Night Vision Showdown.....

[brawler1588]

 

https://youtu.be/Eut48F3aB9E



Hope everyone is well since the start of my hobby or any hobby really I have been intrigued by technology so with everything available on the market it always makes me scratch my head and say I wonder how that performs. Being a stay at home dad makes this a hard task but I have been lucky enough to either sell gear to afford these to try out or have great friends that let me borrow what they have to test. So I wanted to test day/night scopes no I haven't tested many but I would like to show the recent ones I have and would like to share some videos to show others and answer questions they may have. The three videos were all recorded the same night all minutes apart so conditions were as close as I could get, I was able to get some gray frogs in frame to show quality zoom ability and sound they were at 25 yards and they are tiny about 2-3". First up is the Pard NV008P the thing I really like about this scope is how compact and light it is also its a all in one package built it infrared light while still maintaining a lighter wight is a HUGE bonus, 18650 rechargeable battery is nice. There are a few things I don't like but they aren't 100% deal breakers, the 6.5x starting magnification is rough field of view isn't the best and can be hard to scan to get on target especially at night but it can function just takes practice and patience. The other thing I am not s fan is the magnification is just a doubler so you only get 6.5x and 13x I also noticed out of all the ones I tested the pard didn't catch the sound as well. Next up was the atn 4k pro wasn't used in the video but I also have the abl for it. You can get these for a great price I got mine refurbished directly from atn but man they are HEAVY add the abl and its even heavier but it does serve a purpose pair it with your ballistics calculator range it and the scope will automatically move your reticle to said distance. The one shot zero is awesome showing 2 reticles at the same time one to keep on center and the other to where your impact was is great, battery life is great lasts a very long time. The button layout is nice and with a little time you can navigate well even in the dark. Things I don't like besides the heavy weight is like most day/scopes you need a light source thats another added weight but when you post up and use a tripod weight isn't that big of a factor, sound drops when you zoom so if you are speaking you need to be mindful of that. In all the videos I took you can see it them get blury inwas just trying to find the best image possible with the focus. I am still impressed with the quality these offer at the price. Last up is one I don't thing alot of people know about and its the accufire noctis tr1 it is still on the heavy side but lighter than the atn it looks more like a traditional scope and most mounts work with it because of that. The things I really like most of all is the clarity of the video is matched by the in screen scope to me it is the best picture, 2 button operation built in memory so no micro SD cards to worry about also easy downloading via the app using wifi, sound does not cut out when zooming, the pip is awesome because you can change the magnification of the small window which means you can keep you bigger screen at base magnification 3.8x and have your PIP at any magnification for 11.8x all the way to 22x. Now a few things that need to be mentioned and hopefully will he addressed in future firmware updates the reticle that has hash marks for holdovers does not show up on video playback sometimes key to check shot placement. Instill need to spend more time with it but it has 2 reticle types traditional and ballistic when using traditional its kind of like the atn where the reticle moves but because this is geared to powder burners to me the adjustments weren't fine enough need to test it more so instead I used the other reticle profile where you can input your x and y. This has not ballistic data or range finder option and not sure if it ever will but this scope has some serious potential if they iron out some of the little things. Sorry this was very lengthy but hopefully it may help someone else and please feel free to reach out with any questions want specific weights, pictures of what they really look like, measurements feel free. 

 

[delooper]

So far I've tried the Sightmark 4k max, the Sightmark 4k Mini, and (if all goes well) in the next week I should have the Infiray Rico RH50. 

The optics and magnification options of the Sightmark 4k Max I really liked. The 4k mini was a little less nice than the max, optically-speaking, but the size won me over. So I sold the 4k Max.

I've been really interested in thermal imaging, so I bit the bullet and ordered the Infiray. I don't have it in my hands yet. I'm expecting the resolution to be weaker, but I'm looking forward to seeing those hot orange heat signatures. 

 

[brawler1588]

So far I've tried the Sightmark 4k max, the Sightmark 4k Mini, and (if all goes well) in the next week I should have the Infiray Rico RH50. 

The optics and magnification options of the Sightmark 4k Max I really liked. The 4k mini was a little less nice than the max, optically-speaking, but the size won me over. So I sold the 4k Max.

I've been really interested in thermal imaging, so I bit the bullet and ordered the Infiray. I don't have it in my hands yet. I'm expecting the resolution to be weaker, but I'm looking forward to seeing those hot orange heat signatures. 

