Interesting backstory NoMercy. I have a Nikon spotting scope and it's okay but not as good of quality as my Leupold Gold Ring. I'm not a fan of Nikon's reticles so hadn't planned on buying any of their scopes. I started with Canon instead of Nikon and honestly just stayed with Canon because the lenses never go bad and I had a lot of $ invested in lenses. On some models Nikon is a little better and on some Canon beats them. It just depends upon which camera body you're considering IMHO.