Backstory
When the Nightforce NX8 long range scopes were announced I raised an eyebrow. Over the years I’ve had or used many different long-range scopes from the budget category all the way into alpha class, but in all that time I have never owned a Nightforce and the reason is because they never made a scope that appealed to me. The ATACR F1 series was the first that really drew my attention, but the 5-25 is a hefty beast and has poor FOV performance at the low end. The 4-16x42 drew my attention but I rarely opt for scopes with objectives smaller than 50mm because most of my scopes get used in low light situations. I realize they recently came out with the F1 4-16x50 but this only happened after other manufacturers were already offering 3x/4x – 18x/20x and I prefer having more than 16x at the top end, if Nightforce had an ATACR F1 4-20x50 I’d be all over that. I think it's safe to say that nobody was expecting Nightforce to come out with this NX8 long range line and offer a 2.5-20 and 4-32 scope and certainly nobody was expecting these scopes to come in at the $2k price point. The Nightforce NX8 is using an 8x erector design in a short body similar to the March F series scopes. I’ve owned two of the March scopes in the past and their lackluster FML-1 reticle and finicky depth and parallax have always had me wanting more even though they impressed optically. So, the question that has been on my mind has been – where did NF compromise in order to build an 8x erector scope in a short body and sell it for $2k. I am already familiar with the compromises that March had to make with their design, but the March scopes also cost more than $3k if you want illumination. For the most part, online reviews of the NX8 have been nothing short of praising this scope for all it offers with no glaring compromises and I realized that in order to find out for myself I would have to purchase the scope and put it through some initial testing.
Build Quality and Ergo
The NX8 appears to have excellent build quality – without putting the scope through the wringer like underwater, freezing, etc. just the overall look and feel of the scope is well done. All finishes are nice and well executed. Some may balk at the 30mm tube but NF engineers were able to squeeze 32 mil of elevation which is more than some 34mm designs. However, it’s not all roses as the design of the NX8 pushes the turret housing forward which means there is very little room for a ring or mount between the turret housing and the front objective bell, this may make it more difficult on some rifle platforms to mount in the correct location. Nightforce also opted not to use a fast focus diopter which means there is lots of turning of the diopter to get it right (more on this later), but they did make the diopter locking which is a nice feature and I’ve also read the ATACR series suffers from a moving ocular when you adjust magnification which would definitely annoy me since I like to use caps. Speaking of caps, another nice feature in a $2k scope is the NX8 comes with NF branded Tenebraex caps, a very nice accessory to be included.
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Turrets
Being my first Nightforce scope I did not know what to expect but based on rave reviews from other owners online I had the expectation that NF scopes excel optically and mechanically. My first experience with the turrets was a bit underwhelming to be honest. Compared to Minox ZP5, Kahles, Schmidt, Leupold Mark 5 and others, the NX8 turrets don’t have the snap I was expecting. Where other turrets have a distinct click or clunk between each .1 mil mark, the NX8 has a more muted sound and oddly enough, the windage turret has that more distinct click that I wish the elevation turret had. With most other scopes it’s the other way around, usually the elevation turret feels the best and the windage is lacking. But, “man does not live on clicks alone”, and while muted the NX8 turrets are precise with very little play and easy to dial elevation, in the end I do not think I would have a problem accurately dialing and the spacing of the 10 mil per rev turret is nicer compared to the tight spacing of the 15 mil per turn and greater variety found in other scopes. The windage is capped which is a very nice feature for those who don’t tend to dial wind and don’t want that turret getting bumped while moving around in the field.
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Reticle and Illumination
For the longest time Nightforce was stuck in the SFP market but had great BDC style reticles, it took them a while to get into FFP and then it took even longer for them to get a decent .2 mil hash reticle with the Mil-C and then finally last year with the Mil-XT Christmas tree version. The scope I purchased has the Mil-C reticle and I have to say, I like it better than the SKMR with regard to thickness, the SKMR is pretty thin and sometimes difficult to pick out in shadows or high contrast backgrounds, but the Mil-C seems to be a tad thicker and easier to discern in those conditions. What I don’t like with the Mil-C is the size of the .2 hash marks, they are quite tall and even though they alternate (.2 and .8 on bottom while .4 and .6 are on top) I still find them a bit distracting (again, personal preference). I knew the NX8 had Digillum illumination, but not owning a NF previously I spent quite some time trying to figure out how on earth do you turn on and set illumination until by accident I pressed the middle of the parallax/side focus and realized there is a button that depresses – that is a slick feature; however, unlike a dial control, it is somewhat of a pain to switch between different brightness levels as you have to click in each time to adjust and it only goes to the next brightest setting until you get to max or minimum and it flashes several times and then it starts to get brighter (or dimmer) in which each successive click, but hold the button for about 5 seconds and it switches from red to green illumination. I’m not sure which I like better, the red still seems brighter and more pronounced but I’d want a lot more time with it in different light levels to make a determination, what I do like is the fact that you have the option. I did compare daylight bright to my Kahles K318i which has the brightest illumination I’ve seen to date, and the NF kept right up with it, very usable daylight illumination.
Image Quality (IQ)
I’m going to break down IQ into four categories – Contrast, Resolution, Color and CA
Contrast
The NX8 shows really good contrast when your eye is in center. The NX8 appears to be on par with the K318i within its sweet spot.
Resolution
Without spending extended time with my resolution charts it would be difficult to discern just how well the NF Nx8 2.5-20x50 performs compared to the alpha class optics; however, initial impressions are very high and in some situations seems to be on par if not slightly better than the K318i. However, while the resolution was impressive the NX8 shows pretty significant image distortion if your eye is not perfectly centered. This is compounded at close ranges under 100 yards and seems to be more forgiving the further out you go; in this regard, the K318i definitely excels as very little distortion is noticeable and edge to edge sharpness is maintained throughout the majority of the zoom range.
