Trouble deciding on what optic? These pics may or may not help.

Trouble deciding on what red dot? These pics may or may not help.

But hopefully they help more than not.

With all the red dot optics out there it sometimes is a daunting task to pick your first one.

Specs are easy to find.

Other peoples suggestions are easy to find. But they can be hard to see a consensus. Still this can be a very helpful part of making your decision.

Price. Well that is just something you have to decide what you are willing to pay.

Something that you are not always able to do or see is a comparison of the size differences between several optics.

Along with size is how wide is the view thru them.

Yet another is the amount of metal that will separate your right eye's view from your left eye's view. I bring this up because many recommend a "both eyes open" approach to shooting with a red dot optic.

These last three are what this thread is about. Note that there are many other optics out there on the market, but hopefully the comparisons of these 7 optics will give you a reference point if you are looking at other optics not shown here.

Here is the list of the optics. Also included is a quick comment on the ease or not of turning them on if you are not leaving them on all the time.

Vortex Strike Fire : This has an auto off feature so you will always have to turn it on. But turning it on requires only tapping the upper button on the left side panel and it is right back to the last brightness setting.

Vortex Sparc II : Same as above. Even the same control panel on the left side....in your left eye's view

Vortex Venom : Same auto off feature. The turn on button is the forward most button on the left. This one starts in an auto brightness mode. You can put it in a manual adjustment mode though. This optic gives you a lot for your money and is my favorite of the three Vortex optics.

Aimpoint Pro : No auto off feature but battery life makes this a non issue for several years. Turning it on only requires a twist of a knob. Seems simple enough but it takes many clicks to get it to a usable brightness. So it is slower than any of the Vortex options. There are also no setting indicators.

Aimpoint H1 : Same as above except it does have setting numbers. I have to have it at 8 for the pic below.

Trijicon MRO : No auto off feature here either but like the Aimpoints, battery life makes this a non issue. This one has 2 off positions. The first one is at the beginning of the dial. The second one, which is the one I use, is between settings 2 and 3. I can see setting 2 but setting 3 is usable indoors and out. I like that it only takes on click and bam I have my dot ready to go.

Leupold Deltapoint Pro : This one has no on button nor an off button, well that I have found. BUT it does not need them as it has both an auto off and an auto on. This one is motion activated making this one the hands down winner in the ease of turning on category.

Now for what we are here for....the pics . Let's start with size comparison pics.

The smallest two are the Venom and the Deltapoint Pro.