It's the 'Made in Germany' that I find interesting!
Well, that's the declaration on the 3-year Guarantee enclosed so it's a fact. There have been some sneering and supercilious comments from those who haven't actually bought one. These were on sale (even cheaper) 2 years ago but I was too slow to get one then. This is the thread that was posted.
http://www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk/showthread.php/8660-Cheap-spotting-scope-at-Aldi-on-Thursday
The firm is Optus Gmbh from Germany, as ALDI is. Does this shake the assumption that if optics are German they must be best quality and the most expensive to be had? It is possible to get 'acceptable' quality fit-for-purpose goods without heartstopping prices.
When I missed the first round I bought a Camlink CSP60 from Amazon for about £99 including tripod. This did the job, but I followed the handy hint here last week, got the Aldi Optus 20-60x60 zoom on Sunday, and tootled down to the range to give both a whirl.
I've got a bit of an optics checker mounted on the target board which is a black & white chequer-board pattern with squares in 25cm, 0.8cm, 0,6cm, and 0.4cm. Whenever a cooperative soul turns up with a mounted Z6, S&B PMII, or Zeiss I can furtively turn these onto the checker to see what the fine detail resolution is at various powers through the zoom range. These machines are way above what most of us actually need. If you have average eyesight you should be able to pick out a 1" square by eye (which is 1MOA @ 100yds) downrange on my little board - so a decent 4x or 6x should resolve the 0.6cm grid. Even a 4x is okay for for stalking shots up to 150yds, and should be enough to verify a roe 'button' buck at reasonable range which has come up in the binocs I think.
Using the same setup the Aldi clearly resolved detail at the 30X setting down to 0.6cm but was just outclassed by the Camlink which brought the 0.4cm into focus. The real image size at maximum is a bit optimistic ... probably about 52x. The problem is that whatever the real max is, at '60x' the image was pretty dim with both 'scopes so about 40x is about it in use. That's probably true for any 60mm 'scope. The Aldi was a lot better than a dumpy 15-60x Hawke, and an old Greenkat 22x which other guys were using at picking out .22rf bullet holes in the black of a 50-yd NSRA match card. Mine didn't have any curvature at the edges either.
If you use low-power 'scopes or variables set near bottom you need help to see those tiny bullet holes. This isn't an optics report from 'Which' but based on what I've seen if you want a supercheap spotting scope for standard ranges then go for the Aldi offer before the shelves empty.