Hikmicro Falcon Fq50 question

[DCG]

Afternoon all,
Bit of advice please.
I’ve recently purchased a Hikmicro Falcon Fq50f Thermal spotter, having previously had a Pulsar Helion xq50.
The image whilst obviously far superior, tends to have a bit of a halo effect with the outside of the image appearing quite a bit brighter than the centre, causing the centre to appear quite dark. I’ve tried messing about with all of the settings without really being able to remedy the effect.
The effect that I describe, is not really apparent when first switched on, but seems to develop. The only other thing worthy of note, is that it appears worse with a charged battery and appears better when the battery’s nearly flat.
For those that have the same or similar unit is this a characteristic of the Hik or do you think the units faulty ?

 

[DCG]

Bump

 

[Rural Management Services]

I would try a different battery to see if that does anything different, but I am guessing not and you probably already have and if no different take it back. I have it happen on a falcon once and turning it off and back on solved it. Ideally if you got it from an RFD you could do a side by side test with another unit in the shop.

 

[mealiejimmy]

HIK and Pulsar use very different methods to process the signals from the thermal sensor to the display on which the user sees the image
If you have used Pulsar thermals for any length of time, using a HIK thermal will usually mean perceiving a brighter, higher contrast overall more "punchy" image
I think what you are seeing is just that difference
Neither is right and neither is wrong, they are just different from each other
Some people prefer the Pulsar image, but IMHO, more people prefer the HIK image

Cheers

Bruce

 

[BenBhoy]

HIK and Pulsar use very different methods to process the signals from the thermal sensor to the display on which the user sees the image
If you have used Pulsar thermals for any length of time, using a HIK thermal will usually mean perceiving a brighter, higher contrast overall more "punchy" image
I think what you are seeing is just that difference
Neither is right and neither is wrong, they are just different from each other
Some people prefer the Pulsar image, but IMHO, more people prefer the HIK image

Cheers

Bruce

How does the infiray image compare to either Bruce?

 

[mealiejimmy]

Infiray is much closer to the HIK image than the Pulsar image
In fact most of the China manufactured thermal imagers tend to have a high brightness, high contrast "punchy" image compared to the lower contrast, generally duller (but arguably more detailed) image on the Pulsars
I sometimes liken the image on the HIK and other Chinese thermals to going into Currys on a Saturday afternoon and looking the television sets - which are all set at far too high brightness, contrast and colour saturation - because they make people go "WOW"
If you buy one of those tvs and take it home, the first thing you do is reduce the brightness, contrast and colour
Similarly, when I switch on a HIK thermal, the first thing I do is reduce the brightness and contrast to stop it burning out my eyeballs

Cheers

Bruce

 

[BenBhoy]

Infiray is much closer to the HIK image than the Pulsar image
In fact most of the China manufactured thermal imagers tend to have a high brightness, high contrast "punchy" image compared to the lower contrast, generally duller (but arguably more detailed) image on the Pulsars
I sometimes liken the image on the HIK and other Chinese thermals to going into Currys on a Saturday afternoon and looking the television sets - which are all set at far too high brightness, contrast and colour saturation - because they make people go "WOW"
If you buy one of those tvs and take it home, the first thing you do is reduce the brightness, contrast and colour
Similarly, when I switch on a HIK thermal, the first thing I do is reduce the brightness and contrast to stop it burning out my eyeballs

Cheers

Bruce

Cheers Bruce

Im currently using a Xm30S and I've known you describe them as being behind "net curtain" before and totally get what you mean. As it's purely for detection, I fancy a the "punchy" type this time

 

[mealiejimmy]

There's an argument to be made that for a thermal spotter, the "punchy" image produced by HIK and other Chinese thermals is better for detection than the duller, lower contrast image produced by Pulsar thermal simply because a bright blob is more likely to be seen than a dull blob
For a thermal scopes, the argument can be the other way round - the greater target detail produced by the Pulsar thermals can make accurate target identification and shot placement easier than on the brighter but less detailed target image on the Chinese thermal scopes
Those are just my observations over many years of using thermal equipment and I'm sure not everyone will agree with them

Cheers

Bruce

 

[BenBhoy]

Certainly makes sense to me

 

[DCG]

Thanks for all you reply’s, especially Bruces, as a recognised authority his opinions are informative and highly valued.
One other thing I’ve noticed, even with the objective cover closed ( so effectively a blank screen ) the centre of the picture is darker whilst the peripheries are brighter ( the halo effect I mentioned). I tend to use white heat for detection as I feel that it picks up sources better, whilst black heat seems to give more detail for observation, however on black heat the effect is not as noticeable.
The problem is, as mentioned I try to turn the brightness down, however this causes the centre of the image to be even darker, whilst when turned up it causes considerable night vision imbalance.
I’ll see if I can’t download some images of what I’m on about.

 

[DCG]

This is an image taken with the object cover in place which gives an idea of the effect I’m on about.

 

[mealiejimmy]

I don't think the manufacturer would accept that there's anything wrong with that image
There is a very slight variation in brightness across the display but I can't see how it can be a problem when you have the image of a scene the thermal is looking at, where there are very many different levels of brightness and contrast from the different items in the scene

Cheers

Bruce

 

[DCG]

I was out with it again last night, compared it to a pals fq35, in comparison my fq50 is just about unusable I’ll try and get some picture in use.
The problem it causes, is that with the brightness around the edge makes the centre so dark that you can’t really look at the object you’re trying to identify in the centre of the screen, I find that I’m placing the screen so that the object is in the periphery to see it, that’s apart from making my eyes a bit odd.