quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
I've had a Sparc AR on one of my rifles for several months now. I picked it up as a Black Friday deal. To be honest, I'm not very impressed.

The red dot itself is not crisp. Granted, I'm probably a little spoiled by my Aimpoints, but the earlier Vortex optic I used to own (an earlier gen Strikefire) was noticeably better. Even the cheaper Primary Arms optics I own have better/clearer dots.

In addition, the Sparc AR's brightness options are very lacking. The first several levels are too dim for daytime use, whether indoors or outdoors. But then there's a huge jump in brightness for the last several levels. The levels seem to be set for either darkness or bright direct sunlight, with no settings in-between. This adds even more to the fuzziness of the dot, since in order for the dot to be usable in normal lighted conditions, your only option is for it to be overly bright, which causes the dot to flare.

Another disappointment was the rubber cover. Vortex tried to copy the design of the Tango Down IO cover, which is a great piece of kit for an Aimpoint Micro, but they failed. The Sparc AR's cover is soft rubber, while the Tango Down is more rigid rubber. When the Tango's lens covers are flipped open, they naturally hang out of the optic's view, even without being snapped together. It makes the rifle very quick to deploy. But the Sparc AR's covers, since they're soft and floppy, hang in front of your view. You have to flip the covers off, then snap them together, in order to keep them our of the way. And even snapping them together is not as smooth/easy as the Tango covers, due to the softness of the rubber. (However, I do like that the Sparc AR's covers hang on the right side of the optic, while the IO's covers hang on the left. That's my only minor gripe about the IO covers.)

Even if you can't spring for a true Aimpoint Micro, I think the various Primary Arms micro dots are better options than the Sparc AR in the sub-$200 micro dot market.