elnino wrote:I used to work for Carl Zeiss and I can tell you that although the optics in the better scopes are better it's not in line with price. A top of the line scope still only contains a few $ of lenses. Build quality, lens coatings and precision is where its at but still amazingly inflated pricing.
Having said that, I have a 'Tasco' 3-9×40 that i paid about $40 for ex China about 10 years ago and it is quite acceptable in terms of adjustments and holding center. Many cheap eBay scopes will not adjust properly on each plane (they interact) so it is a gamble.
Do you mean that they don't tend to maintain a consistent zero through the magnification range?
I haven't seen any measurable change over normal hunting ranges but it could potentially be a problem at long ranges perhaps.
I just bought a $30 3-9x40 scope so I might try it at 100m by shooting a ten-shot group at 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9-power and see if there's any measurable wander in the zero.