I bought this spotting scope for target shooting. The small tripod (combined with the angled eye-piece) works well when shooting prone rifle, and also on a table top for pistol shooting (standing). Image quality is satisfactory on minimum magnification (20x), but deteriorates at higher values. The scope is light, probably because most of the optical components are plastic rather than glass, but seems reasonably robust. It comes with a zipped fabric carrying case, but the tripod is loose. At the cheap price, this scope represents good value, but for serious bird watching I would consider something much more expensive from a quality maker.