In terms of optical performance, the Simmons Master Series riflescopes will continue to feature the same high-quality glass, lens configurations, and optical multicoatings as the AETEC, ProHunter, ProSport, and ProDiamond lines have been known for. The Redfield line, however, will have an entirely new lens technology as well as all the other mechanical innovations, which will now provide the primary difference in performance between the Simmons and the Redfield lines.

The new adjustment dials do not screw up or down; they retain a constant position for exact intervals. Turret caps and audible click adjustment dials can be easily manipulated even with gloved fingers.

As light passes through a lens, some of that light is lost at each surface of the lens due to reflection, so it's important to reduce the amount of lost light as much as possible. Lens coatings are the standard way to reduce lost light, and there are various types of coatings used throughout the industry, each achieving a certain level of lost light reduction. Most high-end riflescopes feature fully multicoated lenses because they have the greatest amount of success in reducing lost light. The Meade optical engineers literally reached into the world of outer-space optical standards and used precision broadband coatings to fully multicoat each lens, thereby reducing lost light by an extra .2 percent per lens surface--a full 2.8 percent overall--compared to other fully multicoated lens systems.

Chromatic aberration, or "fringing," is another problem that has plagued optical designers, particularly at higher magnifications. Chromatic aberration occurs in a riflescope when the objective lens bends white light towards the reticle. The white light then separates into different colors, each color bending at a slightly different angle.

The result is that all the colors don't focus at the same point. This is easily recognized and most often described as a "bluish" or "yellowish" edge on the image, particularly straight black and white edges. In most scopes, chromatic aberration is reduced by using multiple lens elements--usually two, but sometimes as many as five--composed of different types of glass. The combination of low-dispersion positive lenses and high-dispersion negative lenses results in the red and blue colors recombining. Although cost-effective, this method adds weight and does nothing to bring the green light back into focus with the blue and red light.

The new eyepieces have rubber cushioned fast-focus diopter settings.

The best it can do is to minimize the focus separation between the green light and red/blue light, causing residual color fringing in the image. So the new Redfield scopes now feature a more expensive, Extra-low Dispersion (ED) exotic glass in the construction of its objective lenses. This ED glass does not disperse or separate the colors as much as its higher dispersive counterparts, thereby allowing Redfield's designers to bring the red, green, and blue light to focus. These special apochromatic lenses (APOs) eliminate the need for heavy compound lenses, and they generate a true white image, giving the user the truest achievable representation of the image. The result of apochromatic ED lenses and broadband multicoating across the new Redfield line is a total optical system that is both lighter and brighter than any comparable product.

Meade is claiming to have "reinvented" the riflescope. If these new Simmons and Redfield products live up to their billing, it'll be hard to disagree.