This is going to be a quick preliminary review of the Vortex Prism scope.   This is my first experience with a 1x prism scope so I can't compare it to the Burris.   I can compare it to my T1, Sparc , Eotech.   Since this unit uses an etched reticle it will help with anybody who has an astigmatism and suffers from the blob, star, or even 2 for the price of 1 reticles with red dots.

Unit comes in at a 12.2 oz with the mount a little beefy, but this thing looks like its built like a tank.   Sparc with mount right about 10oz,  (7.2oz with a DD LW mount)  Aimpoint t1 with DD LW mount 6.2 oz)

It takes the common CR 2032 battery.  Vortex states it gets 250hrs on max and 3000 on minimum.   My experience with the optic so far has been sighting it in and shooting about 300 rounds through it this morning.  

Getting it sighted in was easy and straight forward,     These like the strike-fire have the option for red or green reticles.  Unlike red dots,  This has an etched reticle so you do not need batteries to use it.   This is one benefit for you SHTF prepper types, or just prepared individuals.    

The glass is really clear and have no complaints about the clarity of it.   (more testing needed in low light to give it a full review on this)

I found shooting the optic easy to use with the power off, but I was not  as fast at first compared to using any of my red dot sights. With some practice speed did increase.  I did find once I turned on the illumination the speed increased exponentially.   I think I will be shooting this with it illuminated from now on.  It is nice to know it is still able to be used with dead batteries.  It looks just like your traditional scope would.  

Brightness.   It h has 5 settings for green, and 5 for the red.   I found 1-4 pretty much unusable for bright light shooting but 3 &4 were perfect for indoor use. .  setting 4 had no issues keeping up with full sun.   I found no real noticeable difference from settings 3 and 4.  

With the brief use so far I can say that with my astigmatism I get one clear sight picture which is awesome and maybe worth the price alone.  The glass is clear,   I'll reserve judgement on battery life until I see how long it lasts.  If you have any other questions let me know.    Sorry the pictures did not come out great.  Cell phone.   The glass is really clear and the reticle is super crisp and sharp.  The pictures do not even come close to actually looking through it.

I picked it up from my go to Vortex dealer 3 Rivers

These look pretty awesome, thanks for the write-up.
I love that reticle

Leupold Prismatic copy?

edit: i like the looks of the 3x version. Nice reticle on that.

I ordered the Vortex Spitfire on March 11th and received an e-mail last week saying it could be 1 to 3 months longer before it comes in. It looks like a great sight but I might get impatient and order the Aimpoint Pro instead, I was wondering if you had any experience with the Pro and could tell me how it compares with the Spitfire. I know it's a long shot but you never know.

For $300.00 the green settings kill it for me. That just speaks cheap to me. Very surprised that Vortex would field a product with crappy settings.

 


 

Thank you for the good review. I'm very interested on this scope... I have a question: do you think that at minimum brightness is usable during the night or the brightness would be too strong?

@kc117   Since there is no magnification eye relief is not an issue,  It performs very similar to any red dot optic when illuminated when the power is off,  for me it takes an extra second or so to get a nice sight picture.  More me than the optic.



@titano89   Brightness would be fine.  I'm not sure if it would work with NVG's on the lowest setting since there is still visible illumination on the lowest setting.    If you were shooting at night you would probably have it on setting 2 or 3 I'm guessing.

RS

Great review!! Thanks

Hi guys.... finally arrived my spitfire 1x.... the unit looks good but I have a little problem, look:


as you can see I tried to put the vortex magnifier behind it but they are misaligned.. also with the spitfire riser, the spitfire is too hig...  why? what can I do?

The Spitfire logo is a little too big and flashy

Night force has some optics that can be switched between red and green illumination now. Does that mean they are cheap?

....in the meantime, I have given a closer look to this spitfire and in addition to the alignment problem I see that the red and the green illumination brightness is identical at #3 and #4 setting....

#2:

#3

#4



what do you think? I don't know, maybe it's just my unit

Is it a true 1x?  I have the Leupold, which is not a true 1x and still suffers from parallax.  Vortex's site says the spitfire is parallax free.  Have you been able to verify this?

I'm glad you posted this!  I'd ordered a Burris AR-1X on Feb 3rd.....and still have not received it!  A quick call to OpticsPlanet and I've got this baby on the way!  I didn't even know these existed till I saw your post.  So thanks for that!

I think I'm going to like the boob reticle ( that's what I'm forever calling it, ) over the much busier Burris one.  Plus its just a hair lighter, so win-win!

Thanks for the review and pics.  That makes me interested in getting one of these.  I especially like the etched reticle in case the battery dies.