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Thermal IR scope

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Optics GrassHopper
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    Posted: October/06/2016 at 22:36

I just received a new IR scope from one of the major manufacturers. it is on of their top of the line thermal scopes.

Never been more disappointed in anything I've ordered before. I've used several other devices in the past mostly at work in industrial thermal imaging so I understand quite a bit about thermal imaging etc. I have looked through several IR scopes over the last couple of years at large sporting displays. Including the NRA conventions the last two years.

The problems I see with this unit are: hardly any clarity of what you are viewing over 40yds, at around 130 yds you can't tell a person from a rock, it's advertisement says detect images at 1200meters and identify the object at 500 plus meters, (not a chance with this unit).

I have went through all the menu selections and changed all of the options to try and get a better view and clarity.

I do expect a good display for the money I put out for this unit.

What has been some others experience in viewing dog to man size views in high quality thermal scopes. If anyone has suggestions of setting to start with that would be appreciated also.

Thanks

John

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Kickboxer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/06/2016 at 23:20
The lack of information you've failed to supply does not allow for a reasonable response.  None of the critical criteria required to make an informed response are included in your comments.  
Generic responses would be specious…
Why are you not identifying the particular item you are asking questions about?  If you think you are inducing objectivity by your vagueness, you are not.  Many of the members of this forum have extensive experience with EO/IR systems.  Most will not even attempt to respond to a your "questions".  
Provide specifics, you will get specific responses.
Opinion,untempered by fact,is ignorance.

There are some who do not fear death... for they are more afraid of not really living
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Optics GrassHopper
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Duper Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/07/2016 at 04:32

Sorry for the lack of information. I will try and explain a little better. For and specific questions from anyone, please ask and I'll reply.

1. While viewing a person moving away from me at night with ambient temperature at around 75 deg, stopping every 15yds allowing me time to go through the menu selections of trying to optimize the clarity of the display I was unable to tell it was a person after they got approx. 90 yds.

2. I tried all the different color palettes, brightness settings, preset settings, focus adjustments and none of these different adjustments made a lot of difference.

3. The unit has a manual focus which does affect the display but it never seems to be of the clarity I would expect or close to the clarity of many of the videos I have seen of other units.

4. Once the person got out between 75 and 100 yds and you increased the zoom everything seems to be a blur and you can't adjust the focus to get any recognizable display of what you are looking at.

5. All of the menu selections and adjustments seem to be very simple, straightforward in the operating instructions. The unit is easy to change the settings to try and optimize the display for viewing. The problem is that there is not any decent clarity of viewing a known object once they are out close to 100  yds. If you would  just be looking through the scope without knowing that a specific object ( a person in this case) was at a certain location moving their arms you would be able to identify anything out there at that distance.

6. I've looked through several other thermal scopes at the NRA convention earlier this year and all of them had a more clear display and it was much easier to identify what you were looking at similar distances. This is one reason why it is troubling to have such an unclear display with a unit that is supposedly a better unit going by the specs and price.

7. I will call the manufacturer and talk to them today to try and get any advice of what to try to maybe improve the clarity before sending the unit back. I was hoping to maybe some advice from some on here of things to try also to improve clarity of the display. I have listed the manufacturer to make it seem or imply that I was bad mouthing a particular brand. But if  it would help to know the brand and unit model to help with suggestions let me know.

I hope this information helps and I appreciate any and all suggestions and questions.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rancid Coolaid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/07/2016 at 07:42
What exact scope are we discussing?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SVT_Tactical Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/07/2016 at 07:44

Originally posted by Rancid Coolaid Rancid Coolaid wrote:

What exact scope are we discussing?

"All generalizations are bad."

Ditto...... don't try to protect the company by not mentioning the name... just let us know exactly what unit you have, we can look at specs and such and see if manufacturing claims are totally outlandish for what it is or not.

"Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be" - Abraham Lincoln
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Duper Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October/07/2016 at 07:50

Flir RS64  2-16x, 640x512, Lens 60mm, manual focus, electronic zoom 8x,


Thanks

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Optics Apprentice
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote verminator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/09/2016 at 15:14

the prob lies with the digi zoom you lose a lot off res that scope has very low optical mag. you would have been better off choosing the I.R hunter series with the 60m lens  4.5 optical mag and a 12 micron core... 

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