Looking to get in to thermal

[D4570]

I see the ATN ThOR LT 3-6x Thermal Rifle Scope, which is priced in my range , Kinda.
At $1200 ish I know its an entrance level aka cheap, thermal scope and has no recording or Bluetooth capabilities.
But I don't even know if that's the way I want to go. I CAN'T pop for $5000 and then decide I'm not a thermal hunting kind of guy.
Anyway, with the stimulus check I could find out, and "Stimulate".
Anyone have or use this scope?

 

[furness]

It depends on what you want to do with it. If you're looking for a toy, it's probably ok. But if you're looking for a serious scope, not so much. I do infrared as part of my business, so here's my input: the thermal sensor has a resolution of 160x120 pixels, which is low quality in the infrared world. That means that it has an array of infrared sensors 160 wide by 120 high. Each sensor shows you the temperature in one spot, and it stitches these spots together into a picture. So two things here: 1. the further away from the target you are, the bigger the spot each sensor- or pixel- covers. The sensor shows the average temperature in that area, so further away is blurrier. 2. You aren't looking through an optical scope like we normally think of. You're looking at a digital display, like the back of a camera. There isn't any optical zoom in this like a traditional scope. When you turn the "zoom" up, it's really just spreading the pixels apart to make the picture bigger.

If you're using it on things that are relatively close, you can have a lot of fun with it. Just go in with reasonable expectations. Good thermal devices start at about $10,000

 

[D4570]

YUP!
I'll give it a try and see if I want to proceed to better stuff.

 

[furness]

I think you’ll have a lot of fun with it

 

[Cattleman]

ATN scopes are best suited for your kids nerf guns because they are basically toys .... sorry but that’s the honest truth

 

[thomas04]

D4570, well it depends on your budget. If it's not about money - I would recommend something like AGM Protector TM25-384. A friend of mine has one, and it works perfectly for night hunting. As I know he ordered it from here ( url: https://www.agmglobalvision.com/thermal-imaging/thermal-monoculars ). It's a great resource where you can compare different models of scopes.