Bushnell 3x9x50 euro 30mm 3200 elite

[jathames]

Just picked up this scope for a very good price.. can you guys give me some input on your experiences with this scope. Thanks

[Zachary]

Very nice scope, no question about it, but please don't think that you are getting better quality optics - or more light transmission - from the 30mm tube.  It is still an Elite 3200, which is still an excellent scope - no question about it, but believe me, if you compare this scope with a 1" Elite 4200, the 4200 wins hands down.

For the money, the 3200 is great, and I happen to like 50mm objectives and 30mm tubes, but my most important criteria is optics.

Other than being offered a good price on this scope (which is very important) are there any other reasons that you are looking at this particular 3200?

Zachary

[jathames]

What would be the benefit of the 30mm tube if not more light transmission?

[Graybeard]

Well it makes it bigger and heavier to reduce recoil.

Optics are an area with more myths and superstitions than any other area of the shooting sports I believe. For example.

Folks still believe scopes and binoculars GATHER light. They do not. All they do is TRANSMIT light that falls onto the objective.

The size of that objective plays a much lesser role than folks think too. The main thing it does is when you divide magnification into it you get the exit pupil size. Now any exit pupil less than 5 will appear less bright to your eyes than when viewing with naked eye. Over will appear somewhat brighter.

BUT quality of the glass and coatings is the primary determiner of how much light gets transmitted. At each uncoated air to glass surface you lose 5% of available light. These days hardly any non coated surfaces exist. But coats are not all created equal. Single coatings are not as good as multi layer coatings and do not transmit as high a % of the light. And not all multi layer coatings are the same either.

Another factor is the SIZE of the internal lens and baffles if present. Yeah some brands put in baffles to reduce the diameter of light going thru the scope? Why you ask? Because they know the optics they use are of poor quality and are not as well polished as they should be. So they restrict the amount of light with baffles to the center of lens and it appears they are of higher quality than they are. BUT at the cost of reduced light transmission.

The European 30MM scopes for the most part at least have larger internal lens so at least in theory might seem brighter. NOT all American brand name scopes with 30MM tubes do this. Some still have small internal lens.

If you want a bright scope for low light use you're far better off to buy instruments with high quality glass and that are fully multicoated. These will usually transmit as much as 95%-98% of the total light that enters the objective to the eye. Larger objectives and larger tubes are not the answer. Quality is.