Always thought a $300 dollar scope was sufficient until I bit the bullet and bought a zeiss for $600. Then I ran across a deal on a Swarovski so now I'm ruined. There is a difference in contrast and clarity for sure but there is a HUGE difference in the coatings.
I have a stand on a greenfield that faces SW. With a $300 scope the sun glare makes seeing deer in the field (late afternoon) extremely difficult. With the Swarovski there is almost no glare. I've hunted that stand back to back afternoons and carried both gun/scope combos to verify this and would not gave believed it if you told me before.
