Pentax is well known and respected in photography circles. I know nothing of their spotting scopes but I probably would not hesitate to try it out.

There are several top notch company when it comes to glass, Swarovski is among them, but they are not alone. There are some high end Nikons that are excellent. This one had ED glass:
http://www.nikonsportoptics.co...roductTabs-TechSpecs


This one has Ed glass and VR:
http://www.nikonsportoptics.co...r-85-fieldscope.html


Kowa has fantastic scopes also, especially in their Prominar series with fluorite glass.

When you get into that rarefied atmosphere of top end glass, it's virtually impossible to differentiate.

But remember one thing, a potting scope is used to read conditions when shooting, the better the glass the more it attenuates or minimizes the mirage. It's kind of counter productive. This is why I said that birders and shooters have somewhat different needs in spotting scopes.

I want ED glass in my riflescope, not in my spotting scopes. But that's just me.

Interesting thoughts on the ED glass for aspotting vs rifle scope. My shooting is more informal and shorter range in the 100-200yd area. It will be quite sometime before I can do the longer ranges.

Budget is a concern, and if I had the funds and serious use, I'd pick up a $3000 Swarovski. As it is, $1000 is pretty expensive for my uses so that's more my upper end.

Thanks!

Well, this is what I use, a Kowa TSN-82SV
https://www.amazon.com/Kowa-An...ywords=kowa+tsn-82sv

$669 at Amazon.com.

https://www.amazon.com/Kowa-TS...ywords=kowa+TSE-17HD

The eyepiece is $199 at amazon.com.

Total is less than $900.

Plus you can buy the 20-60X zoom eyepiece also, for birding purposes from BHphotovideo.com
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c...x_Zoom_Spotting.html

$289.