I have two of the top 4, S&B 3-12x50 and Kahles 3-12x56, and they are night and day from a VariX-III. I have more VX-III's than any other scopes, so I have many to compare them to. THey are 100% functional, but not in the same league. On a recent hunt i loaned a friend my .270 with a Swarovski on it and used a backup rifle with a VX III and was shocked at how diffferent it was. It has been some years since I spent that much time with the Leupolds. Again, they work, but they are not the same.

well this was PM'd to me and its all FWIW and FYI:

Here are the results from from the norwegian hunting magazine Jakt(Hunting) nr 8/2004.
They wanted to test only one thing :twilight performance.
And the target was a fox figure at 50meters range. They tested the scopes in low light first and later when it was very dark. There were 3 persons doing this test, between 20-50 years old.

Tester(Hans) A' s ranking:
S&B Zenith 2.5-10x56
Kahles Helia 3-12x56
Swarovski PH 2.5-20x56
Zeiss V 3-12x56
S&B Zenith 3-12x50
Zeiss Z 2.5-10x50
Swarovski PH 3-12x56
Leupold European 3-9x50
Leupold VX-3 3.5-10x50
Meopta 2000 3-12x50

Tester B (Hans Kristian)
Kahles Helia 3-12x56
Zeiss Diavara V 3-12x56
S&B Zenith 2.5-10x56
Swarovski 2.5-10x56
S&B Zenith 3-12x50
Zeiss Z 2.5-10x50
Swarovski PH 3-12x50
Meopta 3000 3-12x56
Leupold VX-3 3.5-10x50
Meopta 2000 3-12x50

Tester C (J�rund which also was the journalist)
Swarovski PH 2.5-10x56
S&B Zenith 2.5-10x56
Zeiss Diavara V 3-12x56
Kahles Helia 3-12x56
S&B Zenith 3-12x50
Meopta 3000 3-12x56
Zeiss Z 2.5-10x50
Swarovski PH 3-12x50
Leupold European 3-9x50
Leupold VX-3
Meopta 2000 3-12x56

They used only their eyes and tried over and over again to get a best possible result.
They only tested one specimen of each scope, so the result may vary a bit to another scope.

As you can see Zeiss Diavara V 3-12x56, Swarovski 2.5-10x56,S&B Zenith 2.5-10x56 and Kahles Helia 3-12x56 were top 4 among all testers. Very small differences between them so all got 10points.

Zeiss Z 2.5-10x50,Swarovski 3-12x50,S&B Zenith 3-12x50 and Meopta 3000 3-12x56 got all 8p. Only very small differences between them.
Leupold European 3-9x50 got 7p.

Leupold VX-3 and Meopta 3-12x50 got 6p.

They tried all scopes at different magnifications and they meant all were best at 8-9x magnification.

They also tried some scopes with illuminated reticle to see if there were differences and i.r. made it clearly easier to place a safe shot.

Please do not pay too much attention to the points. As the journalist wrote; even if 4 scopes were a bit ahead the others the differences are much less than ever.
They were all surprised how good the lowest ranked scopes are. And their prejudice for "medium" priced scopes were clearly wrong.

So if you can't afford the expensive europeans Leupold are a very good alternative, even if the europeans still are a little bit ahead.
I'am sure Leupold could scored a little bit better if they had a 56mm scope,but they don't!!

The "cheapest" scopes in this test was Leupold European,but I'am a little bit surpised it is ranked before VX-3. As the journalist wrote they only reported what their eyes told them.

One tester had one comment right to the point: " I would never believed this- (he is talking about the small differences .my comment.)- you can read sas many test's as you want,but the best way is to do it yourself."

And remember this is not a scientific and 100% objectiv test.