That is a very cogent argument.
As I said, to each his own. I generally prefer trim and reasonably lightweight scopes, but as you correctly pointed out it all comes down to application.
The KXi hits a lot of buttons really well in my opinion, but for a lot of applications a 50mm objective bell is not necessary.
That having been said, there is clearly a market out there for scopes that are optimized for low light. For example, I am pretty certain that out of a full line-up of Meopta Meostar R1 scopes, the 3-12x56 is by far the best selling model both world wide and in the US.
With Kahles, their newest 30mm scopes are Helia 5 and they are clearly configured differently, since the general purpose Helia 5 is 1.6-8x42 and the low light specialist is 2.4-12x56, both illuminated.
I have not tested Helia 5 yet, but I will soon enough.
With KXi, since it is the only 1" scope they bring to the US at the moment, I am not surprised that it is a 50mm design. That has become more or less the "norm" these days and since the KXi is pretty trim, I expect the to do well with it.
One thing I find interesting is that they do make a 3-9x42 non-illuminated KX for other markets. I wonder if I can somehow convince them to resurrect the 2-7x36 model and import it here...
ILya
