I disagree on angled vs. straight. Angled body makes it much easier for viewing at an upward angle (which you'll be doing a lot of when birding), and with an angled body, you don't have to set the tripod height as high, making a sturdier foundation for the scope. Plus, if you are with other people, the angled scope will adapt to people of varying height much easier without changing the tripod height. The only advantage I see to a straight body scope is it makes it a little easier to aim and acquire whatever you're looking at, but with practice, it really becomes a non-issue with an angled scope, especially if you have some sort of aiming device on the body of the scope, which the Swaro does.
As for the HD vs. non-HD Swaros, both are so good, it's not as if you're sacrificing much by not going HD with this scope. The HD model just gives you a tiny bit better contrast and apparent sharpness due to almost non-existant chromatic aberration (color fringing).
Edited by RifleDude - October/24/2009 at 06:43
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