The scope they SHOULD have launched with
The only price I've seen is $4599.
www.area419.com
Temper your expectations, it is an 8x erector, I would be very surprised if it is as forgiving as a TT/ZCO. Not sure why Kahles chose to with 8x for their extreme FOV models, maybe because of Swaro's popularity with the Z8, but different animals.
but that begs the question, why? How much are we paying for the 8x erector and all the correction to get a good image?YikesThe only price I've seen is $4599.
Kahles K540i 5-40x56, DLR
The groundbreaking K 5-40x56i sets new performance standards with a pioneering new-generation optical design. It offers a 40% wider field of view*, an exceptionally comfortable eyebox and 8x zoom with perfect optical performance across the entire adjustment range. K540i DLR: With “EasyRead”...
Genuinely curious, what’s wrong with an 8x, erector? Break it down Barney style
Nothing wrong with it per se but understand that the higher the erector the more difficult it is to make a forgiving scope. High erector scopes have a history of being more finicky than their lower erector counterparts and by more finicky I mean with parallax, DOF and eyebox. Case in point, take the NF NX8 2.5-20x50 (8x erector) and the NF ATACR 4-16x42 (4x erector) while the 2.5-20 is pretty impressive, the 4-16 is a more forgiving scope making for a better experience behind the scope. Keep in mind the sport optics world is a balance between feature and compromise, some of us are willing to accept the compromises in order to gain the features while others are not. Interestingly enough, Kahles (in their marketing) says due to the large eyepiece design their 8x scopes have very generous eyebox's and I've heard mixed reports about that from the K328i, but the K328i was also hampered by a 50mm objective whereas the K540i is using a 56mm objective and larger objectives typically lend towards more forgiving eyebox experience. Also, high erector scopes have a tendency to "get dark" towards the top of the magnification range, again, Kahles is saying that IQ is superb at 40x but I stopped believing in marketing hype a long time ago after my own testing proved a lot of marketing claims to be false or misleading; again, that's not to say this scope won't be stellar but until it starts getting into the wild and some reliable comparisons are made to TT, ZCO and Schmidt I will keep my expectations in check.
Is the market willing to pay the price for larger objective lenses? The cost of the scope would go up quite a bit, not sure if anyone wants to take that on. Blaser came out with their 4-20x58 a few years back, that has been the largest objective I've seen since the Zeiss Hubble (6-24x72). The best scope I have seen to date at high magnification is the TT 7-35 at 35x, it stayed the brightest and held the resolution where a lot of other scopes begin to fall off above 25x somewhat. I have not yet seen the ZCO 8-40x56 but I planned to do another review of the TT 7-35 and ZCO 8-40 later this year and now I think it would be good if I could source a Kahles K540i and a March 5-42 HM Gen2...
Give the people what they need. Drop a DNT 7-35 in that mix while you’re taking the time to do the comparison!!
Don’t try and pop my balloon ya dickTemper your expectations, it is an 8x erector, I would be very surprised if it is as forgiving as a TT/ZCO. Not sure why Kahles chose to with 8x for their extreme FOV models, maybe because of Swaro's popularity with the Z8, but different animals.
Like Kiba mentions above, some of us have been burned by early adoption. But I'm a lot more curious about this vs the K328i, they should have led with this scope.
Kahles has not proven to be worth the price point IMO. Each release since the K624i has struggled to perform as well as the competition at a similar street price value. But having the extreme FOV will help and Kahles turrets have always been really good.
I would not expect the reticle to be usable below 10x, but let's be honest, will anyone really use this scope below 10x
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Thanks for the information! Looking forward to getting a few 540s.
They call me balloon man...Don’t try and pop my balloon ya dick
I agree that Kahles’ retail has been….optimistic. I also agree about their turrets. Only thing better that I’ve owned is Tangent.
Based on the reticle diagrams that are currently on Kahles’ website, I’d fully expect the reticle to be exactly as useable as the k525i. I killed animals on 5x with that scope, and I could start using hashes at about 7x or 8x.
For my use, I don’t care at all how this scope performs over 25x. If it’s solid from 5x-25x, this will be a solid contender for me. Especially with Schmidt’s recent price increases.
Time will tell, but I really hope they nailed this one.
was a favorite song of mine in the late 80's right before I joined the Army...) and felt that did everything I wanted in a smaller lighter package, which at the time, I was looking for the ideal crossover scope. Then I got the K318i and loved everything about it (handled CA so much better than my K624i) except for the narrow FOV, after reviewing side by side with ZCO 4-20 and Schmidt 3-20 I just couldn't go back to the narrow FOV even though I felt the Kahles did better optically than the Schmidt at high mags. So here we are a little over 10 years from the K624i introduction and we have the K540i and hoping Kahles nailed it... (I did not feel they nailed the K328i).
www.thefirearmblog.com
Tell me, do the European K540i's have even wider FOV than US version... (I am totally kidding here
)Why do you say that, is the mag ring super stiff? Were you testing this at -50° in Norway???
Really enjoyed your article, writing style, humor and honest information and feedback!Here is my review:
TFB Review: Kahles K540i Riflescope - The 40x Game Changer?
This is a review of the brand new Kahles K540i DLR premium riflescope.The K540i is designed for precision shooting at extreme ranges, boasting an impressive 5-40x magnification range.TFB is the only international publication chosen to review this riflescope before its official release.Kahles...
The TT 7-35 has pixie dust because it truly defies the odds with regard to this statement. Not sure what kind of magic TT pulled but it blew me away that it did not falter like the rest above 30x, by far the highest resolution scope above 25x I have seen to date.
No that is not an optical fact. I have seen people make this argument before. It is usually some sort of a lazy derivation of the Rayleigh limit. That would apply if you are looking to resolve two very distant point sources (Rayleigh was an astronomer). When dealing with complex objects and a human eye, that does not quite work that way. Larger objective does, obviously, help on high mag, but you can't use Rayleigh criterion to define cutoff in a DVO.
Not necessarily, there is a lot more to the scope than erector and FOV. As with all things optics, there are always compromises, sometimes we are willing to look past the compromise in order to gain convenience or some other attribute we feel we need or want. The March 5-42 G2 High Master is 2" shorter than the Kahles... shorter along with high erector ratio typically means more compromises, but I say "typically" because there are things (magic) that optics manufacturers can do to help correct. All that to say that I do not expect the Kahles and the March to perform at the same level, but until we get them side by side we will not know for sure.
Do you mean, is Kahles serviced here in the states or does it have to go back to Austria to be serviced? There was rumor that Swarovski USA was going to take over service but I am not certain that ever happened, will be curious to find out from someone who knows for sure.
I had an issue with my k624. I had it back in a little over 3 weeks. No questions asked, and it has worked perfectly since the repair (about 2.5 years ago).
Swarovski USA is about 30 minutes from me here in RI. They generally do minimal repair there. My k624i went back to Austria, as did my STR80 spotter. I drove the items to them, and they took it from there. The turnaround was less than 4 weeks for each of them.
Possibly NF NX8, but their numbers are suspect with real world performance. What good is FOV if edge distortion makes things a blurry mess (like the early NX8 2.5-20), I've seen a pre-production March 5-42 Gen2 and was very impressed with its edge to edge clarity (certainly better than the Gen1) so I have good hope for the production units, and early claims with the Kahles K540i also indicate excellent edge to edge clarity but putting them up against a TT or ZCO which are well known to have superb edge to edge will help identify any shortcomings.
I had to send my k525i in for service. I had to pay shipping to the east coast. Then Swaro shipped across the pond to get fixed. I forget how long, but I think it was a month or 2 door-to-door.
