it weighs in at 27oz. not sure how that compares to the other brands (might be less actually because it's a 1" tube) but it was noticeably heavier than my 4.5-14x44mm Conquests I have on my other rifles. but again, i'm not packing it in the mountains, and the rifle it's on is heavy side anyway. definitely amazing glass though. i have zero regrets. it's going to make an outstanding plains rifle. i looked at vortex too (among others) and chose the HD5 because of pricing i get for Zeiss, it was too good to pass up. if i had to pay full price however, i would have had to go back to comparing the Vortex PST and the HD5. now that i have the HD5 i'm happy i went that route (i like the turrets better and i prefer a 2nd focal plane scope as i dont range at all with a scope, just my range finders). i will say to me, the HD5 glass is a little better than the PST, however they are very close. i think it will come down to what scope offers you the features you want. lastly, i will say when comparing to leuopold when i was originally looking, i wasn't very impressed with leuopold when comparing. that being said, i was looking at the Mark IV line, and not the VX6 or whatever their top line is.