I have one of these scope - am currently using it on a 375 Ruger Alaskan. A question and a two comments.
Question, is the red dot really self adjusting? I can't find anything about that in the literature on the scope and as far as I could tell what was really happening was that the illumination was simply not bright enough to see in bright light? I tried playing around with my Swarovski Z6i's and if you have the illumination set to a mid type setting, they act the same. I know the Swaro's don't have adaptive illumination.
Comment one, the distortion some people are talking about I think has to do with the variable nature of the glass yes but also I think the 1x might actully be a little less than 1x? It sure looks like a bit of fisheye to me.
Comment two, I really like the scope for my intended purpose. I want a wide field of view when I'm hunting in the thick bush but have the ability to go out to 300 yards when I come out to an open field. For the money, it really can't be beat - I think its only competitors are the leupold Mark 8's (crazy money) and the Schmidt and Benders 1-8x Flashdot (advertised but not available anywhere on this planet that I can tell).
Oh and attempting to answer some of the questions regarding effective range - when I say 300 yards, I'm talking Elk and with my not so accurate 375. I don't think you'd have any problem engaging man size targets out to 600 yards though, even with old man eyes like I have.
Cheers!