Aimpoint, Trijicon, Holosun brightness comparison

[teflondog]

The Aimpoint T1 has been my gold standard RDS for the past decade and I was curious how the current models stack up so I recently bought some new optics. I thought I'd do a comparison between their various brightness settings. I don’t own night vision so I’m only going to compare the visible settings.

I bought two Aimpoint T2 sights this year; one was a brand new RDS made in 2020 (S/N: 46xxxxx) and the other one was a used RDS from several years ago (S/N: 37xxxxx). The first thing I noticed about the 46xxxxx sight was that it was one step dimmer than my T1. On the other hand, the used 39xxxxx sight was exactly the same in brightness to my T1. After reading numerous threads on other forums, I learned that Aimpoint made a change within the last couple years, which resulted in their red dot sights to be dimmer. My guess is that the change was either a different LED emitter or a different circuit board. Anyway, here is my comparison between the various Aimpoint sights I have. I’m going to use the Aimpoint T1 as the benchmark since it’s been around the longest and a lot of people own one.

Aimpoint T2 (S/N: 39xxxxx)
Setting 1: night vision
Setting 2: night vision
Setting 3: night vision
Setting 4: night vision
Setting 5: equal to T1 setting 5
Setting 6: equal to T1 setting 6
Setting 7: equal to T1 setting 7
Setting 8: equal to T1 setting 8
Setting 9: equal to T1 setting 9
Setting 10: equal to T1 setting 10
Setting 11: equal to T1 setting 11
Setting 12: equal to T1 setting 12

Aimpoint T2 (S/N: 46xxxxx)
Setting 1: night vision
Setting 2: night vision
Setting 3: night vision
Setting 4: night vision
Setting 5: dimmer than T1 setting 5
Setting 6: equal to T1 setting 5
Setting 7: equal to T1 setting 6
Setting 8: equal to T1 setting 7
Setting 9: equal to T1 setting 8
Setting 10: equal to T1 setting 9
Setting 11: equal to T1 setting 10
Setting 12: equal to T1 setting 11

Aimpoint Comp M5
Setting 1: night vision
Setting 2: night vision
Setting 3: night vision
Setting 4: night vision
Setting 5: equal to T1 setting 5
Setting 6: equal to T1 setting 6
Setting 7: equal to T1 setting 7
Setting 8: equal to T1 setting 9
Setting 9: equal to T1 setting 10
Setting 10: equal to T1 setting 11

The reason why I think brightness levels are important is because of battery run times. Most of the current red dot sights have a battery run time of 5 years on the "medium" setting. This seems like an incredible feature unless you find out that the medium setting is too dim to be usable except in pitch black darkness. The T1 on my SHTF rifle stays on Setting 9, which is bright enough to still be visible when using a Surefire Scout against a white wall indoors. According to Aimpoint, the battery run time on Setting 9 is around 2.5 years. With the newer T2, I would have to use Setting 10 for the equivalent brightness. The battery run time on Setting 10 is between 10-11 months. That's a big difference in battery life.

[teflondog]

Trijicon MRO (S/N: 176xxx)
Setting 1: equal to T1 setting 5
Setting 2: equal to T1 setting 6
Setting 3: equal to T1 setting 8
Setting 4: equal to T1 setting 9
Setting 5: equal to T1 setting 10
Setting 6: equal to T1 setting 11

[teflondog]

The Holosun 510c has ten visible brightness settings, which is more than any of the other optics. Because of this, it has more gradual steps in brightness. Some of the 510c brightness settings are slightly brighter/dimmer than the Aimpoint T1’s brightness settings so I used a decimal value for this comparison.

Holosun 510c (red reticle)
Setting 1: equal to T1 setting 4.5
Setting 2: equal to T1 setting 5.5
Setting 3: equal to T1 setting 6.5
Setting 4: equal to T1 setting 7
Setting 5: equal to T1 setting 7.5
Setting 6: equal to T1 setting 8
Setting 7: equal to T1 setting 8.5
Setting 8: equal to T1 setting 9
Setting 9: equal to T1 setting 9.5
Setting 10: equal to T1 setting 10