ATN X-Sight 4K Pro

I had sent the company a few questions I had they never answered me. I definitely won’t buy it until I see your review. Do you know if the zoom is optical or electronic? If a combination what are the %. I thought I read the old model was electronic and the only difference between the 2 models are the strength of the zoom which was very grainy and worsened the more you zoomed.

NoLandBeyond,

I'm more than just a little interested in your assessment of this new night vision scope from ATN. I own and use the ATN X-Sight II HD 3-14 and am well familiar with how ATN badly treated it's customers, and the consistent glitches in the software that frustrated so many people; people that probably will never give ATN another chance. The CEO of ATN has said publicly that they've learned their lesson and have listened to their customers and have made all the necessary improvements in this new scope in the hope of regaining customer confidence. I am one of those who are skeptical and hesitant and not willing to risk another dime much less another several hundred dollars for empty claims and promises from ATN, and I won't spend another dime with ATN until they prove that their product meets or exceeds ATN's claims.

Having said all that, you would expect me to be one of those who has had nothing but a bad experience with my X-Sight II. That is not the case. I got this scope for one purpose only....to be able to hunt at night. That I have been able to do satisfactorily from the get go and have been more than satisfied with this scope's night-time performance. I did not need, nor did I use any of the other features of the scope that were so useless because of the software and hardware glitches. Though I am nonetheless perfectly satisfied with my X-Sight II for night-time hunting alone, I wouldn't spend another dime with ATN until they substantially prove that ALL the features of their new scope work as good as, or better than, their advertised claims. I'm talking about all the other features of their scope other than night vision; the bulk of the features ATN falsely boasted about that didn't work. I'm talking about the numberless multitudes of unanswered emails and phone calls from dissatisfied customers of the X-Sight II and the total unresponsiveness of the company to deal either with those customers or address their complaints.

Most of the positive hype surrounding the ATN X-Sight II were from Youtube videos produced by vendors. Some were positive reviews from actual users like me. But like me, they too, for the most part, bought this scope only for it's night-vision capabilities and, like me, had little negative to say about all the other features that did not work and they did not use. So they only added to the positive hype. Besides, nobody wants to admit that they dumped hundreds of dollars for a boat anchor. But for those who bought the X-Sight II for all the other features, they were sorely disappointed and as angry as hornets.

ATN!!! IF YOU SCREW US AGAIN, YOU'RE TOAST!!!

I like the newer design. A bit more compact and I'm sure lighter. 

I ordered one also from OpticsPlanet while they had a good coupon for it. I was on the fence about the 3-14 or 5-20 but in the end went with the 5-20x. I'll probably use it mostly on a few different air rifles (also got a new r5 .30 I'll probably use it on) and maybe even an AR-15. I was gonna go with the 3-14 especially if there was a considerable weight advantage but it's pretty much the same so I just went with the 5-20x.

I too ordered one weeks ago. Site still shows 6 to 14 days before shipping, meaning there is a guess as to when they will actually have them in stock. Hope it's not like some of the new rifles that come out, and we wait for months and months.

I wish you guys all the best. I don't want to see any of you disappointed. I want so much for this new ATN scope to be all that ATN claims it to be. But I couldn't consider myself to be a friend of any of you without warning you of the likelihood of disappointment.

In case any of you don't have it, here's the link to the ATN Owner's Forum. I implore you all to read as much of it as you can.

http://atnsmarthd.proboards.com/

ATN's business practices are abysmal by any fair standard. Their product is woefully oversold and doesn't even come close to their claims. And ATN's Customer Service is non-existent. They don't even bother to return your phone calls or emails.

ATN pretended to do a management shakeup, giving the impression that managerial changes had been made. But upon closer inspection, they didn't change anything. All they did was play managerial musical chairs. The same corrupt people are still running the show at ATN.

Don't take it from me alone. Go to the ATN Owner's Forum and read for yourself.

BeemanR7

"NoLandBeyond"Thanks Beeman! I did read the board and realize what "disaster" I may be getting into. I watched youtube videos of good reviews showing the many pros but also the many shortcomings of the first and second generation. I'm really hoping they've fixed some of those issues with the 4K version. I'll be giving you guys a review of what I find, and I'm sure jaydoski and cootertwo will chime in as well when they get it.

Click to expand...

I totally agree with you and BeemanR7 comments, I thing that for PCP night hunting is the best bang for the buck right now, I have the HD II version in 3-14 and for me as served the purpose very well just night hunting or pest control to max distances 100 yards (but that's even stretching the numbers!) I use it with the stock IR illuminator and for is more than enough.
I want to know about the baterry life on this new model because if it is as good as the say it is, I'll sell mine and get this one instead.

