Help with purchasing thermal imaging decision.

[USMCHUNTER]

Hello EEV,
I am new to this forum I am in the market for  thermal imaging I thought I made a decision on FLIR scion PTM 166 or 366 or OTM to 266.

After narrowing it down to these three, I started to do some research and found there are a lot of negative remarks, I am having a hard time deciding if I should go with FLIR or a different company I want to stay American made but sometimes that's not always the good choice. I have been out of the thermal imaging world for 40 years since then the technology has gone through the roof.
I just don't know what to believe. Everybody has the best one..
Can you please Direct me in the right direction your help will be greatly appreciated thank you.
Semper Fi.

[Bill W]

First work out your wishes in terms of sensor resolution - that sets the price band.
640x480/512 are pricey but may be worth it.
Then look at field of view, as these thermal spotting scopes are mainly fixed lens.  The unknown, and from some comments maybe a problem, is the visual viewfinder field of view.

Certainly reads that these FLIR are buggy - maybe look at discontinued of the previous FLIR series ?
There's also the Canon / Leica mentioned in the other recent thread.  If nothing else they report as having a better viewfinder design coming from the SLR camera side.

Ultimately most are 'screwdriver repackaging' from quite a small choice of good thermal cores (FLIR Tau or Boson cores, or Chinese copies) thrown into a box and wired up to a basic control board.  Even many of the FLIR are like that, made in China using a nice Tau core but in a camera otherwise looking like it was wired up by 5 year olds using a heated nail as a soldering iron.

[Fraser]

The members over at AR15.com often have real world experience of thermal scope. First hand experience of a scopes performance and ergonomics ‘in the field’ is invaluable information.

As Bill has stated, the issues that surround many thermal scopes are viewfinder quality/size, thermal scope quality/durability and the correct choice of lens for a particular use scenario. There seems to be a generally negative opinion of ATN scopes, but then they are at the cheaper end of the market. I have not seen much discussion of thermal scopes on this forum so ownership might be quite low here. I own the FLIR HS, PS and TK series scopes. The PS build quality is fine but the HS is not so good. Both use the Kopin miniature LCD viewfinder and both present a relatively small image to the users eye.

Personally I would avoid anything that contains a FLIR Boson thermal imaging core. The Boson is a troubled product with mediocre performance. The FLIR TAU2 remains a solid performer but is an expensive component in a thermal scope.

Fraser

[svgurus]

I've never seen any photos/videos from scion monoculars, what I've seen from boson320-based Flir breach was quite ugly) so modern Flir is not best choice imo. ATN/AGM are Chinese-made with American sticker and maybe firmware, Trijicon or N-Vision are all-American but cost extra, when i was reading ar15 it was mostly Pulsar vs locally branded Infiray debates) if you are fine with moderate size and ready to spend about 4000$ its helion xp2 50 pro vs infiray zoom, if you go a bit cheaper its axion xq 35 2 vs finder fh/fl35. I own helion xp2 50pro and xp50, recommend both, saw images from helion xq1 xq2 xp2 axion xq38 xq2 35, would recommend only xq1 if found really cheap or axion xq2 if you need smaller size. From Iray i have fh25, consider selling it, dont like built-in battery and low sharpness. saw good images from zoom and fh35 but still like Pulsar more, due to my specific needs and habits)

[USMCHUNTER]

Thank you very much. that was very informative. In my research I have been reading exactly what you say,
The problem with me is I listen to the company who makes these products I had my mind set up until I started reaching out on ArcheryTalk, this site, and other avenues .now I second-guess myself. I am looking to spend 4G’s it's something I've always wanted just never made the move. my issue from the service came back to haunt me I just cannot do the things I used to be able to do.

So saying that, it's a lot of money and I just don't wanna make the wrong choice and regret it later when I'm stuck with it.
Anything else you think of please reach out I'm giving myself a week.
Thanks again semper Fi

[USMCHUNTER]

PS on the hellion 2xp pro,
Do you have an issue with the 50 Hz versus 60 HZ?
Also is there a conversion chart I can download that you know of to convert the field of view into meters?

