I have looked through the NightForce and the March 8-80 and found the March seemed dark… others said the same that day when we all took a look. The 8-80 F Class reticle kicked in all my attention deficits… it was really busy to me…. So I’ve ended up a NF fan.. and could buy either..
That is a common belief, and I completely agree with it. When someone makes a comparison between the NF Comp and the Majesta, they ALWAYS come to that conclusion.
The reason for that is, brace yourself, ignorance. They are ignorant of how to make a proper comparison of riflescopes. Even if you do the comparison side by side at the same time, on the same target, you will not do it correctly. But ignorance is not a fault, it’s eminently curable with knowledge, so here goes.
I notice in ALL the comments made when people compare the 2 riflescopes, they never mention the magnification used, and they NEVER comment on the increase in field of view (FOV) for the Majesta over the Comp. The reason is simple: they compare the two scopes with both riflescopes set at maximum, without even thinking about it. Let’s do some numbers.
With its smaller objective of 52mm, the exit pupil diameter of the Comp at 55X is 0.95mm. The 56mm objective of the Majesta yields an exit pupil diameter of 0.7mm at 80X. That’s a 27% decrease of the exit pupil diameter. We just chopped off one quarter of the light at the maximum magnification.
When we tell people to “have at it and compare the two, letting them adjust to their eye”, to make it fair, shooters will INVARIABLY crank up the power to the max, and Comp users will see virtually the same FOV in the Majesta at 80X as they see in the Comp at 55X. Numbers show us that at 73X, the FOV of the Majesta is identical to the FOV of the Comp at 55X. And the difference between 73X and 80X is mouse nuts in the grand scheme of things. The people doing the comparison do not see the difference, they just see the Majesta being darker and with more mirage distortion. Duh, we just added 25X magnification, almost 50% more.
When people move from the Comp to the Majesta, they like to use the new riflescope at the same sight picture at which they have been looking through for years. Older shooters are the ones most affected by this. They are so used to shooting their Comp at 55X, they MUST have the same sight picture. It’s engrained (seared!) in their brain over the years of shooting on the same target. I have witnessed this many times since the Majesta release in 2023.
Let’s talk field of view (FOV), because that’s ALWAYS missing in the Comp Vs Majesta comparisons. The Comp goes from 15X to 55X. At 15X, it’s AAOV is 19.8° and at 55X, it’s 18.9°. Since we shoot at max most of the time, we will call it 19°. At 55X, we have an FOV of 20.4 MOA/6MIL. The Majesta goes from 8X to 80X. At 8X, it’s AAOV is 25° and at 80X, it is also 25°. It’s 25° throughout its magnification range. At 80X, the FOV of the Majesta is 18.6MO/5.5MIL (as I said, very similar to the Comp at its maximum, it’s exactly the same at 73X.) At 55X, the max magnification of the Comp, the FOV of the Majesta is 27.0MA/8MIL. That’s the equivalent of an entire target frame more than the FOV of the Comp at 55X. So, you can well imagine people adjusting the Majesta to “their eye” by cranking up the Majesta to the max to match the same FOV and seeing it get darker.
It's simply human nature. I’ve seen it many times and had to point it out to the ones looking through my Majesta. The vast majority of shooters simply do not grasp the concept of wide-angle eyepiece. More on this in a minute.
An additional facet of scope comparison is to start at the minimum magnification and keep cranking to the maximum. Bad comparison, Bad. Bad. Bad. The Comp starts at 15X and goes to 55X, a whopping 3.5X of zoom. The eye will adjust easily to the difference in brightness from 15X to 55X. But when they look through a Majesta going from 8X (super bright) to 80X, quite dim, they come away with the impression that “boy, does it get dark”, and forget it’s a 10X zoom and they are now at 80X. The eye simply can’t adjust fast enough for a 10X zoom demo, especially older eyes.
If we make a proper comparison, we would have the Comp at 55X and the Majesta also at 55X. At this magnification, the exit pupil diameter of the Majesta would be 1.02mm to the 0.95mm of the Comp. That’s about a 7% increase for the Majesta. However, the FOV of the Majesta at 55X is the 27MAO we mentioned earlier, the complete extra target frame at 1000yards.
I have never, ever once read a comparison between the Comp and the Majesta in which the reviewer would comment on how much more (s)he could see at 55X in the Majesta compared to the Comp. They all say, “the Majesta is darker” and that means they are comparing 80X to 55X.
I have been talking with numerous Majesta owners at local matches as well as the Nationals for a couple of years now and I am amazed at the range of usage. Some go to 80X and stay there all the time. They use a spotter on the line, and they just want the extra magnification to place the reticle very surgically on the target. Others will run them at around 40X-60X and they don’t use a spotting scope, they use the wide FOV of the Majesta to read the mirage. Older shooters have a longer period of adjustment, but most get there. The brain is a pattern recognition machine, and it takes time to retrain as you age. Some never make the adjustment. We’re talking in their 60s here. And this is virtually always with F-Class shooters, which makes sense as we shoot the same target/target line at every match and we get into a comfort zone.
More recently, March has made a solid entrance into the PRS world with the March-FX 5-42X56 HM Gen 2 with writable turrets (aka PRS scope). This bad boy has an AAOV of 26°. The PRS shooters are more flexible and generally younger than the F-class shooters. They are adapting quite well to the wide-angle eyepiece of the PRS scope and I also think that because the reticle is in the first focal plane, they are immediately aware of the magnification used. The reticle grows larger as you increase the magnification, and they can’t miss that in the riflescope. The folks who compare the PRS scope to other optics, always mention the increased FOV at the same magnification. This is completely different from F-Class shooters, especially those who do not know about or understand the concept of a wide-angle eyepiece.
If you want to compare the Comp to an equivalent March, that would be the March-X 10-60X56 HM. It has a normal eyepiece with an AAOV of 20° throughout its zoom range. It has similar specs to the Comp, but again, it has a 6X zoom, and weighs a little more at 32oz. That’s the price you pay for the added ruggedness and overall stability of a 34mm tube with 4mm thick walls. It also has Super ED lenses, the same as in the Majesta.
I designed the MTR-WFD reticle to take advantage of the wide FOV of the Majesta. It is unique in the industry, and for some older shooters, it can be a challenge to get used to it, but after a while, it becomes a heads-up display that makes it easy to place on target, surgically.
Tl/dr;
People who compare riflescopes always disregard the difference in magnification and zoom range, and do not grasp the wide-angle view of the Majesta. The sight picture on an F-class target line is the same between the Comp at 55X, and the Majesta at 73X-80X. But the exit pupil of the Majesta is over one quarter smaller at 80X, compared to the Comp at 55X. So the Comp looks brighter at the same sight picture. The scopes should be compared at 55X.
If you can’t deal with the extra view of the wide-angle Majesta, look at the March-X 10-60X56 HM instead; it has specs very similar to the Comp.
