Burnsome...
Active member
No problem DU. Glad to do a little testing to see what we can see. I agree there has to be some balance between enough light and too much light with these type NV units. The main advantage IMO is positive identification capabilities as compared to thermal. I'm convinced the Digex can detect at further distances than my 4K.
I guess it all comes down to the hunting enviroment. Some of you guys are making outstanding shots on coyotes with thermals at long ranges where digital probably cant reach that far. In my AO, I need 100% positive ID before I pull the trigger, so its thermal for scanning/detection and digital for shooting.
Both digital and thermals have come a long ways and will continue to do so. Many years ago during my first career I worked with FLIR quite a bit on early thermal systems development. Early units required manually adding liquid nitrogen to cool the electronics, and then the uncooled units came along which was a big step forward. Having to deal with liquid nitrogen was a pain in the keester. Thermal cameras were big boxes and mostly used in aircraft systems and labs. Once we started playing with the uncooled units (didnt reqiure adding LN2), I recommended to FLIR that they should look into putting some adjustable crosshairs in the FW/SW and make the cameras smaller for mounting on shooting platforms. They looked at me like I was crazy but we certainly enjoy the portability and rifle scope capabilities now. One of the first advanced uncooled themrals we used cost $60K. Now we can buy outstanding portable thermal scopes for $2-3K
I guess it all comes down to the hunting enviroment. Some of you guys are making outstanding shots on coyotes with thermals at long ranges where digital probably cant reach that far. In my AO, I need 100% positive ID before I pull the trigger, so its thermal for scanning/detection and digital for shooting.
Both digital and thermals have come a long ways and will continue to do so. Many years ago during my first career I worked with FLIR quite a bit on early thermal systems development. Early units required manually adding liquid nitrogen to cool the electronics, and then the uncooled units came along which was a big step forward. Having to deal with liquid nitrogen was a pain in the keester. Thermal cameras were big boxes and mostly used in aircraft systems and labs. Once we started playing with the uncooled units (didnt reqiure adding LN2), I recommended to FLIR that they should look into putting some adjustable crosshairs in the FW/SW and make the cameras smaller for mounting on shooting platforms. They looked at me like I was crazy but we certainly enjoy the portability and rifle scope capabilities now. One of the first advanced uncooled themrals we used cost $60K. Now we can buy outstanding portable thermal scopes for $2-3K