After playing around with it a little more in various lighting conditions, a few thoughts for people who might be considering a Kahles vs the Nightforce. I've found the K1050 to be every bit as clear as my Nighforce Competition, but in the glass department, the Nightforce is better. The main reason being that the Kahles shows a noticeable amount of chromatic aberration (purple fringing) at magnifications over 35x or so. Below that level of magnification, I have a hard time distinguishing between the two. And the Kahles only shows it when looking at very high contrast, brightly lit images. But if I were picking solely on image quality, the Nightforce is better. I've been shooting a Nightforce Comp for about 6 years - one of the very first ones off the line of the newer model, and have yet to notice a real world situation where I noticed any purple. It may be there on super bright contrasty targets, but I haven't yet seen it.
The parallax adjustment on the Kahles is different than most scopes. there is a larger ring that goes around the base of the elevation turret that's used to adjust parallax. It's fairly stiff to turn, and kept out of the way of being bumped (as compared to a side focus scope). This has pluses and minuses in my book. I can take it or leave it. I do find myself worrying about accidentally bumping the Nighfroce focus and just being a little off without noticing it. I don't think that's realistically possible with the Kahles. The Kahles is a bit more awkward to adjust, though.
The elevation turret on the K1050 is perfection. The knob itself is big, the markings are clear, and there are 20 MOA per turn. It's unambiguously clear which turn you are because there is an indicator on top of knob that pops up as you turn the turret. There is no guessing which hash the turret knob is actually lined up with. And the markings don't just repeat 0-20 as you turn. There are three levels of markings - 0-20, 20-40, and 40-60. It might be a bit busy for some, but I love it. It's really nice to be able to walk away from the scope for weeks and come back and know exactly where it's set just by looking, and it's one less thing to think about on the firing line. Overall the turrets are a significant step up from Nightforce in my opinion. They're a little stiffer, the tactile feedback on the clicks is a little more pronounced, and they're bigger in diameter.
Not having shot the two side by side yet (or the Kahles at all), I think the Nightforce is a better value and has better glass. But the elevation turret makes the Kahles worth the extra money to me, as I don't care much about glass quality past a certain point. If the reputation for holding POI proved to be true, the Kahles is hands down better. I haven't noticed any POI changes on my Nighforce, or if it's there, it tabilizes over a couple shots. It's hard to distinguish between cold bore and cold scope. But it's a consideration, as these aren't cheap scopes.
I'll get both to the range in a few weeks to give them a thorough comparison, but these are my initial impressions.
