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Rifle Scopes Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

netranger6

netranger6

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Minuteman
Aug 15, 2009
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Vicoria, Texas
#1
Last night, was pulling overwatch on the hog feeder from about 60/70 yards away. it was getting pretty dark, and I kept the henny on 4x to observe all traffic. However, I noticed a slight fish bowl effect on the edges of my sight picture, kind of like looking through a "convex" piece of glass. As I moved my head/eyes around slightly, it was more apparent.

I dialed out parallax, for what I could at that distance, everything was pretty crisp. Stayed in position until it was too dark to see the feeder or shadows. Just went out and verified same thing in the sunlight. Anyone experience this with their Henny or is it just me and my eyes? Any suggestions? Increasing mag seems to rid the problem.
 
#2
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

Was it fish eyed or were you seeing a black ring around the whole field of view? If it was the black ring you were just seeing the inside of the scope body, and it vanishes around 4.6 power
 
#3
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

I see the scope body, but it was slightly fish eyed to on 4x as I moved myself from center and out. Not too bad, but I still noticed it. First time I noticed this as well, maybe since it was so dark, dunno. But just went out back and verified. Gonna have wife put her eye on it and see too..
 
#4
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

Also, is it normal for the Henny shade to have a gap between it and objective bell? I have it all the way on, tight, and there is a slight gap when it SEEMS to be fully seated.
 
#6
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

C'mon guys, someone has to chime in on this. I will say this much, i've never experienced this on my PR 5x25, at 5x. It is freaking me out, watch video number two, and see the "fish" eye effect and magical bending fence.
 
#7
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

Scopes are made to look straight through so if you move your head around or look to the sides you may see a "fishbowl" effect. Is that what you mean?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: netranger6</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Also, is it normal for the Henny shade to have a gap between it and objective bell? I have it all the way on, tight, and there is a slight gap when it SEEMS to be fully seated. </div></div>

My valdada 3-18 did that, it had about a knife blade's width and the sunshade kept rattling off. I put an o-ring on it and it has been fine ever since.
 
#8
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

Yeah, but it's very pronounced. This is really the first time I noticed it, and never experienced it on my PR, or, noticed it at least. Everything remained flat edge to edge, on all powers, regardless of my eye position. I'll say this, the Henny has a great eye box/relief, so maybe this is why I notice. I can be lazy and still have a good sight picture.
 
#13
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

Mine had the fish eye effect. Very profound at low mag and alleviated at higher magnification. I found it very distracting. I have used S&B, USO, and Premier also. None of them had this extreme distortion. Don't know if it is a function of the huge eye box on the Hensoldt.
 
#14
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

It's an optical aberration called distortion you are seeing. In variable scopes, it will be most apparent on the lowest power setting and causes what you call "fishbowling" effect when moving the eye inside the exit pupil and also "bending" of the reticle posts in FFP scopes. A larger exit pupil will make it more apparent, but it is not the cause of the effect, it is simply caused by a less well-corrected (for this aberration) optical system.

If you look very hard at the reticle of the Premier, you will see that the post also "bend" ever so slightly when moving the eye/camera inside the exit pupil. This is a faint trace of the same effect, reduced to a minimum. You will hardly find a scope that with an image so well corrected at low power as the PH scopes. Together with the absence of any tunneling, this makes the complete magnification range usable without any painful compromises.
 
#15
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

I knew there was a reason I defend PR all day long. Thanks for chiming in guys, glad I'm not the only one here that notices it. Only reason I did, as I said, was over watching the feeder.

I swear my PR never had this aberration, or like I stated, I never noticed. David summed it up on that one. Guess its give and take, nothing i can't work through as long as the target I'm aiming at doesn't tweak out at the lower mag scale.
 
#17
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

I dont think I'll be selling my Hensoldt any time soon either. I checked mine this evening on 4X and didnt see anything I would be in dire straights over.
 
#18
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

Completely normal.

Every eye has a different diameter and focal distance. when you see out of your eye the light comes in at different angles.

Imagine standing perpendicular, 10 yards from a perfectly straight and parallel 5 wire fence.

Your eye is the same height as the middle wire. What happens as you go father away from centre, is the other 4 wires appear to get closer together, obvious.

Well the problem is that every eye accentuates this differently.

A scope generally tries to create a limited field of view, that is completely flat.

If your eye does not act the same as the one that the scope was designed around, you either get a pin cusion (over-compensated) or cue ball (under-compensated) appearing field of view.

Simple
smile.gif


Chris
 
#19
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Crnkin</div><div class="ubbcode-body">A scope generally tries to create a limited field of view, that is completely flat.</div></div>
A scope "tries" many things as part of the overall design compromise, but that doesn't mean that it succeeds at all of them equally well.

A flat field means absence of field curvature, which is a different affair altogether and one of the rare cases where perfect correction may not be desirable ("rolling ball" effect when panning).

Distortion is not a function of the viewer (eye, camera) but of the optical system itself. It is a part of the overall design compromise and can be quantified, in fact the designer of the optics will know exactly about this before the first lens is ground. The camera lens divison of Zeiss even supplies graphs for distortion among others in their exemplary documentation for their lenses.

Some users may be blessed/cursed with a greater ability to spot certain aberrations, but this doesn't change the fact that the aberration is there.
 
#20
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

I wish I could help, but I can count the number of seconds on two hands that my Henny's have spent below 6X. It's just not something that I use, I guess I'm more of a blaster than an observer
smile.gif
 
#21
Re: Henny 4x16 question...me or it?

@Jasonk: Lol. Let's just say 4x allowed me to view the entire area, to include the thick weesatch. The hogs are pretty freakin' smart, and will stay in that shit until the last second before they decide to have a nibble.
 
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