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

burnaby said:
Thanks for the clarification, should have posted this in the first place to avoid the confusion.
Agree the Zeiss scopes are targeted to LR hunters. The rage nowadays is PRS with FFP, XMas tree reticles, MRAD, Zero stops...; Great for those that actually do PRS.

Apparently with Zeiss owning Schott they get first crack at picking out the best. Am looking seriously at getting a Zeiss scope cause realistically my usage aligns with LR hunting and not PRS.
Any links on sites that are optics authority for high end hunting scopes like Zeiss?
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Check out opticsthoughts.com, quite a bit of relatively unbiased info about all scopes.


Zeiss isn't really aiming their top line at LR hunting, just hunting in general. It's just not all that popular outside of North America. Hunters in other parts of the world are more concerned with simplicity, light gathering and they really like their illuminated reticles. Same goes for Swarovski and S&B. Zeiss used to own Hensoldt, which was their LR/PRS line, but I believe they sold that. Swarovski was very reluctant to get into the turrets,reticles,etc, but have some scopes as of late. S&B has their popular PM line for the long range crowd, but still caters to hunters looking for high quality hunting scopes with the Zenith, Stratus and Polar line.

For my eyes, the clearest scope I've looked through is the S&B Zenith and I've looked through a bunch, though certainly not all. Your experience may be different, as your eyes are different, but the Zeiss Victory, Swarovski Z6, Leica Magnus, S&B Zenith, etc are as good as it gets. It may sound like I'm biased toward European optics, but the fact is I just haven't looked through a Japanese or North American hunting scope that I believe can match these. Leupold scopes are great bang for the buck, and I have a bunch, but the ones priced with the top of the line Euro scopes come up short, IMO.
If you're looking for a top all around hunting scope with clear optics as the first and foremost, I'd ignore all the bell and whistles of the LR focused scopes like the Vortex Razor, Nightforce NXS, etc.
If you're doing more long range shooting than hunting, then things may change for you.
 
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Interested in long range shooting with new 338LM. All ready to jump on the Zeiss Victory V8 bandwagon. Reviews on CGN and others coincides the V8 glass is top notch.

Didn't mind the oddball 36mm tube as high end mounts in 34 or 36 are equally expensive.

No FFP or XMas tree reticles is fine, PRS not likely in my future (thank you messed up back).

OK with SFP and FCH or MilDot reticle but only 13MRAD/44.7MOA elevation.

For the zero stop, one turn turret and .05 MRAD clicks they sacrificed the elevation adj. to only 13MRAD/44.7MOA.

A typical 338LM with 200m zero needs 34MOA for 1100m (where 338 starts). At 1750m need ~78.5MOA

ERA-TAC 0-70MOA adj mount would add 70MOA at the expense of complexity. No more simply turning turrets.

Agree with one reviewer V8 seems to target hunting to 600m. Not good for LR shooter going 1000m+.

Back to the drawing board. A .1MRAD turret adj. with 26MRAD would have been ideal. Maybe V8 ver 2 but with V8 only out last year ver 2 may be a while.

Need to check out opticsthoughts.com and Opticstalk for other top end offerings.
bearkilr said:
Check out opticsthoughts.com, quite a bit of relatively unbiased info about all scopes.


Zeiss isn't really aiming their top line at LR hunting, just hunting in general. It's just not all that popular outside of North America. Hunters in other parts of the world are more concerned with simplicity, light gathering and they really like their illuminated reticles. Same goes for Swarovski and S&B. Zeiss used to own Hensoldt, which was their LR/PRS line, but I believe they sold that. Swarovski was very reluctant to get into the turrets,reticles,etc, but have some scopes as of late. S&B has their popular PM line for the long range crowd, but still caters to hunters looking for high quality hunting scopes with the Zenith, Stratus and Polar line.

For my eyes, the clearest scope I've looked through is the S&B Zenith and I've looked through a bunch, though certainly not all. Your experience may be different, as your eyes are different, but the Zeiss Victory, Swarovski Z6, Leica Magnus, S&B Zenith, etc are as good as it gets. It may sound like I'm biased toward European optics, but the fact is I just haven't looked through a Japanese or North American hunting scope that I believe can match these. Leupold scopes are great bang for the buck, and I have a bunch, but the ones priced with the top of the line Euro scopes come up short, IMO.
If you're looking for a top all around hunting scope with clear optics as the first and foremost, I'd ignore all the bell and whistles of the LR focused scopes like the Vortex Razor, Nightforce NXS, etc.
If you're doing more long range shooting than hunting, then things may change for you.
Click to expand...
 
bearkilr said:
For my eyes, the clearest scope I've looked through is the S&B Zenith and I've looked through a bunch, though certainly not all. Your experience may be different, as your eyes are different, but the Zeiss Victory, Swarovski Z6, Leica Magnus, S&B Zenith, etc are as good as it gets. It may sound like I'm biased toward European optics, but the fact is I just haven't looked through a Japanese or North American hunting scope that I believe can match these. Leupold scopes are great bang for the buck, and I have a bunch, but the ones priced with the top of the line Euro scopes come up short, IMO.
If you're looking for a top all around hunting scope with clear optics as the first and foremost, I'd ignore all the bell and whistles of the LR focused scopes like the Vortex Razor, Nightforce NXS, etc.
If you're doing more long range shooting than hunting, then things may change for you.
Click to expand...

