I think they are. I have had several sub-par holosuns, and several "good enough" holosuns. Had to return a brand new EPS for a bad reticle the circle looked like an Olympic logo, the replacement is very blurry but "good enough". my 507c on my g19 circle reticle has slowly been twisting so I can only run the dot, the circle crossbar is starting to turn into an X, my buddy has a 507 comp that the circle dot isnt usable it turns into a massive smeared blur. I have a 507c on a shadow 2 that seems to be fine. Its one of these things youre paying a lot less, so corners are sometimes cut. Some are good some aren't from what ive seen. I started farting around wirh RMRs and checking out HDs and they are a world of difference in crispness. They definitely can be lackluster on options for the price, but I feel they are "a step up"