Alpen optics

[Iron Worker]

Just received latest edition of Varmint hunter. They have an article on Alpen optics. Is the article bias? Any one have any experience they care to share? Are they better then Simmons ? Weaver?Vortex? Swarvoski? Hubble telescope?

[jeff 300]

i got a pair of there higher end bino's for a friend and they are nice glass for the money. that was 6 years ago and he not eze on stuff and they still work like new.

[pjracer]

did not care for them. bought them when they were first out and got mine from RW hart. maybe the're better now. i would look thru several pairs before buying. love my leica's though.

[kiwi3006]

I have the Alpen 15-45 x 60 spotting scope. Bought because of the price and I couldn't get the Celestron version into NZ. I have not been able to compare it with any other brand.
It is very clear on 15 x but quality does decrease as power increases particularly past about 35x. Focussing is fussing towards the higher end. 30 cal bullet holes can be easily seen in the white at 300 yds, but very difficult to see in the black.
I am not sure if I have the version with Bak-4 or Bk7 glass.

I am happy with it, I know it is not the best quality, but I didn't pay a lot for it either.

Stu.

[uncleB]

Originally Posted by Iron Worker

Just received latest edition of Varmint hunter. They have an article on Alpen optics. Is the article bias? Any one have any experience they care to share? Are they better then Simmons ? Weaver?Vortex? Swarvoski? Hubble telescope?

I bought my son a pair of Alpen Bino's about a year ago, the only reason my son hunts is to spend time with me. he looked through his Alpen's then looked through my Swarovski EL's and commented "they look the same to me".
When it comes to optic's "beauty might be in the eye of the beholder" of people that dont spend much time glassing, or you have the myopic bunch that thinks their brand of glass is the only thing on the planet.
In reality the Alpen bino's are good cheap glass for the casual hunter or bird watcher but dont even compare to the hi end stuff for the serious hunter.
UB
p.s I am sure brocksgrandpa and slydonkey will have a different opinion but this is just my opinion

[slymule]

You're wrong UncleSA**, I don't have an opinion on the Alpen optics. I only give an opinion on things I've owned or which I'm familiar with, and I've never once taken a look thru any of Alpen's optics.

[ScottBerish]

Alpen has been getting a lot of love in the popular press lately. In five years of doing this I'm not sure what the fuss is about. However, I will be sure to soend some time with them at SHOT this year. Products, like people, tend to be verbs. You can't pigeon hole a companies products year after year without checking them out.

Scott