Optic Observations (1 - 4X Variable Scopes)



Bright light! Bright light!

The pic below shows a view looking through an Aimpoint M4S with its illumination at the highest setting.  The target in the view has two very bright, white photography lights shining on it from a distance of less than 2 feet; basically the brightest ambient light that I was able to produce indoors.





Now, here is a pic using the exact same setup of lights and target, except this time the optic used is a Schmidt & Bender Short Dot LE.







Here are the two views, side by side.





Horton Sees a Hue

The pic below shows a view looking through a Short Dot LE with the magnification set at 1.1X.  The chimney in the middle of the view is approximately 100 yards away.  Notice the orange leaves and bricks, the green shingles and the white and yellow aluminum siding.  Also notice that the only hue, in the view, that remotely resembles a shade of blue, is the small patch of sky near 3 o’clock.










Colors

There has been a lot of bandwidth devoted to the color of reticles as of late, particularly the color green.  Pictured below is a view through a Trijicon TR24-G, which has the green triangle reticle.  The scope is “aimed” at a target that is 25 feet away, in a pitch dark room!







Here is the same view, only this time looking through a Trijicon TR24-R, which has the red triangle reticle.





Both views, side by side.




Now, here are the same scopes, in the same set-up, with the only thing different being a switched-on SureFire X300 white light attached to the left rail of the handguard.







The above views, side by side.







Radioactive.

The major weakness of most optics that utilize tritium and fiber optics to illuminate the reticle has been the “washing out” of the reticle when aiming into a brightly lit area from a dark area.  The Trijicon TR24 series of Accupoints has vastly improved this situation, although not completely eliminated it.

The view below is looking through a TR24-G that is in a darkened area of the house, looking into a brightly lit area.  As you can see, the fiber optics are not being fed enough light to brightly illuminate the reticle and the tritium is having a hard time overcoming the brightness of the target area.  The reticle is certainly still usable, although not ideal.  




This is the type of situation in which scopes with battery powered illuminated reticles really shine (no pun intended.)  The next picture shows the same set-up as above, but looking through a NightForce NXS 1-4 x 24 at 1X magnification with the illumination on.




Again the same set-up, this time looking through a Short Dot LE at 1.1X magnification with the illumination on.





The Ruler of Truth

Pictured below is a view of an Aimpoint M4S with a metal ruler running through its field of view and beyond.  Notice that the lines formed by the top and bottom edges of the ruler continue uninterrupted when passing through the Aimpoint’s field of view.  Notice that the numbers and graduation marks are the exact same size, both inside the Aimpoint’s field of view and out.  This is “true” 1X magnification; that is to say, no magnification at all.




The next view has the ruler running through the field of view of an EOTech HoloSight.  Again, the lines of the ruler continue uninterrupted and the ruler remains the exact same size inside the EOTech’s fied of view and out.




Now, let’s apply the Ruler of Truth to what many here have called a “true 1X” optic, the Trijicon Accupoint TR24-R.  The magnification ring is set to 1X in the view below.





As you can clearly see, the lines formed by the edges of the ruler are shifted when running through the field of view of the TR24-R and the ruler is clearly larger inside the field of view of the TR24-R; that is to say, the ruler is MAGNIFIED.





The Ruler of Truth applied to a NightForce 1- 4 x 24 NXS with the magnification ring set to 1X reveals the same findings.









The Ruler of Truth applied to a Short Dot LE with the magnification ring set to 1.1X shows little difference from the NightForce NXS on 1X.







In truth, since the “true 1X” scopes are not truly without magnification in the truest sense of the word like an Aimpoint or EOTech,  the only thing that truly matters is, can these optics be easily used with human binocular vision; that is, both eyes opened and focused on the target at the same time?  The answer is a resounding yes, just as it is with the Short Dot LE at 1.1X magnification.  




Focus On The Front Sight


Here's a view of the front sight when looking through an Aimpoint M4S.






This view is looking through a NightForce NXS 1-4 x 24 at 1X magnification.





