When formally tested, Zeiss Victory/Varipoint 3-12x56 are "officially" the best (of the variables). Which is probably no great suprise - they are also $2000-2500. I have the 2.5-15x56 Z6 and it is in the same class. The euros always come out on top in formal testing. Which they would want to, because they are very, very expensive. But additionally, the european scopes favour low light performance over other performance measures when they are building a scope, as they do so much of their hunting in low light conditions.
We have a large number of professional shooters who work exclusively at night in this country, and i don't think i have ever seen any of them shooting other than the big-4 Germanic brands. Mostly they use fixed 8x56 scopes (i think mostly just because they are a lot cheaper than the variables, rather than any concerns about reduced transmission).
Last edited by dhg; 10/19/11. Reason: forgot kahles
