So, what determines if an optic is Alpha grade glass, or not? This is something I've always been curious about. Is it price? Is there an optical standard that it has to meet/surpass, to be given the qualification? Does it need to be manufactured in Austria or Germany? Huge budgets of slick advertising, perhaps? Is it a general perception and popularity?
Honestly too much to answer in a single post. Omer from Precision Optics breaks it down fantastically in a podcast with the JOMH.
On the second episode of Precision Insights, Omer Hrbinic walks Nolan through the intricacies of binoculars. For the majority of users, the binocular will be the optic that sees the ...
journalofmountainhunting.com
I hate when folks put 10% 2% or a general % better. They're in another league compared to the rest and it doesn't have to do with the optical quality in the CENTER of the image and being able to see an extra 1-2 minutes during first or last light. I believe most folks put that % number in regards to just those 2. When looked at holistically, every element comprising of the optical system and experience, is, like I said, in another league. A simple one is the depth of field. Set a bino so it's sharp at 300 yards, now look out to an object at a 1000, what happens to your image quality? Do you need to readjust the focus? On my NL's I don't but on my friends Razor I sure do.
For instance, does anyone shoot PRS or NRL? On a Vortex Razor HD Gen II 4.5-27X56 I would have to constantly adjust parallax between shots. Go to the best, a Tangent Theta TT525P 5-25x56, I set my parallax to 300 and I never touch it through an entire match. It's dead nuts every time.
Where does the high price tag come from though? As far as marketing, any other company besides the big 3 and a couple of others all outsource their glass manufacturing from technology derived from others. Vortex and Maven for instance are a marketing company plain and simple with good ideas on how to request what the end-user wants to see in an optical instrument. They design it, request how it should look, kept within a certain price point, and boom, they have an optic. This is of course grossly dumb downed and hats off to Vortex with what they offer. I think they do a great job but it's glass I will never sit behind. Tract Toric for instance uses Schott glass, this is owned by Zeiss!
Swarovski, Zeiss, and Leica are manufacturing companies that have thousands of patents for their optical systems. It's their IP that drives the cost.