Hi Bruce
will they be bringing out a lower mag unit, how did the mount behave.
who is heading up distribution here in the uk
cheers
phil
There will be a 3-12 model coming out.
I'm hearing January 2024 but date not confirmed
The importer/distributor is ProOptics UK headed up by a guy called Adam (don't know his last name)
It's a little bit of a complicated story, but the scope is made in China and was originally known as the Hittac CP258 and could be purchased directly from the Hittac website in China.
At that time only the version without the LRF and ballistic calculator was available
Hittac sent scopes to several UK YouTubers for test and evaluation (and YouTube videos!)
My pal Russ Douglas received one and he and I and another shooting buddy have spent a fair bit of time with it.
In addition, Russ has been on Whatsapp to the Chinese guys pretty much every day giving them feedback on what works well and what we think could be improved.
From the testing we have done, we really rate the scope and think it's excellent value for money - particularly the version with the LRF and ballistic calculator
Clearly we were not the only people impressed because during our testing we were told that US scope company Arken had purchased Hittac and that the product would now be known as the Arken Zulus HD520
The obvious comparison is the PARD NV008 and NV008S LRF
The Arken is slightly smaller and lighter and the mount is much stronger than that supplied with the HIK.
We are also told (although not yet confirmed) that the mount has 20moa built in - which is good for a lot of sub 12ftlb air rifle guys who frequently found that, with the PARD 008, the reticle would be very low on the display when the scope was zeroed
Arken claim to be using ED glass in the objective lens and I think I would accept that since the image is noticeably sharper than on the PARD 008, even although the 008 has more base magnification
Even at it's maximum magnification of x20, the Arken has much less pixellation than would be expected at that level of zoom
It has a vcsel IR that focusses by turning rather than sliding in and out like the PARD and it plenty powerful enough
It has a 1920 x1080 OLED display and I have to say this is the first wide screen display I've seen that I really like
Image quality wise, in daytime and darkness it's better than the PARD, Alpex or C50
In low light, the Alpex and C50 are still well ahead with the Arken being a bit better than the PARD
However, the Arken has a setting which controls the IR brightness automatically to prevent white out from strongly reflecting objects in the foreground of any scene.
The LRF version of the Zulus comes with an 850nm IR module than can be very simply unplugged and changed for a 940nm module
It's not perfect, there is no reticle in the PiP box and the level of magnification within the PiP box is far too high.
However, these are things that can be fixed with a firmware update and it should not put off any potential buyers
The basic PARD 008 is selling for around £639 and the non LRF Zulus sells for £499
The PARD 008S LRF is selling for around £800 and the LRF version of the Zulus sells for £599
Note that any new stock PARDs will have an LED illuminator which is not as powerful as the vcsel IR in the Zulus
Russ has posted a bunch of pics of the Arken here
#106 Arken Optics ZHD520R day & night scope with LRF & ballistic calculator
Just to make it clear, I have no financial or commercial involvement with this product, nor with the manufacturer or the importer/distributor
I just think it's great product for the money
Cheers
Bruce
