I have long suspected that the industry coats the lens of scopes to "appear" clearer to the end user under artificial light because they realize that most end users are going to make their purchase based on what they see in the showroom floor under artificial lights.


The showroom floor is NOT the place to be judging any optic rather it be a Scope, Binocular or Spotting scope. The Place to compare or test optics is in the field under the field conditions that you plan to hunt in.

Comparing a host of scopes under field conditions is not always ideal. My suggestion to anyone wanting to purchase a optic is to show up near your favorite sporting goods store near the time the sun goes down and ask if you can step outside to view your intended purchase. looking through a dirty glass window from the store does no good because A. The Glass is dirty B. The Glass in the window is NOT the same quality Glass your Scope is made of.

Offer to leave your drivers lic or a cash deposit if necessary to alleviate any concerns of a theft. If your favorite sporting goods store is illuminated by a lot of street lights and parking lights find another sporting goods store. But TEST these optics as close to field conditions as you can before you purchase. Optics under artificial light can and WILL give you a FALSE sense of what the product will do.

I have compared way too many of the so called cheap scopes in the showroom that "appear' to be "all that" and a virgin on prom night only to see them in the field to fail miserably under field conditions.

DO NOT BE FOOLED by manufactures manipulation of lens coatings.

There is a lot of truth to your observation.

Good point Ed. I'd also like to add that lens coatings are just as proprietary and varying as any of the other components of scopes and binoculars. It's very hard to compare coatings from different manufacturers because the type, quality, and formulas used in the manufacturing process are so different, even if the end goal is the same.

The most simplistic rule of thumb that can be applied is to always look for "fully multi-coated," which means every lens surface between the objective lens and the eyepiece lens has the same lens coatings to facilitate reflectivity and light transmission. "Multi-coated" means that only the exterior surfaces are coated, usually for durability over light transmission. That doesn't mean that a multi-coated optic is necessarily worse, it just means that fully multi-coated optics will usually have better light transmission on paper.

To be clear, most branded manufacturers utilize fully multi-coated optics and prisms in their quality offerings. It's the dollar store stuff that you have to pay attention to. If it's not explicity labeled, chances are that it's not.

Also, there's a bunch of variables that come together to produce the quality of the image you see when looking through a bunch of lenses. Aperture size, magnification, number of lenses, clarity, sharpness, lens coatings, chromatic aberration, field of view, focal length, field curvature... it's all a very complicated, so Ed's warning is very accurate.