Jon, you say "better optics" and appear to mean better resolution.
What exactly do you think they mean by "sharpness?" And yes, the differences in resolution between good glass and mediocre glass become more obvious to most eyes in low light. Pretty lousy glass (especially low powered) can look good on a bright, sunny day (of which they have many in the desert).
Some even say that "when you increase the magnification of the scope, that's where the euros leave Leupolds behind. At the higher magnifications, the euros, due to better glass and coatings, resolve, or show you, much more details."
Those "some" are very correct. Maybe they say that from experience?
But how would you know? You did look through a S&B on 6X. Had you brought a 14X or 20X Leupold to compare, maybe the difference would have been blatant enough that not even you could deny it? Then again, probably not.
Their glass and coatings are as good as anybody's. What's different are some small tradeoffs in the details like eye box size, and how well they are adjusted. E
I really hope the glass in the VX-3's will be good. Conquest-ish quality glass with the other Leupold features many like will make an outstanding product (if they keep the price down).
But the real treat will be you telling people they must not be able to focus their VX-III's if they think the VX-3's give a better image even with the same focusing system...or that their eyeboxes must have gone AWAL unbeknownst to them....
Comedy.
