I got my Athlon Midas TAC 5-25x56 mounted on my Daystate Redwolf Wednesday morning in a pair of Sportsmatch extra high adjustable 34mm rings, then went out to my friends shooting range about 1:30 in the afternoon on what could be considered an almost perfectly sunny day. It was a great day to judge clarity.
With me came my Anschutz 1827F 22rf, sitting on it was the Athlon Helos G2 6-24x56. Also the Athlon Cronus G2 4.5-29x56 on my 6mmBR precision rifle. All for optics IQ/Image Quality comparison. My friend Randy brought his Athlon Midas TAC 6-24x50 so we compared that also. We used 24x on all the scopes to make a fair judgement.
Randy and I went to the bench to compare straight away. Only a minute later we had come to an obvious and agreed upon conclusion, it was easy to see that with these two scopes we had right then that the Midas TAC 5-25x56 was defiantly the winner here in IQ when compared to the Helos G2 6-24x56. We were both thinking the glass difference wouldn't be as noticeable as it was but there was a defined difference! Basically we could see finer details in the various steel we looked at, like edges of pock marks on the steel and a brighter and more pleasing picture through my new TAC.
Then we compared my TAC 5-25 to his TAC 6-24. Okay, what ever Athlon did to create the 6-24 glass prescription they did very well! Darned if it wasn't a hair nicer in color rendition. It was barely noticeable but there nevertheless.
Then I looked through the G2 Cronus and I was more surprised that the Cronus was only a hair nicer in IQ than the TAC's, it wasn't much of a difference. Heck it might have been confirmation bias because I knew the Cronus was twice the price. Perhaps a younger person with great eyes could see a distinctive difference but I couldn't tell without really looking hard, and just barely. Of course one of the nice things about the Cronus is 29x which that scope pulls off well!
Later on we shot some long range with our powder burners. Randy has a $3000 Swarovski SFP X5 5-25x56 scope on his 7mmSaum. Long story short the glass in it just makes the Cronus G2 look like $1500 glass, which it is, lol. I've looked through many high end scopes as well as compared it to my S&B PM2 5-25, and March 5-42x56, and the X5 just has just superior IQ! In fact I think it has the best glass in the industry, including Premier Optical, and Tangent Theta which this Swaro would compete against, it's astounding how wonderful that Swaro is!
So lets compare retail price and features. All of the below mentioned scopes have a 10 mil turrets, a zero stop, and the APRS6 mil reticle.
Helos G2 6-24x56 is $749 - The standout features to me are locking turrets and almost daylight bright illumination as well as getting it in the APRS6 mil reticle. It has very nice turrets for the money and IMHO are class leading, and way nicer than the Vortex Strike Eagle I was behind for a while last year. The Helos G2 also focuses down to 10Y and the IQ is acceptable, I'd say better than many scopes I've looked through in this price range. I found no hindrance seeing the small KZ's at the XFT match last weekend and got high score so certainly GTG for most types of shooting where this type of scope might be suited for. It has 29 mils of total elevation travel.
Midas TAC 5-25x56 is $1062 - It has a capped windage turret which is fine by me because I usually hold off using the reticle anyway. It's nice not to worry about your windage knob moving by accident. The glass is a step better than the Helos G2. The turrets feel identical to the TAC 6-24x50, both TAC's have a hair more distinct feel, and also have a hair less lash than the Helos G2. Also class leading turrets IMHO. Alas no illumination but not many people use this feature and some are glad they don't have to pay for this feature either when they don't want it. It has 32 mils of elevation travel.
Athlon Cronus G2 4.5-29x56 is $1999 - You get what you pay for. Wow, the build quality is awesome in these! The controls are on the serious feeling side of things, it takes more effort to move them and you know right off you've got a high quality instrument on your rifle. The turrets are the most distinct I've felt on any scope so far regardless of price, a very audible click, and clunk when you hit the zero stop. The windage turret takes a bit more effort to turn than the elevation turret so it is unlikely that it will turn by accident as well as being low profile. What stands out to me in this scope other than the turrets is the true daylight bright illumination and pleasing IQ. Some much more expensive scopes, that are pretty much twice the price, offer locking turrets, and mechanical revolution indicators, and slightly better glass but IMHO I honestly am not sure I'm going to spend that kind of money anymore/$4000-ish to get the fractional bit more you get from them compared to the G2 Cronus. It also has 32 mils elevation travel. Do I like My March 5-42 and S&B 5-25 ???, sure I do, but part of that is the 10M and 10Y close focus. For almost 1/3rd the price I will lean towards Cronus G2's for now.
Conclusion - Yes I think the Midas TAC 5-25 is worth the extra money compared to the Helos "IF" you want better glass and slightly better build quality. Though locking turrets and almost daylight bright illumination are great features on the Helos G2. I need one more long range scope so the Midas TAC 5-25x56 is what I had hoped for and I think I'll get another and probably default to this scope.
So I think I'll mount Helos G2's on air rifles that I might be shooting at things inside of 25Y on because of the closer focus these offer. As is these scopes excel for the money compared to most scopes out there.
Then mount the TAC 5-25 on my 22rf, and other rifles that I will often use past 25Y. I kinda need the IQ the TAC's offer.
Sure would be nice if Athlon offered the APRS6 in the 30mm tubed 6-24x50 Midas TAC because it focuses at 10Y!
Sorry for the crappy photo's and dirty lenses - sheepish grin, but at least you get an idea of the sizes of the scopes and what the turrets look like.
Cronus G2 in front/or left, Midas TAC in middle, and HelosG2 in the back/or right.
? I will thank him when I meet him in person! Getting old has deteriorated my eyesight and have only bought 2nd focal plane scopes—the Cronus is so good that I got it anyway but would be 1st in line again if they were to ever offer it in 2nd focal plane. I think Athlon has earned their place up there with the Tier 1 shooters because they listen to them and make changes faster than any other brand. 
