Interesting when you consider how diverse businesses have become over the years. The era of the “specialist” is long forgotten. Nowadays in order to survive as a business you have to be all things to all people and do it on a unicycle on the rim of the pit of doom. Whatever gets attention…

And Zeiss? Well, after 170 years Zeiss are still making some of the finest optics on the planet. That’s it. That’s what they do and that’s what they’ve always done. And you can believe that after 170 years of practice they are pretty good at what they do.

So when the clever “shop talkers” get into the minutiae of the latest high value optics craze, I cannot help but wonder when actual knowledge and experience was replaced by marketing and hogwash to determine quality. “Oh you can drive over this scope with a motorcar…” I personally have never required that level of specification as an item for consideration when purchasing a rifle scope. But then again, I use my rifles to hunt game animals and shoot the occasional gong. I leave the movies to the movies, I don’t drink while I hunt, nor do I entertain fools who hunt for “entertainment” - and thus, I haven’t ever needed a rifle scope to do anything other than show me a crisp clear image over a distance. Zeiss does that really well.

My grandad (he passed away back in 1998 already) was a very loyal Zeiss disciple. Rifle scopes, binoculars – even the lenses of his prescription spectacles… If it didn’t say Zeiss, Dassie wouldn’t have any of it. Even after 15 years, when I purchased his old Anschutz .222 Rem from my cousin, the very first thing I did was buy a Zeiss to top it. My grandad wasn’t a fancy man, but he always insisted on quality. And he always insisted on Zeiss.

It is hard for me not to get sentimental about the brand. I grew up with it. I own several Zeiss products… A.Rosenthal is running a ridiculously good special on the Zeiss V6 5-25x50 at the moment. Not only can you buy it at the incredible price of N$29,999.99 – but they’ll also throw in a free throw lever (while stocks last) with your purchase.

It’s a top-quality piece of glass for a really good price. If you can, get it. It’s the best value for money investment you are going to make in current economic times.