Hi Guys,
Is it really that good? Is the worth the extra £1000 on top of what i paid for photon with extra ir? i have seen through an archer and i know that is a lot better than the photon for clarity but distance wise i thought they were pretty similar. if i did upgrade i would prefer the dedicated drone as i dont like the position with the archer. How does the drone compare to the archer and the photon?
Cheers BB
I'm in the same situation as AnthonyR..... I can only compare my 10x Drone against a doublered Photon (which has now gone to another home), not seen through an Archer but I do/have used a 14 and an Envis for spotting..... at least I did until the HD38S thermal came along.
The Photon...... easy to mount and would be fine for when you've got the time to pick up on your target....quite narrow field of view and I struggled to find moving foxes having spotted them. I found mine to be very fussy/critical as to eye position to keep a clear focus on the target and it drove me nuts in the end.
The Drone.... what a relief! The higher quality components make all the difference... up in Scotland recently I had several shots out to 180m with the standard ir T20 which was struggling a bit but then switched to my Sunnranger T20 (As discovered by Sunndog on the NVUK forum.... turn, cut, file the T20's head back to the threads and screw on a Yukon Ranger 1.7 lens - gives a tighter die focus than a NM800 and is brighter than that on a single battery). I've got an IR pill for my NM800 which I'll have a go with at some point...... the standard T20 will be fine for most of my stuff.
In use I never touched or adjusted the Drone controls, it just took whatever IR was thrown at it without being overwhelmed...... and if either an HID or standard Lightforce lamp was on charlie that just made the picture better.
I generally had the focus set to around 150m but that gives a clear enough picture down to 50 and up to 200. The DP's pic rail clamp never gave me a zero shift problem either.... initially it was on my .17Rem Tikka 595 on top of a reversed EGW pic rail to get the eye relief and then on my .243 Blaser on a zruncho (ebay id) pic rail. With a bolt handle rifle like the Tikkas the pic rail needs to be 10mm high to avoid the BH fouling the DP's mount if the rear clamp is behind the lift...... Alan Rhone is your man for longer pic rails
The only downside of the DP is the 'short' life of the internal batteries being a pair of CR123A's but I only turn it on for the shot and they now do an external rechargeable AA battery pack to fit.
's me 5p's worth
Cheers
Fizz