Days upon days upon days of glassing fields and mountains will tell you everything you need to know about a spotting scope. During this year’s Pronghorn archery hunts in Nebraska and Wyoming, I spent about 16 hours a day over a week glassing miles and miles of rolling hills through my scope.
The ZeroTech Trace Advanced spotting scope proved up to the task. The 60X power optic allowed me to see across the massive fields of America’s west and find the spots where the good speed goats were (or, more often, were not). A comfortable eye box and an outstanding image quality meant less eye strain and the ability to stay in the optic for days on end, and the OSR first focal plane reticle puts it in a class all its own.
The most important aspect of any spotting scope is — no surprise here — the image quality. That’s where the Trace Advanced shines, providing a crisp, clear image at ranges from as close as 10 yards to way, way on out there. Dialing the optic to its maximum magnification, I was able to not just spot, but judge the quality of the horns and body size of pronghorn 1,000 yards away. I could spot groups moving across the hills at over two miles. And it was no challenge identifying hits and misses on the range back home. Using the built-in reticle to watch and measure the bullet traces through the air was an added bonus.
ZeroTech advertises the Trace Advanced has “FMC” coatings. That means each optical surface throughout the scope has a broadband multi coating, reducing reflection on the surface of the glass and allowing more light throughput.
Coatings make up a significant cost in the development and manufacture of high quality optics, but you’ll definitely experience their value in the quality of the image itself, especially during the low light hours around dusk and dawn when most of the best hunting takes place.
The Trace Advanced image quality is great, but to be fair, there’s no shortage of spotting scopes with great glass at this price range. The real differentiator is the OSR MRAD reticle on this first focal plane optic.
OSR stands for ZeroTech’s optimized spotting reticle. Quite simply, it’s an offset reticle. Instead of there being any kind of cross-hatch in the center of the optic, there’s a subtended bar on the left of the image and another at the bottom. As it’s a first focal plane scope, it scales with the image as you zoom. That leaves the center clear for an uncluttered image, but makes it easy to simply move the optic over to the edge of whatever you’re trying to measure for precise measurement. It works perfectly.
As far as the reticle itself, I was able to measure it against a marked up 19-inch silhouette. In both the horizontal and vertical measurements, the subtensions scaled as perfectly as I could tell, out to 800 yards.
Another well thought out feature is the magnification and focus controls. They’re all aligned right next to each other. That may not seem important, but if you’re trying to make out small details far away, trying to mil them, the small movement with your hand from the magnification to the focus really makes a difference. With both controls in-line and right next to each other, there’s little to no movement to disturb the scope.
ZeroTech advertises the ZeroTech Trace Advanced Spotting Scope as having a IPX7 water resistance rating. That means it should be able to sit under three feet of water for about half an hour. I dunked mine in a tub for 30 minutes without a problem. I also put it in my freezer overnight and then let it warm up the next day. Zero issues.
It’s pretty clear that the ZeroTech Trace Advanced spotting scope was designed for shooters by shooters. That’s not just because of the reticle and the control layout, but also the M-LOK compatible slots located at the 12, 3 and 9 o’clock positions. The most obvious use for the top slot is to mount a rangefinder. You could also use the other slots to mount a phone/ballistic calculator on one side and a weather meter on the other. That would make a complete spotting station in one place.
For the US shooter, ZeroTech may sound like a new name. In the US, that would be accurate, but the Australian company has been providing optics to shooters in the southern hemisphere since 2018. They’ve began distributing to the US market in 2020. ZeroTech’s warranty is pretty awesome, although I’ve had no reason to employ it:
*Unconditional lifetime replacement or repair
*Regardless of the fault or the reason, ZeroTech products will be covered for the life of the product
*No paperwork or proof of purchase is required
*The Warranty is fully transferable, if you sell the scope the warranty automatically goes with it.
ZeroTech has developed a well thought out, exceptionally well performing spotting scope. Beyond the image quality with the Optimized Spotting Reticle built into the first focal plane scope, the Trace Advanced is in a class by itself.
Specifications: ZeroTech Trace Advanced Spotting Scope
Focal Plane: First (FFP) OSR MRAD Reticle
Magnification Range: 20-60
Objective Lens Diameter: 80mm
M-LOK Compatible: Yes
Waterproof rating: IPX7
Parallax Adjustment Range: 10 Meters – Infinity
Exit Pupil Diameter: Low: 4mm; High: 1.3mm
Eye Relief: 30mm
Field Of View @1000 Meters:Low: 38.4m; High: 12.6m
Weight: 2377g
Available Reticles:Optimised Spotting Reticle (OSR) MRAD
Price: $1,999
Manufacturer’s suggested retail price is $1,999??? Holy Cow. That thing better be able to spot the next new comet in our solar system!
I understand that quality glass (for the lenses) and quality coatings on all glass surfaces (which significantly increase both image brightness AND contrast) have some expense to them. Having said that, I am having a VERY hard time justifying that $2,000 price tag in spite of using high quality glass and coatings. To be blunt, you can purchase an outstanding astronomical telescope (which will produce equally if not superior sharp, bright, and higher contrast images) for half of that price.
By the way the idea of a spotting scope going to 60x magnification is a bad idea for the simple reason that the “exit pupil” will be about 1.3mm in diameter. That means the scope will project its image onto a 1.3mm diameter circle–compared to your eyeball’s pupil diameter of at least 5mm. What does that mean in simple terms? The image starts to get dark and you have to line up your eyeball PERFECTLY with the optical axis of the scope to see it when the exit pupil is 1.3mm.
In the optical world (speaking of all optics–spotting scopes, binoculars, monoculars, astronomical telescopes, etc.), it is generally a very good idea to use your optic such that its exit pupil is at least 4mm in diameter, which means you should limit your magnification to: your objective lens diameter (in millimeters) divided by 4mm. For example, if your objective lens is 80mm (such as the spotting scope of this article), you will generally want to limit your magnification to 20x (which is 80mm / 4mm). Another example would be a rifle scope. If your scope’s objective lens is 40mm, then you will usually want to limit your magnification to 40mm / 4mm == 10x. (Note that popular rifle scopes with 3x to 9x variable magnification almost always have a minimum object lens diameter of 40mm for that very reason.)
It’s not cheap, but yeah, that price is right in line with competition, plus the reticle. I also enjoy stargazing and end up often using my spotting scopes more than my telescopes because of mobility and durability.
A 60X is great if you actually want to see tiny things far away. If you don’t want to see such tiny things, or so far away, you can back off the magnification.