As to the poster that said "I’ve noticed that it’s very difficult to assess glass quality and user-friendliness/eyebox of a scope without having it mounted on a rifle. I’m not sure you gave those scopes a fair shake." Are you kidding me? If you cannot access these attributes with out mounting the scope you should just stay silent. Glass quality, field of view, eye relief, windage and elevation adjustment feel, and power ring adjustment tension can all be checked without mounting the scope.
So much fail. You absolutely cannot accurately assess the glass quality, FOV, or ER of the scope without having it rigidly mounted in some sort of fixture, whether a rifle or otherwise.
How do you hold your binos??
I certainly don't pretend to accurately compare or assess binos while holding them free-hand. A tripod makes a huge difference.
A precursory impression while holding the scope in your hands is one thing, but to get serious about assessing it, you need to have it rigidly supported somehow. I'm surprised you guys are even contesting this. Anybody with even a smidge of experience looking through scopes in a sporting goods store, held in your hands, compared to looking through those scopes at the range with the scope mounted on a rifle, will know exactly what I'm talking about.
Ask MD or Ilya if they do their bino/scope assessments, brightness tests, resolution tests, EB testing, etc, while holding a scope in their hands or resting it on the back of the couch, or if they mount it in some sort of fixture.
