Best digital day/night scope at present?

[Shaun Goss]

Just setup an Alpex pro A50PL, I intended on using it for 80% night-time use and 20% day time. Wow, thoroughly disappointed, it's going back tomorrow. Image quality is good in the daytime, but when switching to IR mode it's sh*te. Anything beyond 180m is just mush. Using quality VCSEL torches, with variable power. The PARD DS35 gen2 is better.

Can’t imagine what’s going wrong with yours then. I could clearly shoot to 400 with mine at night if I wanted to.

 

[Blackwood Outdoors]

I've been watching a lot of new digital scopes releases closely...

The original tube style night vision scope, the Pulsar Digex, as expected provided true digital "night vision" performance. Pulsar always used big super fast glass, which allowed a ton of IR transmission through to the sensor, just check out the Sightline and C50 lenses, big beasts, combine this with HD CMOS sensors which are much more sensitive than Full HD CMOS sensors and then Full HD CMOS sensors are also x4 times more sensitive than a UHD 4K sensor..

A 4K sensor does not need a fast lense for daylight, no scope does, so they look great in daylight regardless of aperture.. HD can get by with a smaller lens (although Pulsar provided a beast with it still), 1080P HD like the Zulus V2 and original Alpex A50T (bad ass lens), can get by with a smaller lenses, but 4K needs a fast lens due to being less sensitive at night...

Looking at the market now, everyones got a hard on over 4K, daytime performance excellent, but it's not the sweet spot for night vision performance, 1080P HD is the ideal resolution/sensitivity point, to get the best out of 4K you need the transmission, ideally F1.2, aka the Alpex 4K A50EL , software does not out perform aperture with humidity and vapour in the air at night, this drastically cuts down IR transmission , fast glass works so much better and increases viewing distance substantially..bombing with VCSEL with vapour in the air, can turn it into soup...

Just seems to me things are going a little weird with digital night vision, chasing the 4K buzz word, which is all fine and dandy if you give them the right tools to do there job...

The two scopes below currently have the largest apertures at the minute with a 4K sensor combo.. the Alpex A50EL is 100% the daddy in terms of FOV, long distance performance and night time performance from any 4K scope out there , the slight negative is it's a heavy beast.. I checked daytime performance against everything, at full magnification it retained excellent sharpness for a scope with such a low base magnification and wide FOV, even in past night time tests it doubled the distance at night against Zulus V1 models with VCSEL when humidity was present in the air , just showing how much a bad ass lense makes a difference..

HikMicro Alpex 4K LRF A50EL Day Night Optical Scope

HikMicro Alpex 4K LRF (A50EL) delivers ultra-HD day and night imaging, excellent low-light performance, with laser rangefinder and ballistic calculator.

www.blackwoodoutdoors.co.uk

Pard Night Stalker 4K 2.0 LRF Night Vision Scope

Pard Night Stalker 4K 2.0 LRF night vision scope with 4K CMOS sensor, integrated laser rangefinder and onboard recording functionality.

www.blackwoodoutdoors.co.uk

 

[homer]

I think the customer can get bamboozled very easy nowadays. All these buzz words like 4k, 1080p, sensors etc and most of us probably dont really understand was is best. Certain I would think, 4k is best, just coz a 4k tv is very clear. But I have no idea about what actually produces a clear image, and again, what is good for daytime might not be good for night time.
Can anyone see any vast improvements coming in the future that would make a great daytime and night time digital scope? As there seems to be a lot of disappointed people regarding the new alpex pro.

 

[HonestJohn]

The lingo is wasted on 99% of consumers, the marketing is generally wasted too; it’s what people recommend and others/friends use and what shops suggest that wins the race.

The only next development really is fusion and super high quality IR built in.

So take the Alpex Pro, put the LRF In Line instead of on top (WTF were they thinking!), put an in built IR where the LRF is, and create a thermal heat signature overlay on the screen

Make this for under £1,250 ish, and you’ve just killed the entire thermal scope and legacy NV scope market

Until that arrives (which it will), the NV market is pretty much in decline it rocketed, got saturated, then when 4k arrived the market went and replaced their old gear with HIK Alpex and C50’s. Now I’d say, everyone who wants NV or thermal already has it, and nothing new to make them want to upgrade and spend the money yet.
What I’m seeing at shops that actually move NV and thermal, is it’s the estates, keepers, and contractors who now buy, and it’s almost all 1280 type sensor thermal scopes and multispectral binos etc.
Due to this, there’s very little room for players, and noc, Hik, and a drop of pulsar seem to be the only ones shops want to have stock of..and only small QTY’s of the items they know move quickly. Try and find shops that carry the full thermtec, ATN, Pulsar ranges etc, doesn’t happen - all drop ship online.

