I like Swarovski's. I think both will hold there own down to legal shooting time, as will nearly any quality optic.

Another vote for the Zeiss although I haven't looked through the Swarovski. If they are the same price it'd be tough but I'm pretty sure the Zeiss costs less and I know it's a great scope for the price. Have Zeiss Conquest binos too and they are just as nice.

Parallax is basically the focus of the scope. Scopes without the adjustment have the focus set at around 150 yards. Your eye can adjust the focus up close and farther away on those. Once you start getting to the higher magnifications your eye can't ajust enough any more so you'll have to adjust the parallex to get the correct focus on longer or closer targets.

From Zeiss homepage...

"Parallax

Parallax presents itself as the seeming movement of the reticle, in relation to the target, when your eye moves off center of the sight picture. It indicates that the scope is out of focus. Even when parallax-adjusted for a designated distance, there is an inadvertent error at other distances. Parallax worsens at higher magnifications. "

Power

Focus is a pretty loose term. I think that all my zeiss actually have focus rings on them in addition to parallax adjustment. Am I wrong?

Rost..depending on model it probably has a focus ring, which helps focus the reticle. Unless it is an A/O model, meaning adjustable objective you can not adjust the parallax, (Without sending it back to the co).

I have Zeiss COnquest and this weekend w/ a full moon we were able to shot hogs at midnight w/o any additional light. For the price it is hard to beat the Zeiss. I bought mine just for hog hunting at night and have been really pleased w/ it. As long as I have any moon light at all I can normally see well enough to shoot w/o additional light.

Good to know I was mostly right on the parallex thing. Better to read Zeiss's definition though. I went with my observation with playing with my 4.5-14x44 Conquest. It's really nice that adjustment is on the turret.

Here's a more detailed explanation of parallax if anyone gives a hoot:

http://www.usoptics.com/sub_pages/parallax.php