Must be contrary to one of the most basic laws of physics?

I mean, I have it on good authority that we (Americans) planted the Stars and Stripes on Mars more than half a century ago, Shirley, we could engineer a long eye relief pistol sight with a prismatic reticle by now.

Prismatic sights are barely mainstream on long guns. I suspect that miniaturizing the technology for a pistol sight is both challenging and a function of perceived demand. Even EOTech finally gave up on a holographic pistol sight and is going to release an LED res dot like everybody else.

Prismatic sights also have eye relief limitations compared to red dots, something that would be very problematic for pistols.

Yes, guido_sst, its the eye relief challenge that I wonder if there's an optical engineering answer for.

DaBigBR, my Bushnell LilP is small enough for handguns (tried on my SW22 Victory), but the eye relief ... no go!

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:
Yes, guido_sst, its the eye relief challenge that I wonder if there's an optical engineering answer for.

Potentially, but a lot of it comes down to the physics of lenses and light transmission/focus.

I do not believe it is possible to have a prismatic optic with unlimited eye relief like a red dot, where the dot is visible from any distance and any (reasonable) orientation.

But it's possible they could eventually develop a prismatic optic with a generous enough eye box that it could be similar. (Kinda like how they developed magnified handgun scopes with long eye relief and slightly more generous eye boxes than traditional rifle scopes.)