ORIGINAL: cardopski
I'm in the market for a better than average rifle scope. I'm trying to get a lightweight scope that offers good glass. Swarovski, Leupold, Nikon, Zeiss, all have scopes in the 11-13oz range, 3-9x mag. but vary greatly in cost ($200 - $1000)
Now, I do a bit of photography and when looking for 'fast glass' (lenses that offer a high amount of light transmission and low distortion/abberation) I can refer to a 'f-stop' rating. For example an 85mm f1.4 is 'faster' better glass than say an 85mm f4.5 (the latter is 'slower' meaning less light transmission and nearly impossible to get a crisp non-blurring shot in low-light conditions). Is there a SIMILAR number that can be referenced to rate the quality/ight transmission of rifle scope glass?
I know that when I buy any f1.4 glass from any lens maker (Canon, Nikon, Leica, Zeiss) it's gonna cost $$$. I have yet to see a number used to rate light transmission for rifle scope glass.
Is it all a matter of $$$—the more you spend, the better glass you get? Or am I missing something?
So, if I had 1k to spend and wanted a lightweight, roughly 3-9x scope which should I go with? Swarovski, Leupold, Nikon or Zeiss?
Any experience/advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
C
When speaking of the technical things, you're above my head on this one. In the scope industry, the light transmission #s one most often sees are in percentages, such as 93% or 95%. However, those figures don't seem to mean much, as many scopes with lower numbers will seem much brighter/sharper than others with higher numbers - to my eyes, anyway.
$1,000 will buy an excellent (and
then some!) scope, & the makes you've mentioned are all good. Swaro & Zeiss are usually mentioned above Leupold & Nikon, but trying to rank optics 'round these kinds of forums usually stirs up pages worth of heated (if ill-informed) debate among the partisans of each brand.
At that price level, I'd also suggest checking into Kahles, Docter Optics, and Schmidt & Bender.
To give you an idea of how my own eyes work, I compared a $399 Zeiss Conquest to a $960 (at the time) Swaro AV, & couldn't tell the difference. So when you go to the optics counter & start checking scopes for yourself, if your eyes tell you differently, then you'll know exactly how much of my post you should disregard.
Good luck on your scope quest!
FC