Rifle Scopes Blue flare / color fringing

[adamwade]

While looking through a bunch of Leupold optics (Mk8, Mk6, Mk4, etc.) I noticed they all had sever blue flare/color fringing when viewing anything white at an magnification. This was looking through a doorway with no window glass obstructions. This was shocking to me for a $3000 optic !

Does this occur on premium brands like S&B, Kahles, Zeiss, Steiner ?

 

[slyfox]

I see no chromatic abberation in my USO scopes except a little bit at the highest magnification. I think all scopes have at least a small amount of this effect, but as I said, my USO doesn't exhibit this enough for me to even notice it under normal conditions.

 

[hk dave]

OP stated "severe"

Most reports I've read of the Mk6 and Mk6 lines say the glass is comparable to Euro glass which should mean very little CA. I imagine the Mk4 must have CA though.

My S&B and Premier show very little CA if any at all.... my Steiner 4-16 and Nightforce F1 shows a touch of CA at high magnifications only and if pointed white things... but not enough to be bothersome.

 

[adamwade]

Interesting. It was only happening when looking at a bright white car. It sounds like this is a problem for any scope. I was surprised, because high dollar photographic lenses don't have this issue (fluorite lenses, etc). They are typically in the 6x-8x magnification range, but like I said, even the MK8 had bad CA and it's only a 1.5-8x.

 

[Exo]

maybe its something, maybe its nothing, but if the OP was inside (looking through a doorway) could the lighting/backlight different cause the blue'ish tint to show more "severe"??

 

[hk dave]

Interesting. It was only happening when looking at a bright white car. It sounds like this is a problem for any scope. I was surprised, because high dollar photographic lenses don't have this issue (fluorite lenses, etc). They are typically in the 6x-8x magnification range, but like I said, even the MK8 had bad CA and it's only a 1.5-8x.

Maybe we have differing opinions of what is acceptable CA.

I have yet to find a photography lens that didn't display CA when looking at bright white objects...

I've owned or used them all... Hasselblad, Contax, Canon, Nikon, Schneider APO large format, Zeiss, Fuji, Leica, and they all display CA if the conditions are harsh enough.

 

[tylerw02]

My 10x Leupold Mark 4 shows none that I've ever noticed. My S&Bs I don't notice any. The NF 5.5-22x I used to have showed it at the high end of the magnification. My old VX3 8.5-25x showed it pretty much anything over 10x. Its not really that big of a deal.

 

[adamwade]

I was inside looking out (not back lit since the car was lit from a forward angle about 4pm), but as far as acceptable levels of CA I guess I haven't noticed it much in photography (Nikon, Rollei 6008 systems). Doesn't mean it's not there, but I probably haven't shot much that was bright white.

The scope CA was extremely noticeable - meaning a blue "ghost" of the car was shifted over about 25% of the cars width ! Double vision almost. This may have been a rare optical nightmare situation (sun angle, more or less polarizing ?), but was shocking. Again, all the Leupolds had the same effect and there were no other brands out for demo. THIS IS NOT a Leupold flame - so no offense to anyone. I just thought I'd check to see if there are any brands that wouldn't have done this in the same situation (i.e. Can you buy your way out of this problem). It seams like it was just the wrong target and the wrong light ?

 

[jrob300]

Are you holding the scope up to your eye? Or was the scope mounted on a rifle?

 

[adamwade]

The scopes were all part of a demo display and mounted on rifle stocks for aiming.