alignment.
What makes this spotter “tactical”? On the scope tube is a Picatinny rail to add a red dot to quickly aim the scope and 2 additional hard points to add additional rails. You may need to add a riser to clear the bell; the include Picatinny rail is a bit thicker/taller than standard for this reason.
The most tactical aspect of this scope is a first focal plane reticle. Its etched MRAD subtensions are designed to help spotters call out distances between objects, reference points, or bullet splashes. The reticle is quite fine and at its low magnification is hardly visible and won’t obscure your view but at 20x and above the reticle grows to provide a T-style cross hairs.
At high magnification a set of 8 numbered vertical lines of various heights are visible below the cross hair reticle. This is the Cronus quick range estimator that is calibrated to a 72″ tall individual. By using the guidelines to measure the distance between the top of the subject’s shoulders and head, you can quickly estimate the targets distance. I was able to confirm its relative accuracy using a hiker on a hillside 1300-1400yrds away.
At +1000yrds the image picture was very sharp for a 42x scope. Glassing reference targets at 100yrds I could clearly see .22cal holes on paper but more importantly I could see the wrinkles on the paper. At 42x I was able to resolve all the way down to Element 1 in Group 1 on the USAF-51 optical resolution chart; the finest detail of any spotting scope I’ve tested.
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When I was a boy, my uncle let me borrow his B+L Discoverer. I used this scope to spot my hit on paper . It’s a straight tube refracting telescope of the kind that looks like a classic telescope. In fact I used to see the rings of Saturn for the first time.
Last year, I indulged in a little nostalgia when I purchased a 1980’s vintage B+L Discoverer spotting scope on Ebay. This 15-60×60 spotting scope was made by Bausch and Lomb, a brand best known today as a maker of contact lenses but back in the 1980’s, B+L was better known as a maker of military grade optics. B+L made binoculars and target scopes for US Army tanks and planes in the WWII, and invented RayBan sunglasses for bomber pilots.
The Discoverer dwarfs most modern 60mm spotting scopes. It is over 17″ long and weighs 3lbs due to its all metal tube construction and glass. Modern spotting scopes typically utilize a prism to bend the light and make the overall length, shorter. Most modern scopes are far lighter using more plastic parts. And most importantly, modern ED glass has higher light throughput, specialized coatings to reduce chromatic aberrations.
Most modern spotters over $250 in the 60x class will offer better image quality due to advancements in computerized glass fabrication and optical coatings. But compared to budget scopes, the Discoverer can still hold its own with superior sharpness and detail. If you’re lucky, you can still find this scope on Ebay, estate sales or garage sale for under a $100 (mint condition in box models go for much more). Just be sure you give the glass and the body a good inspection.
