The comparison between Schmidt & Bender and Swrovski and Leupold or Burris is night and day when in the field. After using these extensively you will understand that the American scopes are not in the same league. Not that they won't do the job most of the time, but the quality is night and day.

S&B Zenith

Zentih is S&B:s latest model with high optical quality and good ergonomical solutions. Sharpness and colour-reproduction is good except for lower sharpness in the margins of the image. In the middle part of the image the scope is among the best, but the obvious contrast with the margins makes the image feel "wobbly". When looking towards the source of light the scope performs well. The marker for center postition is a plus. The performance in twilight is among the best.

S&B

This scope is of absolute top quality and ranked among the best in the last test also. The sharpness is wonderful all the way to the margin of the image and the colour-reproduction is soft and comfortable. Our twlight-test shows that darkness has to reign before your forced to call it quits. Ergonomics and performance when looking towards the source of light is very good. This scope is definitely among the top contenders.

thank you!

Hi,

I have this paper and can provide the following translation (hopefully not to bad):

S&B Zenith 2.5-10*56: Zenith is the latest scope from S&B with high optical quality and good ergonomical solutions. Focus and color replication is good but the lenses have bad focus on the outer part. In the center the focus is among the best in the test but the lower quality of focus towards the outer parts of the lens is so evident that the image is disturbed.
Glare performance is real good and the indicator of cross hair position is an ergonomical hit. Twilight performance is among the best in the test.

S&B 2.5-10*56: This scope is absolute top quality and was rated at top position already at the previous test. The focus is very good from the center to the outer parts of the lens and color replication is soft and pleasant. Our twilight test also shows that the darkness has to be compact before throwing in the towel. Ergonomics and glare performance are also very good. This scope is part of the final competetion.

My conclusion of the test is that I would like a Zeiss scope with the Trijicon illumination system.

Regards

I have a bad taste in my mouth for Leupold right now. I own a few of them, and don't have the money to change all my rifles. I bought a 3-9 Docter and it makes every VARI-XIII I own look like crap for less money.

Right now I own Kahles, Ziess, Leupold, Burris, Docter, Nikon, and Weaver. I like the Kahles and Docter the best then Ziess then Burris. All are middle of the road scopes mostly 3.5-10 or 3-9.

Congratulations Sako75. What a task to enter all these datas, but the result is worth the task.
Very interesting.

I am embarrassed at my ignoring the non-european scopes. Nonetheless I have a high opinion of Leupold.
Speaking of Schmitt & Bender : I have rather Swaro and Zeiss but I learned interesting news about Schmitt & Bender.
Schmitt & Bender seems not to make lenses, the lenses are made by LEICA.
Leica has nothing to prove about lens quality, it is considered the best in photo cameras. Consequently Schmitt & Bender is an excellent option. Also, note that they are building Safari scopes which are made of steal, no alu or titanium, a token of sturdiness. Sorry, I love Swaro.

jb
youre swaro is one of the older ones excellent quality i very stupidly sold my older 1
and i bought a swaro 3-12x50 tds which crap compared to the older 1 i have sold the newer 1 i have no room on my rifles for bad optics it was the worse swaro i have ever seen..
see you friday
steve

Impressive tests indeed.
Personally I have a Zeiss and a Swarowski on a .308Win and .270. I keep them there because with .338 and up bores they tend to "skip" on occasion.

Now please refer to "Rifle" magazine within the last year, where scopes were judged for holding together at heavy recoil on big bore rifles. The article was by J. Barsness based on not only his experience but that of PH's and famous gunsmiths such as D'arcy Nichols.
Their finding was that the leupolds were on top of the line, and of course that the fixed powers were more reliable then the variables. Still the Leupolds at times leave to be desired as they at times do skip under heavy recoil and need to have the internal springs changed. I have send 4 back in the last 15 years to have it done, plus one broken cross hair.

We all know that the scope is the most delicate part of the entire rifle set up.

What qualities do we need in a rifle scope ???
I believe that the first and foremost requirement is
RELIABILITY, meaning recoil proof and repeatability of settings.
Second ENOUGH optical quality to find my target and put the crosshairs on it.
Next FIELD of view. A quick pick-up of my target, specially at shorter ranges.

Then what about the sooooo highly advertised parameters such as crispness of image, brightness, clarity, no fall-off
around the edges??. In short, scopes are being promoted mainly on optical quality. I think too much emphasis is put on optics and not enough on flawless function.
In North America as opposed to Europe most of the shooting is done in daylight/twilight. Here we need only so much clarity. In Europe with the night shooting, indeed optics need to be of high light gathering quality.

You do not use your scope to identify trophy quality or sex on longer distance game. Truthfully gentlemen that is why you carry a fine set of quality binocs with you.

Yes.................some morons do like to check everything out with their scope. I have had an experience or two of being "scoped" by fellow hunters. On meeting them I ussually express to them what I think of this stupid irresponsible behaviour.

Soooo..........in my view a hunter needs to invest money in the best set of binocs he can afford.

What optics should we REQUIRE from scopes? Well, once I have identified my game I need enough optical quality to find my game back quickly,to put the crosshairs on it.

Am I against superb optics? No of course not!!
What I think is that optics are much easier to upgrade and promote for the manufaturers. It is a lot easier since all they need to do is pop in the latest of the new lenses, and presto! It is for them far less attractive to to redesign and remanufacture the entire scope innards. Most scopes are good enough with 30-06 type of recoil. Once you start with the larger bores, well, some stand up others do not. Repeatability of settings? The finest of target scopes can walk you up and down and back and forth a target with outstanding repeatability. Try that with your 3-9,3.5-10, etc. even in some of the top brands. With the 7 Leupolds, my Zeiss or my Swarowski, yes sometimes aproximately sometimes not for mysterious reasons.
My view is that most manufacturers assume that hunting scopes are left mostly in one position after they are sighted in. The caps go on the controls and that is it for may be years to come.A relative small segment of the market shoots heavy recoilers, so, the scopes are "good enough".
Good enough for most situations and people indeed.
Not good enough for me. I believe target grade repeatability would enable me to dial in setting on my scope for different zeros with different loads for different distances.
I think that an expensive top of the line scope should function flawlessly on a .375/.416/.308 or .270., not most of the time, but all the time.

I believe all manufacturers should now take another step forward and improve the internals of their hunting scopes for repeatability and heavy recoil.

I currently shoot with Zeiss (several) Schmidt und Bender, and Leupold (LPS). I have at times owned scopes from Kahles, Burris, Bushnell and Leupold VARI-X II and III. In my humble opinion the european scopes by far outpace the American scopes when it comes to quality of the lences, far better for use in twilight conditions. The Leupold LPS is a little bit better than the VARI-X series, but a far cry from the Zeiss standard. I think that there is a simple explanation for this: American scopes in general do not have to function in very low light conditions (correct me if I am wrong). I hunted white tail in beautiful Minnesota this year, and discovered that it is not legal to hunt until 1/2 hour before sunrise and after sunset. Here in Norway people hunt red deer by moonlight, in Germany posting for boar at night is common etc. The thing I like about Leopold scopes is that they can take heavy recoil, and have great eye relief. Obvious choise for a big bore that will not be used under low light conditions anyway! And, the service at Leupold is outstanding! Cross hairs broke on my LPS, and I recived a reply from Leupold 30 minutes after I sent them an e-mail! they fixed the scope and had it on its way back to me within a week. When UPS lost the scope on the return trip, Leupold replaced it at once, no questions asked. Fantastic.

i found out today from swarovski customer service that swarovski only uses etched reticles on the tds and illuminated scopes and wire on the others!