Val, welcome back to the forums, it's been a while.
"Glass" has never really been the issue for IOR. The G2 is not IOR, it is made in Japan, but again, there's more to a scope than just the glass (and I'm a glass guy). Valdada has never been "cheap" but there's a reason why resale value tends to be so poor on these scopes. Do your research and you'll find that Valdada is a risky gamble, customer service is suspect.... maybe they have turned a corner and are making scopes that are just as reliable and repeatable as their price justifies; however, Val is well known for making bold claims about his scopes, claims very similar to those of Sureshot above which is why I made my sarcastic remark.
I offered to review the G2 soon after it came out but Val was not interested in sending me one knowing how his scopes get bashed on the Hide, I don't blame him really, and I was willing to give it a fair assessment, but am not willing to spend my money on the scope knowing the loss I'd take in selling it. There was some very bad blood between Frank and Val a number of years ago, but the general consensus from a number of Hide members who were willing to take a risk got burned and just didn't want to have to deal with the attitude. To be honest the G2 sounds like an interesting design from Japan; however, Val is still using a 40mm tube and the myth that larger tubes allow more light still dominates the shooting world (and historically promoted by the Valdada supporters), the only real benefit to the larger tube is having more travel and the G2 does have an impressive 42 mils; however, Schmidt has been getting 35 mils out of 34mm for quite some time, and the new March 5-42x56 High Master has 40 mil of travel in a 34mm tube so why is Val using 40mm tubes as I've never seen him make the claim similar to ZCO where the larger tube is allowing for better IQ at the extremes of the adjustment range.