Thanks for all the info and overview/review of it, keep the updates coming !!

Here are some videos comparing the visual quality between both models:

Alejandro

I would appreciate your opinion:

At this point, I don’t night hunt. This new scope appeals to me for capturing those precious moments when the bullets meets the bone. (repeats) 

So, I’m I better served by getting a side shot? Or is this a better option given it’s other functions? (Night sight, it’s a scope, software, etc) Thanks! 

Hi, my opinion is that you should buy the sideshot or any other scopecamera mount that's on the market for less money and gets the job done very well and is lighter than the ATN setup, remember that you only get video at 60fps max o the ATN versus most smartphone cameras have 120.
Hope it helps and shed some light in your reflection.

Alejandro

Yes, it does. Gracias!

De nada!!!

PS: You also would have better quality footage to view or edit later.

Yup, I figured as much. That all makes perfect sense. Although if I would have bought one, it would have not been my primary scope. I have an SWFA, a Sightron, and a Hawke. Thanks for the advice. Looking forward to some of your footage. 

Just thought I would add my experience with my ATN 4K pro. Most of the complaints were listed but this is the headache I suffered as well. I just pasted the information I passed on to others.
On to the ATN 4K Pro 5x20: After much anticipation and nearly a 2.5 month wait after purchase, I finally received the shipment. Rushed home from work, ripped open the first box and delicately opened the second. First impressions, nicely boxed and well protected to keep items from damage. The scope was lighter then I expected which was a good thing and appeared to be solid. As I am sure you know, the scope is designed in a more traditional design accepting all 30mm rings. Utoh, what does this sticker say, batteries are built in and not replaceable. I get some of that, but you know batteries they DIE! and you are left with some plastic and metal for a boat anchor. As for the time I used it for about 3 hours and it was a 66% Oh speaking of boat anchors, the illuminator was dead on arrival!I charged the scope and while that was occurring, I checked for any bios updates (there were none). Once the charge was complete, I powered the scope on. Turns on pretty quick and I would guess under 5 seconds until ready to shoot. Had to calibrate the compass like all electronics with a compass it has to be done and is straight forward. I did not want to adjust all the setting by twisting knobs and pushing buttons (more on that later) so attempted to connect to my phone. Then realized the WiFi on the scope was not turned on. Once I figured out how to navigate the operating system with the buttons and knob I turned on the wifi. It connected my phone to the scopes WiFi signal quickly. Then I went into the obsidian 4 app to connect my phone to the scope. Or at least that was the intent. After approximately 10-20 minutes of rebooting my phone and the scope to try again and again the magic finally happened. It connected! Which to be honest does not do a lot for you because the lag time between the phone and scope, dropped connection and lock ups that occur will frustrate you. I was never really able to see the video on my phone from the scope. So I gave up on WiFi. On to Bluetooth, I am close and it should do well with just trying to adjust settings, or so I thought. I attempted to connect via Bluetooth. HaHa what a joke the app will not even allow you click the button for Bluetooth. I thought I would work around the app and just go into my phones settings and select the Bluetooth signal from the scope. Well to my dismay there was no Bluetooth signal. I checked the setting and sure enough it showed to be active. So as far as I am concerned the current app is buggy, slow and basically trash. So screw the app the scope should still work, right?Moved on to the tedious task of programming, which gets easier with time but still a pain in the butt. Once I figured out you have to click the expand setting options to really be able to adjust stuff it helped. So back to the navigation controls I spoke of above. There are 4 main navigation controls on the scope. There is the right, left, ok/enter and magnification knob. To be frank it does not appear the enter button is its own button. By the feel of it, all it does is push both right and left buttons at the same time. Can you see the problems here. I could be wrong but that is what it felt like and there were times when the enter did not happen but the left/back button did. So I am going to give you a simple run down of how you navigate. Enter button, brings up a scrolling (right/left) list of choices. Find your choice using left or right. Settings, enter button (crap only the left button got pushed) push right button to go back to settings, enter button. Once inside this screen you can now go through a list of horizontal drop downs. Right button, Right button, Right button, Right button, Right button, Right Button. Finally to the settings. Why not just use the left button to jump to the end, well I am glad you asked, you can’t! However, if you miss (due to lag) and go past you desired selection it will go right on passed and start you at the beginning. See my frustration. Okay, I get back to the settings and the enter button actually works. This now opens a drop down list of choices. Your controls now take place with the magnification knob. Let me tell you