12 O'Clock High






Weighing In


Trijicon TR24 with LaRue SPR-E mount:

1 pound, 6 ounces



Aimpoint M4S combined with Aimpoint 3X magnifier, both in LaRue mounts:

1 pound 6.8 ounces




NightForce 1- 4 x 24 NXS with LaRue SPR-S mount:

1 pound, 7.5 ounces



Schmidt & Bender Short Dot LE with a LaRue SPR-E mount:

1 pound, 11.1 ounces

Tagged for good info!
Tomac

How far away from the scopes is the ruler? It's been my experience that the 1x setting on 1-4x scopes like the NXS and Short Dot does magnify the image a bit, but this becomes almost unnoticeable with targets that are more than 5 yards away.

It'd also be cool to see a video of a 1-4x scope at 1x sweeping left to right. This will show any distortion in the lens setup, which at least for me can induce a mild case of motion sickness. Better glass = less distortion.

Finally, the big, big issues with 1-4x scopes vs red dot scopes like the Aimpoint and Eotech are eye relief and exit pupil.

A true 1x RDS does not care where your head is in relation to the scope (for all practical purposes). If you can see the dot and the target, you can take your shot. You can be lying on your back with the rifle at arms length, you can be wearing a gas mask that puts your face at the very end of the stock –– it doesn't matter.

If you're shooting a 1-4x scope at 1x, you still need to build some semblance of a traditional cheekweld to see the reticle and the target, and the "box" for your head is only a few inches in any direction until the scope becomes useless. So far, out of all the 1-4x scopes I have any experience with, the Elcan Specter DR does the best job of allowing head movement due to its huge exit pupil at 1x. The DR's reticle illumination is also quite unique; turn the illum knob one way, and a center red dot lights up with enough intensity to see in full sunlight against a very bright target. Turn the knob the other way, and the fine crosshair reticle lights up for precision shooting in low light. The DR isn't a perfect scope (the mount is crying for an upgrade), but there's no arguing with its optical qualities.

Thanks for the excellent post.  
I am trying to decide which 1-4 scope to get for an AR, and this is very helpful.  
I can't wait until you post the continuation.

Yes this is a very good write up.  Nice pictures also. I know I've been trying to decide on a scope for my AR15 and been really looking at the Burris 1-4 XTR.  Got any pictures of that scope and retical?

tag

Great shots Molon!

another great write up

eagerly awaiting more

Dang Molon, your doing your part to help our economy recover.  Good taste in optics.

Molon in your opinion, do you have a prefference on the accupoint colors, red or green triangle? I was really diggin the green till I saw the red......hmmmmmm The ruler of truth really answered all of my questions about the 1x being true. Thank you for this post.

As stated above, the 1X will show some magnification at point blank range.  From a few feet and out the AccuPoint is as true to 1X as they come.  The ruler of truth as you call it really isn't a realistic way to measure the capability of the scope.

I too would like to see the Burris XTR 1-4 tested.  That price point is very popular.  I only wish I could afford the Short Dot.    

I too am wondering what your preference for the accupoint reticle color is. From your pics the red triangle looks more blurred. It may be an issue of the camera as I was considering getting a red one.

+1

In person, the red and green triangle reticles appear equally sharp to my eyes.  I haven't yet decided which color reticle will be best suited for my shooting needs.  

Here's a slightly better pic of the red triangle reticle.

Can you post details on how you did the "ruler-o-truth"? I'd like to see how the Elcan stands up...

In my opinion the Elcans don't really belong in the category of variable powered scopes.  I think they could more accurately be described as "switchable." It's sort of like having two different scopes inside the same housing.  However, for the Ruler of Truth test, simply pin a ruler to a foam poster-board at such an angle that the ruler can be visualized both inside and outside of the optics field of view and then take your picture.

Ah,thats much better thanks. I'm still on the fence as well. I want to use it for competition and "tactical" use, classes and such.

On one hand Im so use to picking up red dots from using aimpoints for years. On the other green is supposedly the color the human eye is the most sensitive to.

It's definately personal preference but I prefer the Green.  I have all three (Amber, Red and Green) and the Green is the best IMO.

Maybe, maybe not.  Years ago, Trijicon reprtedly commissioned a study from a major university (I want to say the University of Michigan, but don't recall for sure) on the subject.  The study concluded that amber was the color that the human eye was most sensitive to and this is supposedly why the original Trijicon Reflex sights had amber colored reticles.  I owned both a Reflex and a Reflex II and ending up selling both of them because my eyes didn't pick up the amber dots as readily as the red dots in Aimpoint sights.

