Athlon Optics? Any good?

[Alpine]

Where are they manufactured?

The Cronus is made in Japan, the Ares is made in China but is one of the better scopes to come from there. I don't own any Athlon scopes myself but I've played with a couple. I'd actually recommend the Cronus to guys looking for a great value.

Similarly Bushnell DMR's, The Delta Stryker, Tract Toric, Valdada Recon G2 mini, Zeiss S3 LRP, Leica PRS all punch above their weight and all happen to come out of the same factory in Japan (not all of them use Japanese glass). Light optics works aka: LOW

 

[maerdlong]

How do Japanese scopes compare to European scopes, generally speaking?

 

[Alpine]

How do Japanese scopes compare to European scopes, generally speaking?

In terms of resolution good Japanese glass can keep up with the best… I'm not an expert but the high end European glass tends have a darker richer look that emphasizes contrast over resolution by comparison. Likely this has a lot to do with the coatings and general scope design as well. Personally my eye prefers the European look (ie: Schmidt and Bender). I'd say Kahles and ZCO look half way between an S&B and a March. They look brighter but as light fades contrast becomes more important obviously all the really high end stuff has plenty of both. Where you really see the difference in the expensive optics is more in stray light handling, Chromatic abbreviation, flare control etc. Those come in to play more in bad conditions.

 

[maerdlong]

In terms of resolution good Japanese glass can keep up with the best… I'm not an expert but the high end European glass tends have a darker richer look that emphasizes contrast over resolution by comparison. Likely this has a lot to do with the coatings and general scope design as well. Personally my eye prefers the European look (ie: Schmidt and Bender). I'd say Kahles and ZCO look half way between an S&B and a March. They look brighter but as light fades contrast becomes more important obviously all the really high end stuff has plenty of both. Where you really see the difference in the expensive optics is more in stray light handling, Chromatic abbreviation, flare control etc. Those come in to play more in bad conditions.

I think this is a very good assessment. Thanks!