I recently bought and received early this month several Arken EP5s and EPLs and these new ones are actually night and day better than the older ones with the terrible glass. The newest EP5's are clear all the way to their maximum 25x magnification. I'd say they are on par with my Athlon Midas Tacs (6-24x50s) and Ares BTR G2 4.5-27x50s on maximum magnification. What's superior are the Arken turrets and huge eyebox and FOV it's really incredible makes my Athlons look like looking through a toilet paper roll by comparison.
I then got out my Tract Toric ELR and Athlon Cronus to compare with these newest EP5's and they are pretty close believe it or not and has a superior eyebox with huge FOV I prefer the EP5 over the other much more expensive Japanese made scopes and the EP5 turrets feel superior as well.
The older EP5's from last year and 2 years ago optically sucked which weren't clear past 20x magnification while the two I just got are incredibly clear all the way to their maximum 25x magnification. Kind of still blown away by then TBH. No more buying any more Athlons or Tract scopes for me now after seeing how nice these EP5s are.
The Vortex Razor Gen 3 is still far superior to the new EP5s except for the turrets.
I also compared my new EPL4s 4-16x44 to my Vortex Strike Eagle 3-18x44 FFP 34mm that cost 2.5x the price and the EPL4s looked just as clear with superior turrets. Compared to my Midas Tacs 6-24x50s only these new EP5s optically compared to them while the EPL4s almost there but not quite. It's more than good enough for $300 and far surpasses everything else I looked through at this price point and even much higher up to the Midas Tac.
These cheap little EPL4 gems literally smoke the Vortex Diamondback Tacticals/Swampfox Patriots, Element Optics Helix and Titan, Athlon Argos, Riton 3 and 5 series, all Chinese Blackhounds and Bushnells and think there's no point in buying anything more expensive that it competes with.
I am waiting for my backordered 6-24x50 EPL4s and am really anxious to compare them to my Midas Tacs as well. Hopefully they don't have the terrible chromatic aberration the earlier EPL4s I looked through had.
One of my friends bought the new Arken SH4J and it's night and day clearer than the SH4 Gen 2 but isn't as clear as the new EP5s. I didn't buy the SH4J because I prefer the best glass possible even when buying my budget priced scopes and all of the dealers I previously spoke with told me the EP5 and EPL4s had better image quality than the SH4J.
I then got out my Tract Toric ELR and Athlon Cronus to compare with these newest EP5's and they are pretty close believe it or not and has a superior eyebox with huge FOV I prefer the EP5 over the other much more expensive Japanese made scopes and the EP5 turrets feel superior as well.
The older EP5's from last year and 2 years ago optically sucked which weren't clear past 20x magnification while the two I just got are incredibly clear all the way to their maximum 25x magnification. Kind of still blown away by then TBH. No more buying any more Athlons or Tract scopes for me now after seeing how nice these EP5s are.
The Vortex Razor Gen 3 is still far superior to the new EP5s except for the turrets.
I also compared my new EPL4s 4-16x44 to my Vortex Strike Eagle 3-18x44 FFP 34mm that cost 2.5x the price and the EPL4s looked just as clear with superior turrets. Compared to my Midas Tacs 6-24x50s only these new EP5s optically compared to them while the EPL4s almost there but not quite. It's more than good enough for $300 and far surpasses everything else I looked through at this price point and even much higher up to the Midas Tac.
These cheap little EPL4 gems literally smoke the Vortex Diamondback Tacticals/Swampfox Patriots, Element Optics Helix and Titan, Athlon Argos, Riton 3 and 5 series, all Chinese Blackhounds and Bushnells and think there's no point in buying anything more expensive that it competes with.
I am waiting for my backordered 6-24x50 EPL4s and am really anxious to compare them to my Midas Tacs as well. Hopefully they don't have the terrible chromatic aberration the earlier EPL4s I looked through had.
One of my friends bought the new Arken SH4J and it's night and day clearer than the SH4 Gen 2 but isn't as clear as the new EP5s. I didn't buy the SH4J because I prefer the best glass possible even when buying my budget priced scopes and all of the dealers I previously spoke with told me the EP5 and EPL4s had better image quality than the SH4J.
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