Variable Zoom

The Variable Zoom is an attachment that appears in Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Call of Duty: Ghosts. It also appears, to an extent, in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It is a Sniper Scope that has multiple levels of zoom.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Variable Zoom is used only once, in the mission "One Shot, One Kill". It is used in an attempt to assassinate Imran Zakhaev. Unlike Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, it does not have set zoom levels, instead, it smoothly zooms in and out with the movement controls.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it is also used only once, during "Of Their Own Accord", where it is used to kill Russian forces armed with Javelins. The zoom is controlled like in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and as such it does not have set zoom levels.

Campaign
The Variable Zoom can be found on all sniper rifles, the Crossbow, and the G11, with three levels of zoom. Levels of zoom can be chosen by pressing the melee button while scoped in. Also, the level of zoom does not change after zooming out of the scope or switching weapons, only if the player drops the weapon.

Multiplayer
The Variable Zoom is available for the G11 and Sniper Rifles, but not the Crossbow, unlike in campaign. Other than that, the scope behaves the same. The low zoom can help the player engage closer targets, while the highest zoom level is more than the default sniper scope, which can help the player engage targets at farther ranges. The Variable Zoom scope does not bounce as much on the initial zoom in as the regular scope, as it is zoomed in less. For this reason it is favored more for "Quick Scoping".

It's also slightly bugged in split-screen play. The second level of zoom goes much farther than it should, which makes the third level zoom only a foot further or so.

Zombies
The Variable Zoom scope is also available in zombies, when either the Dragunov, L96A1, or Scavenger are Pack-A-Punched.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
The Variable Zoom returns in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. It was first seen in the Multiplayer World Reveal on a Dragunov as a player's secondary weapon. It was then seen equipped on the AS50 at COD XP, it is known as the "Variable Zoom Scope". The scope has three different zoom levels, a 2.4x zoom, a 4.8x zoom and a 9.6x zoom. It is unlocked exclusively for Sniper Rifles at Weapon Proficiency Level 22.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II
The Variable Zoom returns in Call of Duty: Black Ops II. It is an attachment for the sniper rifles, light machine guns, and the Crossbow. It now has only two levels of magnification unlike the previous ones. The attachment can be combined with the Dual Band Scope to create a hybrid optic. The attachment decreases centerspeed by 10% for LMGs; therefore it is best suited for low recoil LMGs such as the Mk 48, but a poor choice for the QBB LSW which has high recoil and poor long range damage.

Zombies
The Variable Zoom returns in Zombies as an attachment for the Pack-a-Punched variants of the sniper rifles Barrett M82A1, DSR 50 and the SVU-AS

Call of Duty: Ghosts
"While scoped in, press RS/R3 to adjust between 3 different zoom levels."

- In-game description.

The Variable Zoom, now called Variable Zoom Lens, appears in Call of Duty: Ghosts. Similarly to Modern Warfare 3, the Variable Zoom in Ghosts has three zoom levels.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

 * The Variable Zoom in "Back on the Grid" and "Scorched Earth" has only two zoom levels rather than three.
 * Unlike in Call of Duty: Black Ops, equipping the Variable Zoom does not change the in-game scope model on any Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Sniper Rifle.
 * The Call of Duty Elite image appears to have a very small QR code on it.
 * The Variable Zoom appears in "Blood Brothers", but this version is adjustable to any zoom by using the movement buttons (' and ') on PC, or Left Stick.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

 * If the Variable Zoom scope is attached to the LMG, the scope will gain an unusable BUIS (Back Up Iron Sight) on top.
 * Adding Variable Zoom to any Sniper Rifle will add an adjustable knob on the side of the scope. For the SVU-AS however, the adjustable knob is on the top of the scope.
 * Before Patch 1.04, a DSR 50 ACOG Scope Variable Zoom was possible, and one can zoom in with the ACOG Scope, but not zoom out. It was only found in Custom Games, with bots.