Have any of you "People of age" noticed that one scope vs another works better for focusing with old eyes?
For example, I've always used Leupold scopes but recently have found that I'm having a hard time focusing on the crosshairs. I don't need prescription glasses and just use 2.50x readers up close, my long range vision is good. I have to turn the eyepiece all the way out to get it close.
So what I found is that I can focus a lot better with a Swarovski Z3 scope. I havent tried any others so wanting to hear from you "olders".
As people age, there are a physiognomic changes that occur with the eyes. For reference, 65 is in my rearview mirror. As my screen name on here says, I compete in F-class competition and so I spend a great deal of time looking through my riflescope at a very specific target. I got one of the best high-magnification riflescopes on the planet 7 years ago and with it I specified a very thin reticle. That worked really well for me for several years but about 3 years ago, I started having problems seeing the reticle, especially the tiny dot in the middle. I arranged for the manufacturer to swap the reticle with one that has double the thickness. That made a world of difference. Earlier this year, I acquired what is arguably the very best high-magnification SFP scope and made sure it has the thicker reticle. It is pure joy to look through it. Crisp, clear and the IQ is magnificent.
Now, let's talk adjustments. All riflescopes of any worth have some type of adjustment for the ocular lens, which is usually referred to as a diopter adjustment. One has to understand that the ocular lens is an afocal optics which essentially means that the image is focused on your retina by your eye. So it is important to focus the image produced at the back of the erector tube (second focal plane) to your eye. This is accomplished using the diopter adjustment. All riflescopes seem to have a diopter range of about +2 to -2 or -3, or some such. Some have "fast focus" adjustment, others are much more precise. Either way, the range is essentially the same. Most riflescope makers will ship a new scope with the diopter set at -0.5. That's appropriate for normal vision, people who do not usually need corrective lenses. I have to adjust the diopter of the riflescope to match my prescription for reading. It's built into my bifocal glasses, but I know that mine is currently +1.5 in my right eye, but I'm not using that when I shoot. What most people seem to forget is that when you look through tour scope with your bifocals, you are not looking through the area in your glasses which are set for reading (the bottom of your glasses), you're actually looking through the top of your glasses and if you are and older geezer like me, you need some type of cheaters or bifocals to read. You're not using that portion of your glasses when looking through a riflescope. You have to adjust the diopter.
For the vast majority of people, their prescription changes very slowly over time. So what you do is adjust the diopter of the ocular to your eye once and you leave it alone for a long time, until your prescription changes a few years down the road. If you are fiddling with the ocular as a matter of course, you should remove the riflescope from your rifle and sell it because you do not know how to use it and you are just embarrassing yourself.
I am not a fan of fast-focus ocular because that only invites people to mess with it, but it can be handy if you lend your rifle to other people.
Now, once you have the ocular set so that you have a crisp clear picture of the reticle, the rest of the image is adjusted with either an adjustable objective at the front of the riflescope or the side focus knob. The principle of operation in these two mechanism is different but the goal remains the same, focus the objective image properly on the focal plane of the reticle.
An AO is less complicated, cheaper and usually more precise, but a side focus is easier to use. I have both types among my scopes and my match rifle has a side focus. It's important to learn how to use it, but let me say this, if you are messing with both the ocular and the side focus, you have issues and need to fix that.
Now for the comment about looking for "HD" in the lenses. That comment should be ignored and the one who perpetrated it should be chastised bitterly.
HD is simply not a thing, it is what is commonly referred to as "marketing fluff."
There is one type of glass that has made its way into the riflescope world starting about 13 years when March scopes introduced ED (Extra low Dispersion) glass in its riflescopes. Other manufacturers copied the move over time, but it's important to know what ED glass does for you and how to even recognize it. It makes the IQ much better, but it does not make it easier for older geezers, it does nothing for focusing on the reticle.