[Vipitis]

Go to your sporting goods store and try them out

[svgurus]

my issue from the service came back to haunt me I just cannot do the things I used to be able to do.
So saying that, it's a lot of money and I just don't wanna make the wrong choice and regret it later when I'm stuck with it.

Didnt quite get about service\things) XP pro is good device and i guess it wont get cheaper used soon, so you can sell it without losing much. Bad thing they dont concentrate on changeable lenses much, maybe will even drop it on next model, for me its a big advantage. Iray rolls out something tomorrow, maybe eye3 monoculars would be better that a copy of outdated flir scout design)
If i were you I'd start looking for used deals/discounts, i got mine xp for about 2500$, xp2 for 2800 or 10-15% more expensive than median xp50 is fine too, xp2 pro for 3000-3200 is good too. hunters forums might have some, sometimes price is too good to keep hesitating

PS on the hellion 2xp pro,
Do you have an issue with the 50 Hz versus 60 HZ?
Also is there a conversion chart I can download that you know of to convert the field of view into meters?

I had zero issues playing Doom Eternal on 30-40fps and not too much issues looking through 9hz flir hs307, but not for a long time) and had experience of watching xp/xp pro screens for hours but with long breaks
Dont know about downloadables but you can use calculator and multiply tan(angle in degrees) by viewing distance)

[1os]

Hello everyone on the forum. I have been involved in thermal imaging equipment for a long time and I can say with great confidence that you can buy it on the American market. AGM Taipan (hikvision). they are very good, the best of today's most inexpensive devices. Choose a resolution of 384, if you need a video, I can throw it off. I have such a device, I had more than 300 thermal imagers, I know what I'm talking about.

[thermalengineer]

hey, there are multiple thermal imaging brands you can choose: flir, infiray, seek, agm, etc. Personally, I would highly recommend flir one and infiray p2.

[Bill W]

hey, there are multiple thermal imaging brands you can choose: flir, infiray, seek, agm, etc. Personally, I would highly recommend flir one and infiray p2.

flir one and infiray p2 are both phone-attach 'sensor heads'.  The OP is after a stand-alone complete camera with monocular display.

[USMCHUNTER]

 I am narrowing it down to the. Pulsar Helion 2 XP50 Pro 2.5-20 Thermal Monocular. or

.

[Alinas]

Could I say the same question my friend Kolo also haunt! He is in a mess and ask many friends in our contact!
Hope can find answer here!

[Alinas]

Its okay to wide up your descision mate! like other products which are also good-quality and cost-effective!

[Bill W]

[The below is a reply to a message, now deleted, from the Infiray random promotional spam department suggesting a dongle head and mobile phone on a piccatinny rail as suitable for covert hunting .....    ]


T3 search is a dongle sensor head, needing an attached phone.
Totally unsuited to the use requested.

Do you not look at the videos you say you made about it ?

Do you not know which Infiray products are 'hunting monoculars', or are you not paid enough to promote those ?

[Logan]

T3 search is a dongle sensor head, needing an attached phone.
Totally unsuited to the use requested.

Do you not look at the videos you say you made about it ?

Do you not know which Infiray products are 'hunting monoculars', or are you not paid enough to promote those ?

I already reported it to mod.
Those funny monkeys just won't stop.

[USMCHUNTER]

I've decided on pulsar merger binoculars, after doing quite a bit of research they take the cake.

[USMCHUNTER]

Hi there, just wanted to update thank you for your reply. I've decided on pulsar merger after doing a thorough research and reading a lot of reviews in Europe and other countries they cake the cake. Thanks again for your input.

[USMCHUNTER]

I would love nothing more than to do that. Unfortunately no store that I can find that's stocks the models I would be interested in buying.
It seems no one keeps top quality Little more money Products in stock anymore.

[Logan]

I also saw ATN scopes, but the new models are certainly not using FLIR sensors as the old ones do. They use 384x288 sensor with bad picture, look like A-Si, unknown manufacture.