I own 2 nite time setups one is Digital night vision and the other Thermal , I now have had both for over 1 year , I got the digital night vision n first here is my take on them .
digital NV
I got a Pulsar NV-550 , I paired it with a arm slight IR light , it uses 4 batteries and doesn't record , I bought a recording device from nite-vision guys , and I got a battery extender that uses usb , I have used it from coyotes to chipmunks , it is great and works well up to about 100 yds
Thermal
I looked at thermals for about 4 years and then narrowed it down to a few and I ended up getting the ATN 5-50 HD , I love this unit , It did take me a few months to get used to ho it operates and to learn how to tweak things for different conditions , I use this alot for a spotting scope to hunting , The price came way down on thermals and thermal is the way to go , I am glad I got this as at first I didnt like it I used to think it was blurry up close , well I can use it from 10 yards to 1500 yards , and nothing can hide from me with it .
I can go out on my deck with either my best rifle scope on a tripod or my spotting scope and scan woods line which is about 200 yards from deck , I may see a bird or a squirrel , but when I take out the thermal , I can see like everything , I see like 8 squirrels and say 50 birds in trees , You would never know they their , the thermal is amazing,
As for tracking it is also a good tool , it can see a blood trial or even footprints , so I would say buy the best thermal you can ,
Aso for features in mine it records has like 8 colors about 10 reticles and other things like , it saves 3 guns in memory ,so you can clip it on say my edgun 30 cal and enter in profile say for my 52 grain slug and you ready to hunt , I have over 30 pprofiles saved to cards , I have it zeroed for hi power guns to my sub12 gun now ,
AS for zoom , this is only thing is with a thermal zoom isnt same as with my regular scopes , With my thermal I rarely go past say 10x , My unit has a sub menu you can choose a zoom of 5x20 or 5-50 use the first one I find no use for the higher zooms ,
the unit has many cool features you can use your cell phone to see recordings or shots or even change setting ,It even has a built in level for cant , it also has a built in ballistics rangefinder which can automatically adjust for wind-age and elevation ,
say you see a coyote and you see he is 470 yards , you can have the scope do the math and correct for wind and all inputs , this is a very cool feature , I have tested it on targets a few times out to 600yd and it actually hit steel here
The unit is like a computer it is actually so to work well it needs good clean power , it also uses AA batterys 4 of them , The CPU on the ATN works better with 1.5 volts then 1.25 volts
SO I found best batteries to be kentli aaa batteries they have a 1.5v voltage regulator built in battery , they last hours , I carry a spare sent on me , I also have a ATN battery pack which gives you like 20 hrs ,I got mine on sale and would do it again , I hope this helps
LOU