Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Steiner Optics

Got a friend that is looking at the Steiner Predator 10x42 LRF. At one time I seem to recall that Steiner used Schot (sp) glass in their optics. Anyone know if this is still the case and if so, does it hold true for the Predator line?

@ WIFowler
Sorry I missed your thread. Steiner HX 15 x 56

There is no ED glass inside, and the roof prisms material is the newest N-BaK1 (SCHOTT glass) with a higher refractive index than the old BaK4, and its generic BAK4 from the Far East.

Herewith, the optics system in total may show some not balanced undercorrected lateral CA, manifesting itself as a blue fringing on the very bright and very high contrast scenes.

The Steiner HX should offer a higher transmissivity and contrast than their predecessors.

* As for the LRF being considered a hunting binocular, clarity is outstanding. On par with the HX line. The answer is the N-BaK1 (Schott) is used in the HX line. As to the LRX using the same properties as the HX line is uncertain to me. They both use different coatings and some consider the HX line to be a notch above the LRF. However you may view it, German optics are the upper echelon of precision quality. Not any can go wrong with either model. I believe Steiner refers to the 'secret coating' which I'm not versed with.

Good question. I was considering a Steiner for one of my rifles so I was curious about the answer. The first clue was a reply to a question a customer had a few years ago:



So based on this reply, this scope was using Schott glass from Bayreuth, Germany and all their lenses come from the same place.

The next clue was found on their Optics Technology page about all of their products:



From this it appears that 100% of all of their optics are still produced today in the Schott factory. If you do a site-specific Google search (site:www.steiner-optics.com "schott"), there are multiple mentions on various current products about them being made from Schott glass. Another way of putting it is if some of the products specifically mention Schott glass & 100% of the optics are made in-house, then the in-house manufacturer is Schott glass.