I gave you one downside. Depending upon what you're doing, a 30mm tube may show you a distracting amount of irrelevant scenery. Like I said, I only care about the target itself and nothing else. A 1" tube is far better for that.If the question was 'which is better' then end goals would be relevant.
My question is what are the benefits and hindrances of 30mm vs 1 inch. Once that is defined then people can sort out which is best based on their end goals.
This ALL DAY LONG!!!Lots of people mentioning light transmission.
If you have identical glass, identical coatings, identical magnification, identical objective size... a 30mm scope will not allow for more light transmission.
A 30mm tube can dictate a larger ocular housing being used which then can translate to a wider FOV, but only if the housing is constructed so, assuming the same conditions as above.
Quite correct - light doesn't flow through a tube the way water flows through a pipe. What governs how much light is transmitted through a scope is the amount of vignetting, the glass transmission, and the reflection losses at each surface. (Purists will note the reticle blocks a little light too.) Objective diameter and magnification - which govern exit pupil size - don't affect the percentage of light transmitted, but they do have an effect on apparent brightness to the eye.Tract Optics said:Lots of people mentioning light transmission.
If you have identical glass, identical coatings, identical magnification, identical objective size... a 30mm scope will not allow for more light transmission.
A 30mm tube can dictate a larger ocular housing being used which then can translate to a wider FOV, but only if the housing is constructed so, assuming the same conditions as above.
That only holds when comparing scopes with objective diameter equal to tube diameter with quality of lenses and coatings being same. Since low light scopes are made with objective lenses of 56mm or more this is irrelevant because tube can not transmit more light than what is gathered by the objective lens.THIS^^^^^^^
There are no advantages to 30mm scope tube for North American hunter, none. It does offer more room for manufacturers to put adjustment into scopes. That is probably reason why some expensive target scopes have tubes larger than 30mm.
...needed the ability to have more adjustment in a scope due to it being mounted much higher than normal.