I also tried the wraith mini haven't had the chance to try the normal 4k but yes the mini size was great but the battery life image quality wasn't good enough for me to be sold the tr1 despite the size won in my book, but the great thing is everyone likes something different. I would like to try thermal please let me know how it does for you.

 

[delooper]

For battery life, my solution was to buy a bunch of high-quality rechargables, and 3d print some waterproof cases for them. That said, I've never had a problem with the battery life. I think I've had the mini for 7 months now, and only changed batteries once. And I use the scope maybe twice a week. So the battery life issues seem a little overblown to me, but maybe some copies have issues. 

I find the Sightmark 4k mini's optics are good-enough for what I'm using it for -- night-time raccoon pesting, for the most part. I'm comfortable using it out to about 100 yards or so. 

 

[delooper]

The InfiRay RICO RH50 arrived today. The general context for this is it's on the affordable end of 640x512 pixel sensor thermal optics. My first impression (modulo one scare) is it seems to be fairly well made with some decent (but uneven) documentation. This isn't a feature-rich scope. It's a scope designed to have minimal menus, avoiding bells and whistles so that you don't get distracted while using it. 

My "one scare" was that, after assembling it, I couldn't get the reticle or rangefinding features to work. I found a copy of the user manual on line (it did not come with a printed manual), and it states to hold down the three buttons (all but the power button) for a "long press" to enable this feature. Most of the time "long press" means about a second and a half, but for this feature, "long press" means 15 seconds. I was holding the buttons down for 4-5 seconds then giving up.

Once I got past that scare, the scope seems to work well. Waiting for the sun to go down and I'll give it some proper night-time exercise. 

I should also add, I sent an e-mail to InfiRay when I got concerned about the missing reticle. They replied to my e-mail with a solution in 18 minutes. 

The RICO RH50 comes with its own mount, and it's a very nice quick-detach picatinny mount. I'll either need to put a spacer on my picatinny rail or have to machine the RICO mount a little bit to get it to clear the Leshiy 2 "LSA222203" protrusion. I think this "plug" is part of the magazine cycling mechanism. The Leshiy 2 can't open or close with the RICO RH50 mounted straight to the picatinny rail. Not certain if the bottom of the RICO is a standard shape or not. Will look to see if there are alternative mounts. 

edit: Cut the mount down. Now I can mount the scope on my Leshiy 2 without using a riser. 

 

[peebrainz]

Cool stuff! Thermal should work during the day too, no?

 

[Keyman62421]

Dealers for the Infiray products? 

 

[delooper]

Cool stuff! Thermal should work during the day too, no?

Yes, it does. You probably want to avoid pointing it at the sun, or at any really bright shiny objects that are reflecting the sun's light. But it works during the day. If you want to use it as a regular day scope you'll have to be sure to print targets that are thermally apparent. Probably need something like thick black lines, so they heat up in the sun and are visible. Will have to try that soon.

In the scope package they included some thermal heat packs as zeroing targets, day or night. I'm not sure if Americans outside of places like Minnesota will know about these. They're little chemical packs that heat up. I used to put them in my boots when walking to school on -30c mornings. 

For zeroing what I'll do is attach a green laser that is calibrated to a zeroed scope, then I'll switch scopes and calibrate off the green laser. That's probably good-enough for a coarse zero. 

Dealers for the Infiray products?

I don't know much about who sells them in the States, but a quick Google search found a handful of dealers. Here on the west coast of Canada, Brandon Optics is the main source of night vision gear. irayusa.com lists dealers, so I'd probably start there. 

 

[Cloudrider]

Outdoorlegacygear.com they also have a great YouTube channel.

 

[delooper]

Some pics. 

On the Leshiy 2. 

Beside the Sightmark Wraith Mini. 

The truncated mount. I cut it with a demolition blade on a sliding miter saw, did a little sanding then coloured over with a sharpie. 

Sighting-in the scope was more trouble than I first imagined. At first I thought I could use my calibrated Sightmark + a green laser pointer. But the green laser pointer does not show up in the thermal scope. So then I put a target on the wall, but none of the colours of the target showed up. So then I put a pin in the target, and heated it with a torch. But the torch heated up the wall as well. 

Finally, I calibrated it by putting a hot cup of tea on the table. Between the laser pointer, the cup of tea and the Sightmark I found where I needed to aim in the tea, then switched to the thermal scope and got it to point to the same location. So, now it's roughly sighted-in. 

update: Aluminum foil on paper appears to be the most affordable and pragmatic sighting-in material. Aluminum foil tape makes it easy to set up.