Just bought one last week,non sale, from Academy for $129.99. Gave her about an 80 round test to sight in and play with it just a bit. 1. Lock it down tight. I had to retorque it a couple times, my fault for being too gentle, I'm sure. But even lose, zero held surprisingly well for minute of coffee can accuracy. 2. The dot was fuzzy, but I'm positive my astigmatism had absolutely nothing to do with that. Nevertheless, when the dot brightness was turned down, the little 2moa dot was clear enough for business. I would imagine somebody with normal eyes would see a really clear, crisp dot. 3. I like the shake awake mode. Makes it particularly nice for a night time gun when I need to provide immediate overwatch for the ongoing Pyrenees vs Coyote wars this time of year. 4. It don't weight don't diddly squat. Well, relatively speaking, of course. And the low profile seems to fit nicely to the rifle without appearing to scream, "Look! I'm tactical!" Like do many other optics often do with their cantilever mounts. So far, I'm happy. I was able to keep a coffee can rolling at varying ranges, with one or both eyes open, at my leisure. It is direct co-witness on my rifle, but the A-frame front sight in the sight picture doesn't seem to really bother me. I just fold the Magpul rear down, and away I go.
Any more thoughts on the Romeo 5? I just put one on my new rifle and while I don't have a lot of range time with it, I'm pretty impressed with everything you mention above. The light weight, size, ease of use/adjustability and auto-awake feature add up to a pretty sweet little red dot for the price.
I'm still loving it. Everyone who played with it so far is impressed, and the oldest boy wants me to put one on his new rifle. Even with my astigmatism I can hold a good sight picture, and the shake awake is a big seller for me.
Astigmatism sucks I spent big bucks for a eotech because it had the smallest dot I could find for more precision. But my eyes see a star burst way larger than the actual dot.
I've noticed on the cheaper RDS that I see a starburst that looks like a July 4 celebration. But the Romeo and Eotech are about the same for me. Eotech is slightly better, but not several hundred dollars better. I like the bigger view on the Eotech, but I've been out of the force on force game for years, and so far the 4 legged predators have not returned fire. So, I guess my point is, it ain't an Eotech, but I've spent more than the Romeo cost taking the kids out to dinner one time. And it's precise enough we were hitting the blue lid on a gallon milk jug at 25 yards consistently. (Most of my shooting is under 100 yards, a lot under 50, at small moving targets) So this accuracy makes Ol' Wile E. Coyote a cinch at 75-100.
Oh, I should also clarify that the most often "serious business" shooting I do is at night time with a mounted light in conjunction with the Romeo. So that should speak well of it also, combine the weapon light and RDS on moving Target and still achieving good kill shots.
On the first outing with mine, I was consistently hitting steel targets at 200 yards with a minimum of adjustment, right out of the box. That impressed me. Dot visibility in full sunlight is quite good, even without cranking up the dot size. Clarity is also good when just looking through the glass and using iron sights. I don't find that's always the case with RDS in this price range. And it weighs 5 oz. RDS have come a long way in the last few years.