I have a S&B Zenith, a Zeiss Victory and a March. They are all phenomenal scopes but for a dual-role, the March is king. It's compact, has excellent exposed compact turrets, and the glass is every bit the equal of the European scopes. The reticle choices of the March are superior, too.

I also have a Tangent Theta 5-25 which leaves everything else in the dust, but it can never be considered a hunting scope. Maybe the 3-15 would be an excellent dual-role scope but I can't attest to it personally.
 
I was curious about March, and after looking at their website I think they produce a very interesting range of scopes. I rarely see them on the range, but I have heard very positive reports on quality.

Zeiss have always been a top end, no frills just quality producer of reliable optics. A bit like a Mercedes of the 80's, well built but a bit staid. I'd still like one for hunting, but not their economy range.

Candocad.
 
Zeiss has cheapened their brand IMO. Rebranding Meopta was fine, since Meopta makes superb optics, and even though it was Meopta's budget line, the Conquest series were great for the money.

The Made in China Terra line of scopes and binos was a huge mistake. They are fine for the money I guess, but they are not great and rebadging Chinese made stuff should be above a Euro company with their own production and reputation. They are just trying to cash in on a name, and in the end, they end up hurting that name.
 
cam1936 said:
Zeiss has cheapened their brand IMO. Rebranding Meopta was fine, since Meopta makes superb optics, and even though it was Meopta's budget line, the Conquest series were great for the money.

The Made in China Terra line of scopes and binos was a huge mistake. They are fine for the money I guess, but they are not great and rebadging Chinese made stuff should be above a Euro company with their own production and reputation. They are just trying to cash in on a name, and in the end, they end up hurting that name.
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Terra are made in Japan......
 
A quick google search has folks at opticstalk saying Terra riflescopes are Japanese, the binos are Chinese.

When China takes over as the other superpower folks are going to be upset; just a matter of time.
 
kamlooky said:
Some how this just sit quite right with me.
Weren't the Conquest a higher end scope than the Terra's?




:agree:
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conquest line was discontinued because of how many were getting sent back to the US factory. The terra line (japan) replaced them. The conquest HD5 is german made but still far below the Victory line in clarity when I look through them side by side.

If you want military scopes, Zeiss has the Hensoldt line.
 
"Hensoldt is a brand of Airbus Defense & Space...
A former military contract division of Zeiss Sport Optics, the two entities split paths but remain committed to the same levels of quality. "
Brian46 said:
conquest line was discontinued because of how many were getting sent back to the US factory. The terra line (japan) replaced them. The conquest HD5 is german made but still far below the Victory line in clarity when I look through them side by side.

If you want military scopes, Zeiss has the Hensoldt line.
Click to expand...
 
I don't like the idea of Chinese made stuff, but it's an inevitability in the modern world. Look at a company like Leupold, the flag-waving bastion of scope Americana: not a single piece of glass in any of their scopes is made in the US. It's ALL from Asia, and has been for decades. I believe that their metal castings for things like scope rings are also sourced from Asia/China and then machined domestically.
 
Superbrad said:
Well.... we both learned something here... I really like the Terra scopes and was thinking of buying a set of the binos.... Won't be doing that now
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I have used the binos a few times, assumed the scopes were the same but it sounds like the Terra scopes are at a higher tier of quality than the binos.

If you are looking for binos I would avoid trusting consumer reviews on big sites like Amazon or bhphoto. Lots of buyers are pretty oblivious to good optics and lots of mediocre binoculars have very good reviews on the big sites. The binocular forums on http://www.birdforum.net/ are a great place to read reviews on binos as those birders are generally very knowledgeable about optics and their requirements are quite similar to ours.

I'm a Meopta fan boy. If one of their binoculars suits your budget/requirements I would suggest you take a look.
 
I have a Zeiss Terra and I have not been impressed at all with it. The internals got shook loose on my K31 within 6 months, the eye relief was minuscule, and when I sent them in for warranty I was told, "expect to wait 8 months or so". Yeah. I bought a Nikon Monarch 3 as an intermediate scope while waiting for my Zeiss to get returned and I have not looked back. Zeiss replaced the scope within 2 months, but I now have it on my CZ 7.62x39 - it should be able to handle that recoil.
 
I wonder what happened to the Zeiss factory in Hungary. They built much of the Conquest stuff and it was pretty decent quality.
 
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