TargetTalk

shopping for a new rear iris. Is there much difference in brands?...Centra, Gehmann, Anschutz... They all seem to make very similar products. One difference as Centra seems to have a little bit different color filter options.

Any advice or pointers to help out are appreciated.

Tenring

To my knowledge, not a whole lot. For instance, both Gehmann and Centra Irises adjust from .5 to 3, while some Anschutz ones adjust only to 1.8. However, Gehmann uses a 6 color wheel, while Centra and Anschutz have. Personally, I use two Gehmann irises, a basic one that came with a used rifle, and one with a 6 filter wheel. I liked the Gehmann basic iris because it was compact (my shooting glasses get very close to my sight). I bought the 6 color filter one from Gehmann because it seemed economical, for 137 dollars I got six colors. Seemed better than 5, however I only use 5 of the colors on there (the brown seems worthless) and I would usually use yellow or gray, followed by orange. I have played with Anschutz ones, did not notice a difference. I have asked people who have the twin filter one from Anschutz and they say they hardly use most of the colors. I really don't have much of an opinion about centra irises because I have never used them, but they are great as well. They also offer the color choices, if one is really interested in matching colors and such. And they do seem to offer, like you said, some different color choices. One note, polorization is usaully a waist of money from what I have heard and been instructed on. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this.

ZD wrote:One note, polorization is usaully a waist of money from what I have heard and been instructed on. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this.

I'll be happy to disagree with you about this - I use a Polarizer outdoors and find it useful for two things.
It provides a continuously adjustable filter which allows you to compensate for changes in light pretty much instantly. The alternative would be gray filters IN or OUT, or messing with the size of the iris (which is a whole different can of worms).

But also, by using just one Polarizer and changing the angle ( finding Brewster's Angle) you can take out some of the glare if you have a hot spot where the sun is reflecting off your foresight tunnel or barrel (and possibly the target too).

A colleague of mine also claims that Polarization helps with mirage but I can't see it myself...

K.