Zeiss, Nikon, Leupold? Low light scope.

[trg42wraglefragle]

My mate and I tested my Nikon Monarch 4-16x42 against his Viper PST 4-16x50 this weekend gone by.
The Nikon was ever so slightly better in extremely low light, even though it has a smaller objectives lens and a 25mm tube instead of 30mm.

I'd say Nikon isn't too bad.

 

[fatwhiteboy]

Schmidt and Bender uses glass made by the company that manufactures the glass for spy satellites...

 

[reynolds357]

If I could afford a spy satellite, I might could afford a Schmidt and Bender.

 

[Boomer58cal]

Schmidt and Bender uses glass made by the company that manufactures the glass for spy satellites...

Now if they just used the glass from those spy satellites we'd be in business.

Boomer

 

[fatwhiteboy]

I'll bet it is close. My S&B M/P 5-25X56 was over $3k.

 

[Boomer58cal]

A spy satellite cost roughly 3 billion dollars and can use over 25 lenses of varying wave lengths to capture a single image. Each lens cost several million dollars.

Boomer

 

[farscott]

My choice is Leupold, but it has nothing to do with the low-light performance as I cannot see the difference due to my eyes. I choose Leupold for two reasons:

1) Made/assembled in USA.
2) The service and warranty. Leupold stands behind their products. I know I pay the premium for it, but the peace of mind is worth it. I broke a M8 4X scope once by dropping the rifle on which it was mounted, and a phone call started the repair process. No cost to me for a scope I broke and told the customer service rep I broke.

 

[wogpotter]

I want to see the mount to put that on a thuddy ought six!

 

[Saltydog235]

Funny, I was told that S&B, Swarovski, Meopta, Minox and Ziess all used glass made by Shott. The higher ends used a bit better grading than Meopta and Minox. This person who is a retailer of all those brands, attends SHOT and all the industry conferences also told me that Ziess and Shott were basically one in the same company.

This person also told me that there are three Manufacturers of optical type glass used in sport optics, Shott, Bausch & Lomb and the Japanese company (just can't remember the name). Most all Japanese and American names buy the Japanese glass. The difference comes in some of the coatings applied.

 

[wogpotter]

Lots of companies work together behind the scenes.
Minolta used to make glass, both for their own use & for sale to other optical companies, but with the changes I have no idea who is doing it now. Nikon had an optical glass division that made & sold Glass as well.

 

[reynolds357]

SaltyDog, I think it would be more accurate to say there are three companies providing the glass for the quality sport optics. There are glass manufacturers in China, Taiwan, and possibly the Phillipines. Not sure about the latter.
Some of the best glass in the world comes from LOMO in Russia, but not sure very much of it makes it to the U.S.A.