Leupold Compact scope

[Sitkaspruce]

I am selling my B&L Elite 20-60x70 spotting scope and want to replace it with a smaller, lighter one. the one I am looking at is the Leupold Compact 15-30x50. I am looking at changing for a couple of reasons. One is I need lower magnification as I have hand tremours and trying to hold a higher power scope still to focus and such is getting to be a PITA, secondly, I am no longer going to be able to do my goat and sheep hunts due to bad knees, so I do not need a big powerful scope.
Most of my hunting now will be for Black bears. Blacktails and mulies, where I could be looking at a max range of 1000 yards across a cut block or draw.

My questions are
Am I going to loose much with a 50 mm objective?
Am I better to go to the 12-40x60?
Is there other scopes out there with a low, 12-15 power to start?
I want to stick with Leupold or some company that has a no questions asked warranty. I have had problems with Pentax in the past so they are out.
My budget is around $800

Thanks

Cheers

SS

 

[Tree]

If you're interested, I have a Leupold 15-30x50 that has only been used a few times, it's pretty much like new. I'll let it go for 350. I bought a Zeiss shortly after buying the Leupold and haven't used it since.