I've spent hours messing with the new Vortex 1-10x scope and it's an interesting optic. I've spent a lot of time with it at 1x, it looks absolutely amazing at that setting. At times it just seems like there's not even glass in it, it's extremely clear. To my eye, it's also like looking at a TV with a very thin bezel. I switched to other scopes to compare them, and to me the Vortex looked like it had a very thin ring going around the image (this is the edge of the ocular housing), if that makes any sense. I notice a scope's ocular housing around the lens a lot more with other scopes, even on the SU-294.
The Vortex lenses can reflect lights that are around you or that you're looking at, just like any other optic, but the red illumination is reflected/flared like crazy in the Vortex! Even down to the 4 or 5 illumination setting there's a halo of reflected red light going around the reticle, but far enough away from the reticle that it dissappears around the 2x magnification (zoom in until it's out of the field of view). With the illumination on and continuing to zoom in, especially at 10x, all of the number 6's in the reticle are lit up (noticeable down to the 4 illumination setting). Literally all the 6's are lit up. The number 6 in the range finder at the top of the reticle, the 6's on the main windage stadia line, and the 6's on the reticle tree. I have no idea why the number 6 everywhere lights up. I understand that the engraved reticle will reflect illumination, but this is so much more. It's really weird seeing those 5 dots of red light in those places. I can even see the 6's lit up down to the 3x magnification.
I'm mainly comparing the new Vortex to my new NF SU-294. Looking through the NF with the illumination on, there's no red halo or illuminated numbers. Of course the reticle will reflect very high illumination settings in the NF, but it's nothing like what's happening in the Vortex.
Here's the Vortex at 1x magnification and 7 illumination in a bright room, the red at the lower left in the image is the brightest part of the red halo from the illumination that is reflected inside the scope. It doesn't show up that well on camera (in person you can see the entire red halo ring, not just this little piece of it in the camera), but looking through the scope it's extremely noticeable. I set the illumination to 7 (out of 11 illumination settings), and like I said before, you can clearly see this red halo reflection down to a 4 illumination setting in a bright room. If you're using any illumination in the dark, it is even more noticeable/distracting.
Same bright room with 7 illumination setting, this time at 3x magnification. You can now start seeing the illuminated 6's, notice the 5 red dots around the main dot. You'll also notice that the piece of the red halo that was visible in the 1x photos above are gone in this 3x photo.
Smae bright room and 7 illumination setting, now at 10x. Just like any other scope with a high illumination setting, crank this one up and the light will catch on all of the engraved reticle somewhat. On a lower setting that doesn't reflect off of everything, the illumination is lighting up the 6's like crazy. As before, this is far more noticeable in person, I'm just glad I caught something in a photo. Even at a lower illumination setting, like 4 out of 11, these 6's light up. Is there any rational reason for this? Is it just the way the 6's are engraved and catch light? I don't have any other scopes that do this stuff.