Take it for what it's worth...just my opinion.....I get to travel through Europe regularly so I'm always stopping and looking at high end glass and comparing. I used to be of the mindset that nothing will ever even come close to European glass from Swaro, Zeiss or Leica.
Now.......I think the only thing they have going for them is the "edge clarity" and "low light transmission"......arguably for us hunting types.....I care the most about the low light stuff. Ive attached a link below to a web page I watch when new scopes come out. Its a bird forum.......go ahead and laugh
that has some PHD level smart people on it....they take pics of stars and birds and stuff. One of their reviews is below
Optical quality is great and I saw not much difference from the other big players.
Colour tone is close to neutral, maybe a bit into blueish.
Very disappointingly shallow depth of field. Just a millimeter turn on the focus ring and subject was out of focus.
Build quality and weight is excellent.
Focus ring is extremely smooth and easy to manage.
Sharpness was outstanding to me.
No considerable light loss at zooming in.
No sharpness loss at zooming in or out.
Touch and handling is very nice.
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=3437718#post3437718
No all that being said.....when I side by side compare european glass to some of the new higher end Vortex stuff.......its very very close IMO.