The general consumer market is in hibernation until disruptive or radical innovation comes in.

 

[C h r i s]

One thing that's surprised me with the new Alpex Pro, and indeed the PARD EX, is that the actual objective lens is tiny - I think that 50mm is more likely the external diameter.

There is some fantastic new sensor tech out now for super low light use, for example the SPAD (Single-Photon Avalanche Diode) sensor, but its for specialist equipment and I think the only canon camera to use this tech is the MS-510 which costs over £20,000 - so it'll take a good few years before this tech trickles down to cheaper consumer hardware. But when it does....

 

[HonestJohn]

I should have added to my earlier post. When Auto Focus becomes a feature, it will make units far more attractive

 

[Blackwood Outdoors]

I should have added to my earlier post. When Auto Focus becomes a feature, it will make units far more attractive

Auto focus is a delicate thing on a high recoil rifle and costly to add.

 

[Liveonce]

still have now an old yukon photon xt on my ,22lr and for night shooting is still doing the business.

 

[scotch_egg]

One thing that's surprised me with the new Alpex Pro, and indeed the PARD EX, is that the actual objective lens is tiny - I think that 50mm is more likely the external diameter.

There is some fantastic new sensor tech out now for super low light use, for example the SPAD (Single-Photon Avalanche Diode) sensor, but its for specialist equipment and I think the only canon camera to use this tech is the MS-510 which costs over £20,000 - so it'll take a good few years before this tech trickles down to cheaper consumer hardware. But when it does....

I am still using my pard DS37 Nightstalker with on board laser illumination. Longest shot to date was over 280m and not one I intend to repeat.

What I am trying to say is, we are not seeing that technology progress at the rate we have in the last 2/3 years at the same price point.

At one time the progress was clear to see through the optics; pard 008/photons with doublers to Alpex et al was a huge step up in performance.

For anyone stepping into the world of NV you can’t really go wrong with anything. The Zulus V2 my father won from optics warehouse is an incredible package for the money and side by side with my nightstalker I’m hard pushed to spot a real difference and definitely not one that would inhibit a safe shot being taken.

 

[Blackwood Outdoors]

I am still using my pard DS37 Nightstalker with on board laser illumination. Longest shot to date was over 280m and not one I intend to repeat.

What I am trying to say is, we are not seeing that technology progress at the rate we have in the last 2/3 years at the same price point.

At one time the progress was clear to see through the optics; pard 008/photons with doublers to Alpex et al was a huge step up in performance.

For anyone stepping into the world of NV you can’t really go wrong with anything. The Zulus V2 my father won from optics warehouse is an incredible package for the money and side by side with my nightstalker I’m hard pushed to spot a real difference and definitely not one that would inhibit a safe shot being taken.

For airgun and rimfire the V2 is awesome and works well on centrefire...

For the ulitmate low light and night vision performance at long range in all weather... the Alpex A50EL will take some beating..

My two top choices for sure...

Most digital will do the job that people require, some only want daytime use, others want lowlight and closer range NV... so any digital scope will fit the bill for this...

I'm not sure on the whole make a tube scope like a day scope thing though , with the digital magnification at the rear, optical scopes have to be designed like this mechanically , the whole point of digital is you can place the zoom adjustment anywhere, the side turret is absolutely perfect for this, at the rear like a day scope it's cumbersome and puts you off, well it does me , not a fan of the Zulus V2, Nocpix Nite or Alpex Pro rear digital adjustment, its not natural and your moving your hand placement further and in more awkward positions to move them, I prefer a digital zoom wheel or digital turret adjustment, quicker, falls to hand and easier to make small adjustment back and forth..one benefit of digital being you can place this anywhere...

As an example, if not using PIP, and relying on the main magnification, I zoom in quick for a shot and then zoom back quick, this also gives you the full field of view for tracking fast, some are mimicking this in software now, NocPix and Thermtec have incoporated this option, so you mag up and the recoil activation after the shot, then throws the scope back to base mag for full scene awareness , so your not fumbling with a runner or other shots getting on target, its all done instantly, very handy..