Brightest Scope at Dawn and at Dusk / Moon Light?

[Scrumbag]

Great comments here and thank you. How much is gained by having a larger main tube diameter? In the dark ages, 30mm was the step up now we're seeing up to 36mm. From 30 to 36mm, almost a 30% gain in area of the internals - how much of that transfers to the eye?

Glad you find them helpful

My view is the tube has little to do with light transmission. I always understood the fatter tubes had far more to do with wanting more elevation range for zeroing relatively close and shooting out a long way and / or space for illuminated reticles.

I think there are possibly two things that come into play here

1) If you have a straight tube tactical scope (great for field of view in the day, rubbish in low light), you need a fatter tube to get a fatter objective
2) I think if you are dealing with the the very high magnification ranges, the fatter tube helps as the first lense might not shrink the beams down quite enough to fit down a "narrow" 25.4 or 30mm tube (I will check this though and happy to be corrected). - However, I would say for "sensible" hunting scopes you are not going to see much difference.

ATB,

Scrummy

 

[Wedgy]

A larger tube diameter does not increase light transmission.

 

[JTComfort]

Got it. I can understand the larger main tube affords more mechanical range, esp helpful in LR and ELR applications. Thank you gentlemen.

 

[DMS1]

A 34mm tube does not translate,to more light, only more travel to dial longer shots.

I have used vx5, vx6 and have recently added an S&B Klassik 3-12 that I hope compares favourably

 

[andrews1958]

Has anyone used know anything about the S&B Polar? 96% light transmision?

 

[0002s]

Zeiss V8 glass is the brightest (to my eyes) I've looked through. There was a trade off in color to my eyes. Swarovski z8 glass is my favorite all around hunting scope.

The Mark 5DH is very bright to my eyes for a tactical scope. They are heavy SOBs.