So much for academic studies

Maybe it varies from person to person. I guess the only way would be to run each color for a while and see what you prefer. Unfortunately TR24s are pretty rare with the green versions even more so and I dont have the cash to get both.

I'm jealous. I wish that I could afford more than one scope.  I am interested to see how the Meopta would stack up against the rest, since I have one enroute.

The Ruler of Truth test does not tell the truth.  A 1X scope produces a TRUE 1X image and you are not going to see that with the ruler test because it is as TRUE 1X image as seen from the objective lens' perspective.  The objective lens is always closer than the camera or human eye.  This means there is always around a good 6-10" diference in the position of your right eye's image and left eyes image.  The difference at 20' is not noticable but at  just over a foot its a 2X image. Its all realtive to the % differenc in range of th objective to the non dominant eye(or camera in this case). Noone aims at things that close with the optic... the Ruler of Truth test does not tell the truth.  It lies and distorts the actual amount of shift in size relative to the posiotn of the objectve vs the position of the shooter.  Do a 20' test and noone will be able to see a difference.  Do a 100' test and it would become IMPOSSIBLE to measure a difference.  The key is the deterimine if you can set up on a 20' target and mess with the diopter and get a CLEAR image with no visible trasition or jump as it crosses the FOV but also not have very distant targets not appear to be in a state of negative magnification.

As has been stated a True 1X should be judged on its ability to produce true 1X images at a distance, amount of curvature of field, etc.  

Knocking the entire concept of a 1X scope because of curvature of field is also ridiculous.  A Dr Optic has SEVERAL TIMES more curvature of field IMO than many 1X scopes.

The easiest way for people to understand how a 1X optic works is to imagine there is a minature 1X video camera right at the objective lens and the occular lens is a video screen.  Imagine all the lenes dont exist and there is just wires going form the front to the back of the scope.  Its not that the video camera is not producing a 1X image, just that its in a different position than your other eye.  You CAN correct for that differnce at ONE distance by introducing a negative magnification shift, however; everything past that distance would become negatively magnified and everything closer will still appear positively magnified.

. . . and from situation/lighting to situation/lighting.

I have had excellent luck with my Swarovski Z6i in three gun and its reticle is very bright even in bright sunlight.
Pat

At 4X magnification the dot is 1.57 MOA, but I can't recall off the top of my head the exact MOA of the dot at 1.1X.  The nice thing about it is that just like an Aimpoint, you can turn up the intensity and "bloom" the dot under most lighting conditions.

Short Dot LE, SFP, so the dot is going to get bigger relative to the target as the magnification gets lower; which is how I think it should be on a scope of this type.

Guessing he's got good taste in cameras too and/or the ability to use them.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

awesome thread...particularly interested in that Z6i

Focus On The Front Sight


Here's a view of the front sight when looking through an Aimpoint M4S.






This view is looking through a NightForce NXS 1-4 x 24 at 1X magnification.

12 O'Clock High

Damn, now I gotta go take a shower.

Have you tried it yet?  I'd be interested in seeing pics of your results.

If true 1x is measured at the objective lense,  wouldn't that mean every scope is 1x?

Weights added to first post.

Great thread! Would love to see the TR24 with the German #4 crosshair (green or red).

I sold mine, but other members have posted pics of that reticle.

Molon,

May I ask what you found lacking in the TR24 with German #4 Crosshair that caused you to sell it?

I was thinking about getting one someday and wonder what was wrong with it.

Nothing "wrong" with it.  I have an S&B Short Dot LE that outperforms it and I didn't need both.

This scope has me all psyched up and warm in the trousers:

Vortex Viper PST 1-4X24

Get a load of the specs and features.....

I like that reticle.

I'm thinking the 2.5x10 for my Grendel...

Sorry if I miss it ––But is the Viper PST 1-4x24 Riflescope available yet ?

Not yet.  A few folks (myself included) are backordered through SWFA.  Supposed to be released after SHOT.  Not sure of how fast they'll be available thereafter.

Just because the first thing I notice is the details, I have to ask...

The reticle looks amazing and I'm very interested in seeing how well they do (and hope that they do), but why put non-zero stop target-style turrets on a CQ optic? With non-locked turrets and the seeming lack of zero stop, the knobs can be bumped and de-zero'd quite easily. It seems counter-productive.