Color
Color fidelity seems to be managed very well, colors looked true to life. There was not an overly warm or overly cool cast to the image. I prefer an image that is neutral to warm and the NX8 seems to deliver for what my eyes like to see. Compared to the Kahles the color seemed very comparable.
CA
This is one area where I thought the NX8 was really going to struggle, but it was very difficult for me to induce any strong CA even in my test target with white on black, the NX8 handled CA exceedingly well. Compared to the Kahles, CA controlled appeared to be on par if not slightly better in some situations which is very impressive indeed as the K318i controls CA very well and only bested by the ZCO ZC420 in the ultra short category.
DISCLAIMER: DO NOT USE THE BELOW IMAGE TO JUDGE IQ, THE NX8 PERFORMED MUCH BETTER THAN THROUGH THE SCOPE IMAGES CAN CAPTURE.
Glass
Outside of the above issues with the edges, the glass is superb, Nightforce offers very little information on the optical design or glass used in the NX8; however, this article from Guns & Ammo -
https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/nx8-nightforce-scopes-review/364247 indicates that NF is using ED glass in the NX8 and uses additional glass elements in the 2.5-20 design to help correct for aberrations in the ultra short design.
Eyebox
As expected, the eyebox on the NX8 is very finicky, you have to have your eye placed just right for a clear sight picture, the Kahles K318i, ZCO ZC420 and Schmidt Ultra Short 3-20 are much more forgiving in this regard (but they are all quite a bit more expensive). Proper scope mounting techniques and proper cheekweld is going to eliminate much of this effect, but it is still there and may pose an issue for some especially if they find themselves shooting from odd positions where it’s difficult to get your eye perfectly centered.
Depth/DOF
The March scopes I had struggled with Depth Of Field (DOF) and this was one area where I thought the NX8 might struggle as well, and I was right. You do not get the same level of depth forgiveness with the NX8 as you do with other scopes at this price point and higher. The NX8 is not horrible, but you will find yourself having to tweak the side focus a bit more in order get objects near and far in proper focus. Compared to the Kahles, I was having to make more adjustments to focus whereas the K318i/ZCO/Schmidt was much more forgiving with almost a “near, middle and far” behavior.
Parallax
Similar to DOF, parallax seems to follow the same protocol. The NX8 was much more finicky with parallax and has to be set just right with minute adjustments to get the reticle to be parallax free with the image. The NX8 can focus from 11 yds to infinity and therefore has a very long focus adjustment range which further compounds getting the parallax just right. Initially I thought I could not get a parallax free image at magnifications below 16x as I saw the reticle moving all over the place with slight eye displacement; however, after fiddling with the diopter a bit more and fine tuning of the side focus/parallax I was able to tame it down some, but still noticed movement until I realized the whole image was moving, so the scope was parallax free but because of the distortion and finicky eyebox, anything but dead center eye placement caused the image to warp around like a fun house curved mirror at a carnival. All scopes show some of this distortion especially at lower magnifications; however, the NX8 shows a significant amount of this and is probably the most unforgiving aspect of this scope. In contrast, the Kahles image seemed rock solid along with the reticle with little to no discernable distortion until you get into very low magnification ranges.
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Conclusion
Putting an 8x erector into a short body has its limitations and NF engineers were not able to overcome those limitations (at least for the price point they are selling at). The narrow depth of field and heavy edge distortion of the image especially at lower magnifications along with the finicky parallax has me still wanting for more from the NX8. While I like the Mil-C reticle mag range and illumination, there are just too many other drawbacks for me with the NX8 personally. It’s too bad because I really wanted this scope to exceed my expectations and while it has in some areas, it has not in others. I am sure there will be plenty of shooters who are not bothered by these shortcomings and will be quite pleased with this scope.
Other $2k class scopes I have used would be the Leupold Mark 5HD 3.6-18x44 which had much better turrets and DOF/Parallax; however, my copy did not do that great in overall IQ and the sweet spot of the NF NX8 was quite a bit better than the Leupold. I've had the Steiner T5Xi's and their CA was so bad they were immediately returned. The Bushnell LRTS 4.5-18x44 and Tract Toric 4-20x50 are lower priced but suffer from heavy CA; however, the do have impressive IQ for the price. At a little higher price point the Vortex AMG 6-24x50 is a better all around scope (overall IQ, turrets). But none of these scopes offer an 8x erector inside a short body, so in reality Nightforce has no competition from any scope at this price point.
I realize there are many who will not “see” the same issues that I see and will claim their version has no edge distortion or is not finicky with DOF or parallax, etc., I am simply pointing out issues that I see based on my experience with lesser and better optics. There are compromises with most every optic and we all have personal preferences when it comes to some of these features. I think for many, the Nightforce NX8 2.5-20x50 will be a favorite, it certainly fills a niche we have not seen before at this price, kudos to NF for being bold enough to bring something like this to market.
EDIT: I wanted to give the Nightforce NX8 a "second chance" and decided to spend a lot more time with it. While the edge distortion is there, it is not nearly as prominent when you get a proper cheekweld, the eyebox is still very tight but as long as you can be in good alignment, you may not notice much distortion when transitioning to different targets. I think dynamic shooters (like PRS and NRL style) and those who find themselves in awkward shooting positions will still struggle with this scope, those who do not find themselves in these situations often may not have as much an issue. The finicky parallax is still there but again, it is tamed with proper scope mounting and consistent cheekweld.
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