I apologize to all for the late timing on this review, but with the binocular rebate going away shortly I'd encourage anyone on the fence about one of the Steiner's to call up their vendor of choice and work out a deal.
http://www.steiner-binoculars.com/sites/default/files/Free_Bin
ffer.pdf
Let's start with the question that's on everybody's mind. No, I don't think the Steiner 5-25x56 is quite as good as a Schmidt and Bender 5-25x56, but it's damn close. The Schmidt and Bender 5-25 is obviously the number one scope on campus, the one to beat, the one that everyone compares all higher range high-end tactical scopes too. There were some things that I really liked about the Steiner, maybe even more than the Schmidt, but all in all the S&B had a little better clicks, a little better resolution, a little brighter picture, and all in all is still the number one scope on the market. It still reigns as king, but the Steiner made a good showing for sure.
Now that that's out of the way let's talk more about the Steiner. The Steiner is really a great scope and while it may not be quite as good as the Schmidt and Bender I truly think for the price point it is still a very good scope and a very good value. With the current pricing, promotions from vendors that include free rings and for a couple more days a free pair of Steiner binoculars the Steiner does provide a value worthy of looking at vs the S&B. The S&B is roughly $600 more on MAP pricing on the MSR reticle, but I've got a hunch that the real world price difference is closer to $800 if one is willing to call up the vendors and haggle for the best hide pricing. Then throw in the binoculars that are "valued at $400" and you easily have a $1,000 difference between the two. The Steiner is hard to ignore with that price difference in mind. Just FYI, MAP on the MSR reticle 5-25 Steiner is $3095 I believe and I think most retailers are selling at 5-10% below that with some encouragement.
As I showed in my video about the Steiner, I really like the elevation knob and the way the second turn indicator works, it was really quite "revolutionary". As a 243 shooter I rarely go about 10 mil, so I'll hardly ever see the second turn indicator, but it's a neat bonus I guess. The weight of the Steiner is a little less than the Schmidt & Bender which in this size of scope any weight savings is definitely appreciated; the length of the two scopes is about the same. One of the big pro's about the Steiner is that the illumination for the reticle is located on the same knob as the parallax adjustment, this frees up a lot of space on the tube for movement of your scope rings, something that definitely lacks with the Schmidt & Bender.
Let's talk about the clicks of the scope for a minute, I personally don't mind the clicks on the Steiner, although the Schmidt is a little bit more audible and tactile. Personally it's been my experience that audible and tactile clicks are highly overrated for about 95% of recreational tactical shooters. I've never had an occasion where less than ideal clicks cost me to miss a shot or not dial-in the correct elevation. I actually find clicks that are what some people would call mushy sometimes better for dialing elevation quickly in a competition, "mushy" clicks are faster to turn the knob and then a quick glance let you know exactly where you are. I don't shoot my scopes in the dark and I'm not a nighttime sniper, so to be able to dial five mil by counting the clicks alone as never been a problem I've been faced with, so I'd rather have the ability to dial quickly then harsh hard to turn clicks. Now I'm not saying the Steiner clicks are mushy, but they definitely aren't as clean and crisp as the S&B. For me the Steiner clicks are acceptable.
I requested the Steiner to be a MSR reticle so that I could compare it directly to my Schmidt & Bender 5-25 that also has the MSR reticle. It was a great comparison and the MSR reticle came in very handy looking for and comparing the field of view between the two scopes. As you can see in the pictures, Schmidt & Bender has a wider field of view at almost all magnifications. The Steiner though interestingly enough, really shines for field of view between about 5 and 7 power. It was amazing how much wider the field of view was at five power in the Steiner then the S&B. This wouldn't be used much by me, but If someone spent a large amount of time in observation mode then the wide field of view at low-power I'm sure would be very useful. At top power the reticle actually gets cut off a little bit on the Steiner where it is still in full view on the Schmidt and Bender. Since they are the same reticle and power the reticle is a good indicator of the actual FOV of the scope. Also, in all pictures, the scopes are attempted to be lined up at the same place on the left edge of them.
As far as scope clarity and brightness is concerned the Steiner is absolutely acceptable for a tactical scope. When comparing the Schmidt and Bender and Steiner side-by-side I could see a slight difference in the brightness and resolution between the two with the Schmidt and Bender winning both of those categories. I haven't found a scope in this power range that could compare to the S&B yet, including Kahles, Nightforce and Vortex; so I wouldn't hold that against the Steiner. Kind of like audible and tactile clicks, clarity and resolution is often times over emphasized in tactical scopes. The scopes are not made for birdwatching, they're made for tactical shooting and both of these scopes perform that task very well.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Edited to add.....
For this review I decided to use the S&B 5-25 as my comparison scope. I knew that the question everyone would ask is "How's it compare to the S&B". This really isn't fair to the Steiner in the end because I may have a very good example of an S&B, it's kicks everything's ass I've ever put it up against, easily. So maybe it's what my eye likes/wants to see, maybe it's the best S&B made, hard to say. It's kind of like doing a car review and comparing the new Ford Mustang to a Ferrari. It might be one hell of a Mustang, the best ever made, but it's never going to be a Ferrari.
