Scope Review High end vs Mid range vs Low end.

[Foxyboy43]

Excellent job - well done that man and thanks for the time and effort you clearly (see wot I did there) put into it.
For what it is worth I have had a mid-range Hawke on my 6.5x55 for some years now - bought new it was c.£300 - it has never lost zero and the clarity is excellent right up to dark so it does all I ever ask of it. That said the S&B and Leupold on my .308s just nudge it on clarity but the acid test for me is can I see clearly enough to safely take a shot at identified quarry - and guess what - they all do it in spades. Soooo you pays your money…..
I look forward to the build quality review - I imagine there will be few surprises there.

 

[Zane1988]

Could you do it again with the window open ?
Be interesting

I did take them outside the day before many times.
same result. The images are no where near as clear because photographing though the lens will never
produce the same result as looking through them. the videos show this a bit better so will try upload

 

[Heym SR20]

These days pretty much all optics have pretty hood lenses.

Its the bouncing in vehicles, subject to recoil that really shows up the difference. Its no surprise that S&B have cornered the military sniper rifle market, although Vortex seem to have cornered the mass infantry type market.

 

[Zane1988]

These days pretty much all optics have pretty hood lenses.

Its the bouncing in vehicles, subject to recoil that really shows up the difference. Its no surprise that S&B have cornered the military sniper rifle market, although Vortex seem to have cornered the mass infantry type market.

Absolutely!
I did not test or comment on the build quality, service, tracking or zero retention which I would guess the mid-higher end would be much better.
this test was purely optical quality which although there is a difference.
Its marginal, so for the weekend warrior or casual stalker on a budget, its possible to get good optics without breaking the bank.

 

[Heym SR20]

Absolutely!
I did not test or comment on the build quality, service, tracking or zero retention which I would guess the mid-higher end would be much better.
this test was purely optical quality which although there is a difference.
Its marginal, so for the weekend warrior or casual stalker on a budget, its possible to get good optics without breaking the bank.

Agree. One thing I would comment on is that by the looks of it you were looking through a window. This can and does make a big difference.

I think in the UK we are optic snobs. I suppose we are limited on the number of rifles hence we do the spend on optics. We also to spend lots of money on optics that we really don’t use to the full. You might need a 5-25x56 S&B Sniper scope to hit a target at 2km away. But you don’t need that type of optic to shoot a deer at 100, 200 or even 300 yards away.

 

[HonestJohn]

think you put the meopta in the zeiss comparison for 12x

 

[Zane1988]

Agree. One thing I would comment on is that by the looks of it you were looking through a window. This can and does make a big difference.

I think in the UK we are optic snobs. I suppose we are limited on the number of rifles hence we do the spend on optics. We also to spend lots of money on optics that we really don’t use to the full. You might need a 5-25x56 S&B Sniper scope to hit a target at 2km away. But you don’t need that type of optic to shoot a deer at 100, 200 or even 300 ya

I tried them all outside and through the window (being lazy and not wanting to leave the scopes outside all day) did not make much difference to be fair.
certainly we are optic snobs in the UK. I was curious to see the difference the zeiss would have with my old trusty Hawke. For general stalking, I don't think a lot for my personal stalking. Certainly not for the price difference!
But yet I will stick with the Zeiss for now.

 

[Zane1988]

think you put the meopta in the zeiss comparison for 12x

No they are correct. Zeiss is FFP Meopta is SFP
Meopta is far wider FOV at 2x compared to Zeiss 3x mag
Zeiss is wider FOV at 12x compared to Meopta though.

 

[HonestJohn]

No they are correct. Zeiss is FFP Meopta is SFP
Meopta is far wider FOV at 2x compared to Zeiss 3x mag
Zeiss is wider FOV at 12x compared to Meopta though.

3-12 FOV?

that's f**king amazing because the zeiss then suddenly developed a black dot in the middle of the reticle at 12x ...unless of course I'm wrong and at high zoom the zeiss 'does' build in a black dot which can then become illuminated or other.

happy to be proven wrong

 

[Zane1988]

3-12 FOV?

that's f**king amazing because the zeiss then suddenly developed a black dot in the middle of the reticle at 12x ...unless of course I'm wrong and at high zoom the zeiss 'does' build in a black dot which can then become illuminated or other.

happy to be proven wrong

Zeiss does appear to have a central dot at lower mag 3x. Due to it being FFP you cannot see the + in the centre.
At higher mag the Zeiss gets the + visible and the dot disappears in the centre of that cross
Dot is the Illumination system visible. You can see the Meopta reticle stays the same with the thicker part of the reticle constant.
the Zeiss gets much thinner at 3x and much thicker at 12x