Penta prism can deviate an incident beam without inverting or reversing to 90. The deviation angle of 90 is independent of any rotation of the prism about an axis parallel to the line of intersection of the two reflecting faces. It is commonly used in Plumb Level, Surveying, Alignment, Rangefinding and Optical Tooling.

By adding a wedge and with partial reflective coating on surfaces S1, it can be used as a beamsplitter. It is often used in Plumb Level, Surveying, Alignment, Rangefinding and Optical Tooling.

Right angle prism is deviating or deflecting a beam of light with 90° or 180°.It is often used in telescope, periscope and other optical system. Furthermore, Laser grade right angle prism is also available by Tempotec. Please see the following chapter " laser optics" for more information.

Dove prism has two applications. The main application is used as a rotator. It can rotate an image but without deviating the beam. And when the prism is rotated about the input parallel ray through some angle, the image rotates through twice that angle. It is very important that the application must be used with parallel or collimated beam and the large square reflective surface should be kept very clean. Another application is used as a retroreflector. For this application it perform as a right-angle prism.