The Steiner is a very very good scope. Nice glass, great controls, easy to get behind and use. It's easily as good of glass as I've seen in the Vortex Razor, SWFA SS, any Leupold and was better and brighter than the Nightforce I looked through the last time I took it to the range. I'll say it again, great value given the $1k price difference vs S&B.</span>
Big thanks to Chris@SportOptics here for arranging for me to get the use of this scope for over a month so that I could pass along my thoughts to the hide, appreciate it!!
http://www.steiner-binoculars.com/sites/default/files/Free_Bin
ffer.pdfLet's start with the question that's on everybody's mind. No, I don't think the Steiner 5-25x56 is quite as good as a Schmidt and Bender 5-25x56, but it's damn close. The Schmidt and Bender 5-25 is obviously the number one scope on campus, the one to beat, the one that everyone compares all higher range high-end tactical scopes too. There were some things that I really liked about the Steiner, maybe even more than the Schmidt, but all in all the S&B had a little better clicks, a little better resolution, a little brighter picture, and all in all is still the number one scope on the market. It still reigns as king, but the Steiner made a good showing for sure.
Now that that's out of the way let's talk more about the Steiner. The Steiner is really a great scope and while it may not be quite as good as the Schmidt and Bender I truly think for the price point it is still a very good scope and a very good value. With the current pricing, promotions from vendors that include free rings and for a couple more days a free pair of Steiner binoculars the Steiner does provide a value worthy of looking at vs the S&B. The S&B is roughly $600 more on MAP pricing on the MSR reticle, but I've got a hunch that the real world price difference is closer to $800 if one is willing to call up the vendors and haggle for the best hide pricing. Then throw in the binoculars that are "valued at $400" and you easily have a $1,000 difference between the two. The Steiner is hard to ignore with that price difference in mind. Just FYI, MAP on the MSR reticle 5-25 Steiner is $3095 I believe and I think most retailers are selling at 5-10% below that with some encouragement.
As I showed in my video about the Steiner, I really like the elevation knob and the way the second turn indicator works, it was really quite "revolutionary". As a 243 shooter I rarely go about 10 mil, so I'll hardly ever see the second turn indicator, but it's a neat bonus I guess. The weight of the Steiner is a little less than the Schmidt & Bender which in this size of scope any weight savings is definitely appreciated; the length of the two scopes is about the same. One of the big pro's about the Steiner is that the illumination for the reticle is located on the same knob as the parallax adjustment, this frees up a lot of space on the tube for movement of your scope rings, something that definitely lacks with the Schmidt & Bender.
Let's talk about the clicks of the scope for a minute, I personally don't mind the clicks on the Steiner, although the Schmidt is a little bit more audible and tactile. Personally it's been my experience that audible and tactile clicks are highly overrated for about 95% of recreational tactical shooters. I've never had an occasion where less than ideal clicks cost me to miss a shot or not dial-in the correct elevation. I actually find clicks that are what some people would call mushy sometimes better for dialing elevation quickly in a competition, "mushy" clicks are faster to turn the knob and then a quick glance let you know exactly where you are. I don't shoot my scopes in the dark and I'm not a nighttime sniper, so to be able to dial five mil by counting the clicks alone as never been a problem I've been faced with, so I'd rather have the ability to dial quickly then harsh hard to turn clicks. Now I'm not saying the Steiner clicks are mushy, but they definitely aren't as clean and crisp as the S&B. For me the Steiner clicks are acceptable.
I requested the Steiner to be a MSR reticle so that I could compare it directly to my Schmidt & Bender 5-25 that also has the MSR reticle. It was a great comparison and the MSR reticle came in very handy looking for and comparing the field of view between the two scopes. As you can see in the pictures, Schmidt & Bender has a wider field of view at almost all magnifications. The Steiner though interestingly enough, really shines for field of view between about 5 and 7 power. It was amazing how much wider the field of view was at five power in the Steiner then the S&B. This wouldn't be used much by me, but If someone spent a large amount of time in observation mode then the wide field of view at low-power I'm sure would be very useful. At top power the reticle actually gets cut off a little bit on the Steiner where it is still in full view on the Schmidt and Bender. Since they are the same reticle and power the reticle is a good indicator of the actual FOV of the scope. Also, in all pictures, the scopes are attempted to be lined up at the same place on the left edge of them.
As far as scope clarity and brightness is concerned the Steiner is absolutely acceptable for a tactical scope. When comparing the Schmidt and Bender and Steiner side-by-side I could see a slight difference in the brightness and resolution between the two with the Schmidt and Bender winning both of those categories. I haven't found a scope in this power range that could compare to the S&B yet, including Kahles, Nightforce and Vortex; so I wouldn't hold that against the Steiner. Kind of like audible and tactile clicks, clarity and resolution is often times over emphasized in tactical scopes. The scopes are not made for birdwatching, they're made for tactical shooting and both of these scopes perform that task very well.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Edited to add.....
For this review I decided to use the S&B 5-25 as my comparison scope. I knew that the question everyone would ask is "How's it compare to the S&B". This really isn't fair to the Steiner in the end because I may have a very good example of an S&B, it's kicks everything's ass I've ever put it up against, easily. So maybe it's what my eye likes/wants to see, maybe it's the best S&B made, hard to say. It's kind of like doing a car review and comparing the new Ford Mustang to a Ferrari. It might be one hell of a Mustang, the best ever made, but it's never going to be a Ferrari.
The Steiner is a very very good scope. Nice glass, great controls, easy to get behind and use. It's easily as good of glass as I've seen in the Vortex Razor, SWFA SS, any Leupold and was better and brighter than the Nightforce I looked through the last time I took it to the range. I'll say it again, great value given the $1k price difference vs S&B.</span>
Big thanks to Chris@SportOptics here for arranging for me to get the use of this scope for over a month so that I could pass along my thoughts to the hide, appreciate it!!
