Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Tunnel vision.

I picked up a Zeiss Conquest 3-12X56 yesterday and looked through it. It had a large amount of what I call tunnel vision. What I mean is that when in perfect eye position, you can see a lot of black from the scope tube and inside of the scope around the sight picture. The thicker the black ring, the worse the tunnel vision.

What high end scopes do you find with very little tunnel vision? I have always found Leupolds very good in this respect. They seem to have only a very thin line around the sight picture. I have a Kahles 2-7x36 AH that is much better in this respect than the same scope in a Helia CL that I also own.

Is this something that some of you notice as well? I really don't like tunnel vision in a scope and may even go with a cheaper scope to avoid it.

Swaro and Meopta are good.

My Bushnell 6500 2 1/2-16X42 is right behind the Leupold 4 1/2-14X50 Long Range and Swarovski z5 5-25X52 for thinness of tunnel vision.

Was this at all magnifications, or just the lowest part of the range?

never noticed that in their conquest 3-9 or 2.5-8.

How are you determining "perfect eye position"?

It sounds to me as if you are attempting to set your scope outside of the eye box. Position the scope for the prescribed amount of eye relief and there will be no tunnel vision.

David

Not exactly. There are scopes that make you feel like you're looking through a choked down field stop, even at optimum eye relief distance.

"can see a lot of black from the scope tube and inside of the scope around the sight picture. "

??

David

He's seeing the blacked out back side of the aperture.

What aperture?

I have looked through a Conquest 3-12x56 numerous times (one of my hunting pards had one mounted on his favorite rig). There is no black, the picture is bright and clear to the edge at all magnifications.

David

A stopped down image can be clear all the way to its edge.

And if your eye is positioned properly there will be no black out - you will see a full image in the tube.

David

Yea the image is perfect all the way to the edge. That's not what I'm talking about. I know how to position a scope to see through it properly. What I am talking about is that some scopes show a much thicker ring around the perfect sight picture. Some people don't seem to notice it as much as others but it drives me crazy when the black ring looks so thick.

Yes, I use the Zeiss Conquest 3x9x40 and it's not bad on that scope. The 2-7 Leupolds are good in that respect also. Actually all my Leupolds look good without tunnel vision.

I was only looking at that Conquest 3-12X56 on 3X. It looked so bad to me at 3X that I wasn't interested in any farther testing.

I'm not talking about a blacked out image because your eye is positioned incorrectly. Some scopes simply show a thicker edge than others. It's like the old style TV's in the huge cabinets compared to today's flat panels with a thin frame.

Now we're getting somewhere. There are scopes that may as well not go as low in magnification as they do for that very reason. While lowering the magnification you reach a point where the field of view quits growing and the tube view comes into play.

Yep. The older Nikon Monarchs that looked like Vari-X III Leupolds exhibited this trait, the degree of which varied somewhat across the line.

The edge you are referring to - that's the thickness of the scope tube/rubber eye ring that's bothering you?

David

Yes, but it looks huge on some scopes. I think a part of the inside of the tube must be coming into view as well. For instance the tube thickness line on a Leupold VX2 2-7 only appears to be 1/8-3/16 thick. The ring on that 3-12X56 at 3X looked to be 3/4" thick.

This is what I'm talking about.

RH

Mount your rifle with the scope at 3x and move your head backwards - do you still see the black around the image?

Large objective scopes tend to have more restrictive eyeboxes than smaller objectives. I have a 2.5-10x56 Trijicon that is similar. With the scope mounted to be in the middle of the eyebox at 10x, turn the magnification down to 2.5x and it displays tunnel vision, because the eyebox has moved rearward with the magnification change. Pull your head back and you can get a full image in the tube again.

It is possible to mount the scope where you are at the back of the eyebox for 10x and the front of the eyebox at 2.5x, maintaining a full field of view for each. Eye position then becomes critical for both magnifications and changing clothing/field positions can make it difficult to get behind the scope quickly. I chose to leave it set up optimally for 10x as the scope is almost never at 2.5x.

If this is the problem you are experiencing it is due to the 56mm obj, not the scope quality.

David