Thread: True magnification

Very hard to measure with the eye. The eye will naturally compare the image it sees in relation to the field of view. (IE what you are looking at in relation to the space it is in and the proportion of that space that the image fills). If the FOV is slightly larger on one scope than the other then the eye will adjust itself and perceive one image as larger as it takes up more of the field of view.

As a complicating factor, most fixed power scopes have a bigger field of view than the vari power scopes at the same magnification due to the lack of complicating zoom lens adjustment which would quite conceivably give the effect that you are seeing.

I have a fixed 6x36 scope and a 1.5-6x36 scope of the same brand and the field of view in the fixed scope is noticibly bigger at 100m that the vari power.