Anyone contemplating buying an X-Sight II should watch this video, and read my comments on the Guild or the X-Sight II owners blog. This said, there are a few items Steve brings up, I wish to comment on. But first, let me say that I have over 120 hours of actual field use with my 5x20 X-Sight II, which I trust gives me a bit of credibility.
The imager in the X-Sight II is 1920x1080. That totals 2,073600 pixels, or rounded up, the advertised 2.1 megapixels. This assumes that ALL of the pixels are used, and I would guess they are not, as you never see any fringing around the viewed image. As Steve points out, the zoom is digital, so at 20 power (in this case) the effective pixel count is less that 140,000. Obviously, the viewed image looks pixelated. It is for this reason, that a selecting either the 3x14 or the 5x20 should be made based on your field experience with respect to your preferred magnification setting. In other words, if you buy the 3x14 to save $100, and expect to use it at 5 or more magnification, you will indeed be disappointed! Remember Steve's word in the video—this is a field scope, not a target scope!
The viewing screen is 1280x720 or 921,600 pixels, and you can see everyone of them. But what you see in the scope, looks very poor in comparison to what the daytime video looks like when played on an HDTV. In my case, that's a 55 inch Visio, and the videos look surprisingly good. This is mainly because the frame rate is 30 fps. During night time use, the frame rate can slow down to 15 or 7.5 fps. Although the playback is 30 fps, the slow record makes the playback look jittery. Nonetheless, I am still amazed at how good the scope sees at night.
The (assumed) CCD imager is very sensitive. The menu settings allow low, medium, and high sensitivity, but you cannot use the high unless you're using only starlight as illumination. Speaking of which, in dead starlight, without any other illumination, you can see out to about 50 yards rather clearly. Past that, darker items like trees start to lose detail, especially is you're moving the scope around.
As Steve points out in the video, the processor is very slow. Add in the lower night scan rate and the built in image stabilization, and off hand shooting isn't a reality, unless you're operating in bright sun light. And then you must use the sun shade and sun aperture which comes with the scope.
Steve didn't mention the battery life in this video, but I'll mention it here—it stinks big time! The unit will hold 4 AA batteries, but it doesn't matter what brand or type you use, they'll die within 45 minutes depending on which apps are running at the time. The scope does have WiFi and GPS, and both require power. All of this adds up to the need for an external battery. The ATN one is 16,000 mAh, and will run everything including the video record for at least 6 hours (as long as I have tested it).
The X-Sight II is advertised as having Bluetooth, but it is not implemented. Rumor has it, it will be in the next release.
Again, the X-Sight II is NOT an optical target scope. If you're expecting clear as a bell target acquisition, forgetaboutit!
Alan
