Don't hear much about Zeiss scopes anymore. Why?

[Got Juice?]

Hensoldt is suppose to have great turrets... Didn't Zeiss learn anything while owning them???

"Hunting optics" is a telltale sign they weren't listening to their customers. Two reticles on their V8 line, NOT listening. Great optics only goes so far.

Makes you wonder. when Zeiss was on top, Swarovski, who were they? Vortex? Same thing, Kahles? Good but behind the times. Sightron? barely a blip on the screen.

Oh how things change.

 

[Got Juice?]

The V8 scope you are looking at looks damn fine, I hope it lives up to your needs! Their scopes do have a very high end look to them

 

[stubblejumper]

Hensoldt is suppose to have great turrets... Didn't Zeiss learn anything while owning them???

"Hunting optics" is a telltale sign they weren't listening to their customers. Two reticles on their V8 line, NOT listening. Great optics only goes so far.

The Zeiss lockplex target turrets are excellent, in that they are easy to adjust, but very difficult to move accidentally. I have yet to see another scope manufacturer with a better turret design.

 

[burnaby]

Compare these Hensoldt turrets to the Zeiss Victory V8.
18mil/rev, lift to switch to 2nd rev.
Zero stop with ~-.5 mil overtravel

Pretty easy to see this mfr has a better turret design.

Also take a look at the Kahles with the Parallax on the top turret leaving the windage on LEFT or RIGHT side. Way better design.

The Zeiss lockplex target turrets are excellent, in that they are easy to adjust, but very difficult to move accidentally. I have yet to see another scope manufacturer with a better turret design.

 

[propliner]

The Victory fluorite glass has been changed to HT glass in their new V8 scopes. They promise better colour rendition in the blue spectral range and slightly better light transmission. It seems like this new glass was perhaps developed for digital media and film projectors, as one of its selling points is less "thermal blooming", something we needn't worry about in scopes or binos.

There was a recent binocular review comparing the two types of glass, and the tester preferred the more natural-looking older FL glass to the newer generation's, and so do I.

I just picked up my second Victory FL scope today. I don't believe that lenses get any more natural-looking than this. The locking elevation turret (similar to the video above) is very nice and should suit my varmint rifle perfectly. My next purchase is a set of 8x32 FL binos before they become unobtainable new. I had a look through the new HT binos and I'm not sold on them. Reminds me of Swarovski and Leica and I believe it's headed in the wrong direction in terms of a more artificial-looking flat field. The clarity is excellent but it doesn't have the old "feel" of FL products' thicker fluorite glass. Cost-cutting perhaps?

I plan to put my "new" 50mm Zeiss up against a 56mm Tangent Theta tomorrow. But who knows? They might actually be cut from the exact same cloth, and I've always been impressed by the two for their similar attributes.

 

[propliner]

Well I just spent 30 minutes comparing the Victory FL 50mm to the Tangent Theta 56mm and all I can say is "Wow, does the TT ever blow this Zeiss out of the water". It beats it in every way. Clarity, contrast, colour, edge sharpness, brightness, close focus (the TT beat it by 20 yards on 5x), and actual zoom.

Of course, the TT has the lens size advantage so it might account for a lot of its superiority. But after a few minutes of testing, I found that looking through the TT was so much more pleasing to the eye and felt like it offered stress relief after looking through the Zeiss. My eye craved the Tangent Theta because it is simply that good.

The Victory was definitely outstanding but showed its flaws against the better glass. It couldn't achieve the clarity of focus and I found myself running the parallax knob back and forth looking for perfection. The Tangent Theta achieved this immediately.

Looking at a red truck parked behind evergreens, the difference in colour rendition was obvious. A brighter red and a greener green for the TT. Brown twigs stood out more clearly and almost shimmered with the TT whereas with the Zeiss they blended in more.

The TT also gives more zoom for each setting on the dial. I'd have to turn the TT to "5" to match the Zeiss' "6". Not a big deal, but in close focus the TT is simply amazing. With both set at 5x, the best close focus with the Zeiss was around 35 yards but the TT had perfect focus all the way in to 15 or less!

Looking around the sight picture, the Zeiss edges were soft and harder to find, and there was little but noticeable chromatic abberation, which surprised me. The TT had a solid edge with perfect clarity to each edge and comparatively, I could look all the way around without other parts of the picture darkening or diminishing. The TT is outstanding in this regard. It speaks to the larger exit pupil afforded by its larger lenses, but it's like a cavern in there, big and bright. I could find no chromatic abberation either, even while looking at the edges of brightly-lit snow patches.

As much as I hoped for Zeiss Victory FL to better the Tangent Theta 525P, it didn't. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. I'm not sure how TT is sourcing such fine glass but it could explain the ultra-premium price. Whatever they are doing internally with their lens geometry is working, too.

I know Zeiss can do better, and maybe they have with the HT glass and V8 scopes, but I don't own one and can't compare. If anyone has one and wants to, I'm in.