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Daytime Usable Illumination | Optics Trade Debates

Welcome to Optics Trade debates. In each episode, we talk about a different topic and try to answer the most common questions we receive about it. Today, we are going to talk about daytime usable illumination.

A lot of scopes have illuminated reticles, but only a small part of scopes have daytime bright illumination.

Daytime illumination is used on red dots and on wide angle riflescopes.

Daytime bright illumination is important because rapid target acquisition is much easier if there is only a red point in the middle of the field of view. A lot more concentration is required with a dark reticle. Daytime illumination is a lot more suitable for hectic situations than a dark reticle.

Daytime illumination is a key feature of wide-angle riflescopes that feature a 1x magnification. They are used on wide angle hunting scopes and on wide angle tactical scopes. They also feature a reticle but the mind automatically focuses on the illuminated dot.

There are a lot of wide angle riflescopes currently on the market that are priced lower than 500 €. The cheap scopes have a lot of problems, their illumination is too bright for low-light use but is not bright enough for daytime use.

In other scopes that don’t have a 1x magnification, daytime illumination is not needed. Scopes that don’t need daytime illumination but still feature it, fall into the premium category. They feature it simply because they can.

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Explanation of the term on our website:

Daytime illumination of the riflescope reticle serves a different purpose than twilight illumination, and in such rifle scopes, high-intensity levels are a necessity. The illumination of the reticle is meant for rapid target acquisition since a bright red dot is the best possible aiming point. Shooters’ eyes are instinctively drawn to a bright red dot in the center of the field of view. Such strong illumination is feasible only in rifle scopes with magnification lower than 1.5x or ideally 1.0x. Such wide-angle rifle scopes with a real 1.0x magnification and daytime bright illumination of the reticle can even be used with both eyes open, similar to reflex/red dot sights.

Riflescopes with daytime illumination are the best choice for IPSC, CQB, tactical shooting and driven hunting in bright daylight.

Day time illumination

Source: Zeiss

Products mentioned:
Riflescopes with daytime usable illumination: https://www.optics-trade.eu/en/riflescopes/shopby/adjustable_ilimination-yes.htm

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