Riflescope Glass Education

DaveCervo72

DaveCervo72

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Great article and video on scope glass. Explains a lot of misconceptions that people may or may not have about expensive scopes claiming to have the best glass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvhL1SsNpqE&list=UUwHsnyWOaQNtrGjJKsTgegg#action=share

http://www.scout.com/military/snipers-hide/story/1490598-vortex-optics-factory-tour-glass-education

Vortex Optics Factory Tour - Glass Education
FRANK GALLI
12/10/2014

Glass Sourcing is often the most asked about question when it comes to a riflescope. People always want to know where is the glass from, despite not knowing anything about the chemical component of any given lens. Here we talk with Vortex Optics about Glass and more specifically, sourcing and why.

The subject of Glass always comes up when people talk riflescopes. They want to know the source, always, is it Schott, is it Japan or Hoya, who makes it and from where.
Watch the video for a short education on glass.

What they are really asking is part of an industry wide misconception, the idea that glass sourced from one place is noticeably superior to glass from another. The easiest way to debunk this is with camera lenses. While people in the Riflescope world want glass from Germany, the best pictures in the world and glass used in all the HD Cameras comes from Japan. Why is that, well here during our Vortex Factory tour we are looking to shed a little light on the subject.

Riflescopes are made of multiple elements, how they are spec’d AND assembled matters. Where it comes from not nearly as much. It’s about the coating, the design, the prescription created. The elements themselves are just a small part of it. Especially today.
 
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So if I may ask, whose glass does Vortex use? Nobody ever wants to answer the question except for the Germans.
 
Yes ... good article. The issue with glass these days is not the 'optical' properties imo but the physical properties ... how well is it ground/polished how securely are the elements mounted and the precision of the mechanical system that they are employed in -- is the design adequate for the purpose etc etc . For hunting scopes we have had glass that could easily out-resolve the human eye for decades .. I have a prewar (WWII) Zeiss 2 3/4 that is apochromatically corrected and provides a superb image to the eye ... unfortunately manufactured before coating was available so you dont want to be facing a low sun with it.

I would like to see manufacturers concentrate on small things like hard coatings (or similar technology) for the exterior lens surfaces and providing lens shades (front and perhaps the rubber ones for the rear) that really help to eliminate flare. Maybe reticle placements and design that dont have the inherent tolerance challenges that centered reticles (sfp or ffp) have. Maybe electronic image magnification for variables rather than some of the tolerance dependent systems used today.

as for
the best pictures in the world and glass used in all the HD Cameras comes from Japan
Click to expand...
... maybe ... and I have absolutely no complaints about Nikon compared to Leitz etc.... but a number of years ago the acknowledged leader in photo optics for resolution and contrast was the Leitz Apo-Telyt 180 f3.4....it was produced in Midland Ontario by E.Leitz Canada (ELCAN) .... we didnt even know it existed for many years after it was initially developed and produced for the US Navy ... classified for quite a while before it could be released for public sale. You have to wonder what other 'optical gems' are currently in this category?
 
Not sure why this is so difficult to understand

Lens manufacturers like Nikon, Canon, Tameron all use Japanese glass of various qualities.

A $300 Nikon zoom lens is obviously not as high quality as a $3000 Nikon zoom lens.
 
A scope manufacturer is going to get the lens they pay for. From the customers point of view what he sees is what he gets. Chances are, he's going to get what he paid for too. Trouble is, everything that makes it a rifle scope and not a telescope aren't readily obvious without buying and putting it through its paces. That's going to cost you a lot of money and time to find out. By the time
It gets to a warranty claim they should be begging for forgiveness, not bragging about warranty. You don't win when a manufacturer fixes their mistakes, you just never lost quite as bad.
 
I think this was a very good and refreshing video... my takeaway.

Country of origin does not determine the Quality of the product. Some of the best optical lenses in the world come from..... The Phillipines.. factories don't care where their foundations are errected.

Scope manfs have resources and do/should understand how the "ingredients" used can affect their end product... so there is little reason for an optic to have poor optical qualities when paying big bucks.

Every part and component is tested and engineered to give the end user the best performance possible.... excellence is a measure of the devices performance, NOT how well the warranty works.

I wish Vortex well and I sense they are heading in the right direction.

Jerry
 
Take the best Japanese or German glass, send it to China to be turned into a scope and you will get an unreliable sketchy QC pile of ####. So yes, it abso####inglutely matters where it is assembled.
 
Glass quality is not the all end all of a scope. You can have the best glass going, but if the scope won't hold zero or fails from recoil (abuse) it's just and expensive POS. Warranty means absolutely nothing when your equipment fails on a hunt
 
canadaman30 said:
Glass quality is not the all end all of a scope. You can have the best glass going, but if the scope won't hold zero or fails from recoil (abuse) it's just and expensive POS. Warranty means absolutely nothing when your equipment fails on a hunt
Click to expand...

Agreed, I can care less how good a warranty is cause every company has a good warranty these days. I like the piece of mind of reliability combined with performance and quality.
 
Something to consider about warranties; do you think the company is going to be around to honour it? If they came out of nowhere they can disappear into nowhere. Many don't even make their own scopes.
 
DaveCervo72 said:
Agreed, I can care less how good a warranty is cause every company has a good warranty these days. I like the piece of mind of reliability combined with performance and quality.
Click to expand...

Depends what you classify as good. Let's take Schmidt & Bender for example. Their warranty is 2-10 years, depending on the model, with a guaranteed availability of parts for 30 years. Yet no one ever mentions that they bought one because of their warranty, because the fact is that their glass and coatings is top and they have very few defects in material/workmanship, which is what a warranty should cover.
A lot of the current manufacturers, like Vortex, are basically saying that when your scope fails, we'll fix it or replace it for free. And don't think for a minute they don't have that worked into their prices.

Chris Farley sums it up well.

[youtube]mEB7WbTTlu4[/youtube]
 
Picking out glass and coatings is a small part out of building a good reliable scope, everything has to come together and work right, or as right as it can.
Lets try to keep in mind that just like in any other form of product manufacturing, things are usually made for around 1/3-1/6th(or even less) of the final retail cost. So your $1000-1500 scope really is about a $150-300 scope, with 100+ parts in it that all have to be made, assembled, and well... lets just say some of the QC is left to the end user... part of why some fail right out of the box, some brands/models more so than others.
 
bearkilr said:
Depends what you classify as good. Let's take Schmidt & Bender for example. Their warranty is 2-10 years, depending on the model, with a guaranteed availability of parts for 30 years. Yet no one ever mentions that they bought one because of their warranty, because the fact is that their glass and coatings is top and they have very few defects in material/workmanship, which is what a warranty should cover.
A lot of the current manufacturers, like Vortex, are basically saying that when your scope fails, we'll fix it or replace it for free. And don't think for a minute they don't have that worked into their prices.

Chris Farley sums it up well.

[youtube]mEB7WbTTlu4[/youtube]
Click to expand...

Hahahaha love this. Chris Farley is great.

But ya what you said makes total sense.
 
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