I have not used this in a hunting environment yet, so I cannot speak to the battery life in the field, or the durability, or how well it works in heavy rain or snow, or fog.
However, I have taken it outside to my Rifle Range and tested its capabilities at different ranges.
All I can say is the resolution is astounding! It is crisp, clear, and in my opinion, better than some night vision devices due to the minute details and sensitivity of the Microbolometer.
The occular zoom works great, the image loses very little resolution even at maximum zoom. All Thermal scopes should have this feature.
The digital zoom is about as good as I have seen on other thermal devices I have owned. It loses some resolution as expected as you zoom in, but the sensitivity providing detail makes the image better than a lot of other thermals at maximum zoom.
The scope is a tad heavy, but in my opinion it's not a crazy amount, and I can still hold the rifle free hand and search around without difficulty.
I love that it uses 18650 batteries and it's easy to change batteries to extend your usage time without problem. The battery access door works easily and if you make sure to push it up after closing, it locks in place to keep it from popping open under recoil.
The color pallets are White Hot, Black Hot, Red Hot and Color. The white hot makes spotting animals quick and easy, black hot shows a lot of terrain features and I like it for seeing details in the dark.
Red hot is nice and animals really pop out with it, but it can have some false readings when it picks up something like a rock that has absorbed heat during the day.
I really like the color mode because the brightness of the heat source raises the hotter it is, so animals will really be a bright yellowish color, and other details will show differently depending on how hot they are.
The app works great and is a nice added feature that allows you to see on your phone whatever the scope is aimed at. You can change several parameters such as the color pallet, date and time, (syncs with your phone) change reticle type, brightness, contrast ect.
However I did have an issue with the live feed not wanting to work once. The other app features worked but the live feed did not.
I turned everything off and back on and it resolved the issue.
The menu is pretty easy and the controls intuitive once you get used to how it is set up.
It takes awesome quality video and pictures.
You can look at the videos and pictures on the app and download them to your phone which I really liked a lot.
I have not entered the ballistics on my ammo to try the auto ranging feature out yet so I can't say how well it works. But the ranges from the LRF are pretty spot on so I will guess the ballistics will work out just fine.
That being said, if you want to have the ballistic feature or the feature to make custom reticles, it requires you to buy them on their app store and they cost $5 each respectively.
You can enter your ballistics and use it while you use the scope, without buying the app, but once you shut the scope off it is lost so you have to do it every time.
So if you don't want to buy the apps you can still use the feature, but just know you'll have to do it all over every time you turn the scope off.
Focus of the objective lens works great and the built in knobs for both it and the occular zoom make changing them much easier than a lot of other scopes I have used. (without buying throw levers anyway)
I have looked around during the day with the sun out, and at night, in 16F degree weather and with snow on the ground 6" deep. And in each situation the picture was clear, detailed, and absolutely amazing. It did have a little wash out at 100yds or more in a cold rain environment. But not bad enough to affect using it.
I have never had a thermal that did not wash out some in a cold rain environment so it's pretty normal I would say.
The PIP works well and I can see where it would appeal to some. I myself don't really care a whole lot for that feature and I doubt I will use it much.
The weather settings to give greater clarity in rain or sun and the like work very well.
I could see sparrows hiding inside bushes at 100yds with no problems. You would have to be careful in a hunting situation to make sure you are not trying to shoot a deer or pig or whatever through a bush, the sensitivity is good enough that you can see right through quite a bit of ground cover.
Supposedly you can see a man at about a mile and a half with this scope. I have not tried that to see yet, but with the clarity and detail I have seen at 100yds, to 200yds, I would not doubt that claim by much.
In conclusion, I have not found anything I dislike about the scope itself, having to pay for the ballistics and reticle feature after spending a large amount on the scope seemed a bit cheesy to me though.
They should throw those in free.
I would still highly recommend this scope to anyone looking for a top quality yet reasonably priced thermal.
