Kahles K318i DLR

[Glassaholic]

I know my thread is a bit misleading and most of you are probably coming here in hopes of seeing that I have some secret insight into a new scope being offered by Kahles but alas, that is not the case. This thread is to ask the question - where is the DLR version of the K318i? I thought for sure Kahles would be offering it by now in lieu of the DLR version of the K525i that came out a couple years ago. The biggest change between the standard K525i appears to be a new wide angle eyepiece they've designed to offer a wider FOV throughout the magnification range, early reports seemed to indicate that the DLR did in fact "fix" a lot of the optical frustrations that many K624i owners experienced moving over to the newer design.

I know the K318i gets a lot of negative feedback, but my experience with this scope was nothing short of superb; however, the biggest issue with the scope was the lack of FOV that the other alpha ultra short scopes seemed to have, but as far as IQ goes I always felt the K318i offered better performance than the Schmidt US 3-20 which has been the standard for so many years. Then ZCO came out with their 4-20x50 at took home the prize (in my opinion - the best ultra short design from an optical perspective). So with all this pressure why has Kahles been silent with updating the K318i with a similar wide angle eyepiece that they used with the K525i? Is it because sales of the K318i do not justify a modification, would they get more sales even if they did offer a DLR version with ZCO 4-20, Schmidt 3-20 and March 4.5-28 offering greater magnification ranges in the alpha price class? And with competition from Leupold with their Mark 5 3.6-18x44 and Burris with their XTR III 3.3-18x50 and even Nightforce with their NX8 2.5-20 at a lower price point, Kahles seems to be stuck in the middle.

This post is mostly just a rambling of thoughts, but a while back someone posted about a ZCO 2-16 (which doesn't exist) which garnered so much attention that even ZCO took notice, question is, does Kahles/Swarovski even pay much attention to the Hide? If so, then hopefully this thread will wake up the design team over in Austria and maybe even get them back to the drawing board, and shoot, for all we know the reason we haven't seen a K318i is because Kahles has something else cooking, maybe a K320i DLR with a true 3x at the bottom and 20x on top or similar, I'd like to see them differentiate themselves a bit with a unique design, I guess only time will tell...

 

[Bangin]

I was very excited Bill. Then, barely getting into it, a quick kick to the groin. Thanks for that. Lol

 

[DeathBeforeDismount]

It wouldn't sell for shit. The ZCO 420 does everything it could do, but better for a similar price.

 

[koshkin]

I have a strong suspicion that that Kahles sells a lot more 5-25x scopes than 3-18x. Also, from what I have seen of the two designs, the original K318i did better against the field than the original K525i. It makes absolute sense that Kahles would put some effort into getting the 5-25x squared away. If K318i owners are not complaining as much, I can see how they would not be in any great rush.

ILya

 

[Glassaholic]

I have a strong suspicion that that Kahles sells a lot more 5-25x scopes than 3-18x.

That would be my guess as well.

Also, from what I have seen of the two designs, the original K318i did better against the field than the original K525i. It makes absolute sense that Kahles would put some effort into getting the 5-25x squared away.

Agreed.

If K318i owners are not complaining as much, I can see how they would not be in any great rush.

I guess this is what I was getting at. There are plenty of shooters that buy a scope and are perfectly happy with it regardless of what limitations it may have or what the competition offers; so these shooters would not really have reason to complain, but outside of brand loyalists, if someone is looking for a scope with particular characteristics and other scopes come to market that offer more and sometimes for less then the demand for the previous scope tends to drop - it seems this would be the case for the K318i and I've got to think that Kahles has felt it over the past couple years especially. It's no skin off my back other than I love competition and how it drives the market to strive for better. The K318i is handicapped by it's limited FOV, in fact, I would say it is worst in class at this point and they've already invested in a wide angle eyepiece for the K525i so engineering one for the K318i to make it more relevant for todays offerings seems like a good idea. For anyone in the market for a decent FFP 3-18/4-20 class scope the Kahles comes up last with regard to FOV (only the Bushnell DMR is worse).

For those who might be interested, here is my latest spreadsheet for Ultra Shorts in the 3-18/4-20 range (March 4.5-28 is in here because it has better FOV than most 4-20 scopes), ordered from left to right by MSRP

 

[Maverick910]

Is the tangent theta 3-15x50mm Pro, not considered an ultra short? would be a nice addition to the sheet

 

[Glassaholic]

Is the tangent theta 3-15x50mm Pro, not considered an ultra short? would be a nice addition to the sheet

It is not, but it is an excellent scope

 

[Halcyonhal]

Excellent table. Does anyone have experience with the March 3-24? Curious how it does against the others in the list.

 

[Glassaholic]

Excellent table. Does anyone have experience with the March 3-24? Curious how it does against the others in the list.

I do, they are really good 3-20 scopes, IQ falls off above 20x, with the new FML-TR1H reticle they are compelling at 3x. I have a review coming comparing to NF NX8 2.5-20 and SB 3-27. I would not put the March in the same class as Kahles and ZCO IQ wise, but they are light weight and fairly short which gives them appeal.