about the magnification knob. It is so laggy it will drive you insane. You twist it and it kind of clicks, not like a scope turret but it has defined movements. So you turn the knob forward and nothing happens. Okay, I then turned the knob back towards me and it goes down the list. But wait the knob moved one click and it went 2 lines. UHGGG! Move the knob forward to my wanted selection hit enter, CRAP! hit the left button only backed me out. Start over! So what I found myself doing with the enter button is smashing it quickly to actually get it to work correctly. I am assuming this is a really bad idea for any longevity.On to the performance because the is truly the most important thing right. I mean you can suffer through all the other stuff as long as the scope rocks. Well sadly, I had issue with that as well. First issue. I take my rifle out of the case and set everything up. I turn on the scope, picture is okay but I figure it is out of focus. What is this, where is my cross hair. Power cycle, turn it back on. What, still no cross hair and now the screen is locking up. Anger is building! Call to ATN, 50 minutes on hold. Nice guy gets on the phone and says oh this happens from time to time. Hold the power button for over 20 seconds and it will restore to factory settings. It works, there is my cross hair and the screen does not lockup. If you recall the pain in the butt setup process, well I guess I will be doing that all over again! The nice guy also said this will happen from time to time (that is not what I want to hear). He also said the recording feature for 1080p at 120fps is disabled. What? Don’t advertise features as working and great when you have turned it off and it may or may not work in the future. He also said they did some beta testing but are now relying on the purchasers to complain about things so they know what is wrong and they will attempt to fix them. This sounds more like I am the developer/beta tester not a ready product for the market. If that is the case give me one and I will tell you all that is wrong with it, But to spend $800 MSRP on a not ready scope makes me angry.I get all my ballistic information entered into the setup. I am shooting JSB 34g .25 cal at 880. Go into the zero scope setting. I shoot my round for a 50 yard zero. What? Where the crap did that pellet go? Oh there it is 2.5 feet low and a foot left. No big deal, I just rotate the knob for 10 days to get there and move over by pushing the left button a thousand times. So the scope tells me I have swung 290 down and 120 left. I hit enter. Fire another round and would you believe it goes straight into the bull. A big smile comes across my face as I think to myself screw the rest of the problems this is AWESOME!!! Fire another round same hole as the last. So now I think I am going to put this thing through the paces. I move to a target at 60 yards fire a round, hmm that was low, try again with the same result. Go back into zeroing option. I know realize the scope has reach the maximum vertical adjustment. So anything past 50 yards the scope will not adjust no matter what distance I put into it. I realize this can be fixed by placing a No-Limit set of rings on it and not the ones designed by ATN. But come on! So I switched the cross hair to a mildot design. It worked but, there are not a lot of mildot lines to choose from.The picture of the screen slash camera. The colors are washed out on the screen. I am not sure if this is a problem with camera or screen. Rich dark greens are light yellowish-green. I would say I could read an orange .50 cent sticker at 25 yards. With that being said it becomes an orange blob at 50 yards. I checked a regular scope and I could easily read it the sticker at the same magnification setting. At 60 yards I could not differentiate a bright white 1 inch metal spinner with the grass around it. I know you say just focus it for the distance. So I focused the screen for crisp numbers around the edge of the screen but the cross hair is never really perfect and kinda bleeds colors around it. I focus the camera for the range. This is done by twisting the ring on the objective lens. Nothing happened, twisted it a little more nothing happened. Twisted it quickly and a fair amount of turn. Picture comes into focus and then passes the sweet spot to out of focus. So I now realize it does not appear to be glass which is adjusting the focus more like an electronic focus on the camera. So like all the other buttons and knob the focus wheel is extremely laggy and I found myself making really fast movement to actually get a response. If you went slow it was like it did not register any movement. This makes it really hard to fine tune the focus. I am sure all these things can be fixed with some bios updates over the next 2 years. But like I said earlier, I am not a Beta tester for ATN.As far as the night vision is concerned, in city night light it appeared to work fine. I could not test it in the extreme dark as the illuminator was dead on arrival.I do think this is the future of scopes. However, I am not sure if they are trying to meet a price point and are buying low grade items and making cuts or if this is just the best you can get right now.Hope this helps in everyone's decision to purchase or not. Also, I may have just gotten a broken, laggy pain in the butt and all the others are great.

Good luck everyone

Just so you know there were paragraphs in there. However they did not make there way after the post I guess.

Sorry