Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Is there a 1X that makes the picture brighter?

Is there a 1X non-battery scope that gathers more light than the human eye and makes things brighter (and maybe a little more in focus to boot)?

I'm not, never have been, and don't claim to be particularly knowledgeable about optics, but wouldn't any good quality 1x scope with multi-coated lenses transmit more light than an unaided human eye?

Yes, but it would transmit it to an exit pupil bigger than the human pupil, so only part of the transmitted light would get into the eye, and this might not be more than what the unaided eye would gather.

No, such a 1x scope can only add losses to the light the enters your eye pupils.

Aic

Yup...

But you'd have the advantage of a single sight plain. I had a 1x Weaver K1 on a muzzle-loader when NE only allowed 1x scopes on muzzle-loading rifles. Now they don't care what magnification scope you use.

WI had the 1X muzzleloader rule at one time and the S1 Sightron 1X was great for that purpose. Side by side with the Nikon and it was no contest the Sightron was easier on my old eyes.

if you want something to make real life more "in focus," i think you're talking about prescription glasses.

also, i don't think anything you put in between real life and your eye is going to amplify light unless it has batteries.

I'm not an expert but ...

Think about non-magnifying lenses, coatings, and sun glasses. The view can be improved by filtering certain wavelengths but there's not a lens or coating that I know of that gathers more light. If it were possible there be such a thing as night vision coatings that would help you see in the dark.

Corrective lenses are what brings things into focus.

I've seen brighter rifle scope images during low light conditions ever since the late 50's, long before I ever used any fully multicoated rifle scopes.
What happens is the light hits a larger objective and gets funneled down, or concentrated to whatever the exit pupil size is. Along the way, it looses some of it's apparent brightness when the image is magnified. But, if the scope does little or no magnifing, the image is really bright.
Yes the exit pupil is larger than one pupil as a rule. What happens is the eye is flooded with light and the pupil shrinks like it does in daylight.
But the net effect is a nice, bright image. During low light conditions, this often looks brighter than what the unaided eye can see.
It is useful also when one looses his reticle during low light conditions. Turning th magnification down will brighten the image and can allow one to recover the scope's reticle. E

Here's a real life experience I had hunting with a 1X scope in Utah during muzzle loader season.

It was about 9:00 in the morning when I had a group of five bucks come down a draw and stop 117 yards from where I was sitting. They were across the draw in the shadows with buck brush in the background. I grabbed my rangefinder to check the yardage and could clearly see each one of bucks and the biggest of the bunch, a decent 3x3.

I propped my ML on my shooting stick for what should have an easy chip shot. One problem though. I couldn't clearly make out the body on the 3X3. I could see his head and the white patch on his neck/chest. I thought he was standing broadside slightly quartering and facing downhill. I put the crosshairs down and to the right of white patch, held solid and steady and squeezed the trigger.

Boom. After the smoke cleared I expected to see a dead buck on the ground ... but no.

I sent shot exactly where I was aiming but I missed him clean. What happened was I assumed he was standing broadside but in fact he standing straight downhill. After thinking about it I put it all together and finally realized that when I was looking at his white patch he was head on.

So ... a combination of him standing in the shadows during broad daylight and a lack of magnification is what caused me to miss the buck. I can definitely say that the scope didn't help brighten the image in this particular circumstance.

Let me guess. The range finder was a 6-8X model. In other words, you couldn't see him clearly because you weren't using the same magnification. Image brightness had nothing to do with it. E

Any image that passes through glass it looses a little bit of light. Better glass/coatings reduce this loss, but it happens. 1x with glass will be dimmer than 1x with no glass.

Of course the rangefinder was magnified. What I was trying to address is the point of enhancing the image through an increase in brightness. That didn't happen. The buck blended in with the shadows and the 1X scope didn't help things out.

I realize it's not very scientific to offer a one off circumstance but it does apply to the topic.

That would be true if the scope had the same size objective as it's exit pupil. But, with most rifle scopes, the objective is far larger than the scope's exit pupil. Thus the light hitting eye looks alot brighter simply because it's concentrated in a smaller area.
You are correct in that a paper tube would transmit 100% of the availiable light whereas even the very best rifle scopes do loose some of the transmited light. E

Anytime light goes through an optic some of it is lost. Most decent scopes transmit 90-95% of the light that comes in. The high end stuff will be somewhat more than 95% and many budget scopes will be in the 80-90% range. The biggest advantage is some magnification. Even a 2X scope will bring the image in closer, more than making up for the 5-10% loss of light.

I don't think it is possible for any scope to make the image brighter, even with lots of magnification. But even on 1X in low light I find them easier to shoot

Weaver V3, 1-3x20 is an underated and very affordable scope. Very light, compact and it's also tough. 1x is the charm for old eyes and moving game.

Eremy, have you ever shot a 1x scope?? frankly they suck and suck so bad its pretty much a waste. brightness, exit pupil, all the specs can be cussed and discussed but in the end it just =suck!!!! ok with that said the best 1x I have seen is the very expensive leupold prismatic. or I would recommend some type of red dot scope. I have an astigmatism and the red dot looks like a football so they are not the best choice for me. the biggest problem with a 1x scope and I have seen in myself pick out a buck then switch to put your gun on it. if the light is less than good your going to have problems. what FH described is exactly the situation I have seen happen. the other is 1x scopes make the targets smaller!!!