IR illuminator

[Clive Ward]

find the pard great on a 17HMR for rabbit control but interested to hear whether people think you need a bit more further out (<100m) on deer/fox?

Order the Dark Engine BLADE and just mention in the comments section of the order what you are using it with and it will be sent with the beam set correctly for your application and maximum range / clarity.

With an NV007V and an MTC scope I can light up a treeline at 1000 yards at 10x magnification.


Cheers





Clive

 

[Shaun Goss]

Used a Blade and Wraith ESL on my Alpex 4K and the ESL is considerably brighter, has more adjustment and most importantly gives the cleanest image of any VCSEL laser i’ve used and thats nearly all of them at some point, its as clean as LED which is where most lasers fall down.
I was given the heads up by a fellow Blade owner who switched and he wasn’t wrong.

Do you use the 850 or 940nm wraith esl please?

 

[Pellet Pinger]

Do you use the 850 or 940nm wraith esl please?

850

 

[Shaun Goss]

850

Thanks very much

 

[Ratsbadboy]

Used a Blade and Wraith ESL on my Alpex 4K and the ESL is considerably brighter, has more adjustment and most importantly gives the cleanest image of any VCSEL laser i’ve used and thats nearly all of them at some point, its as clean as LED which is where most lasers fall down.
I was given the heads up by a fellow Blade owner who switched and he wasn’t wrong.

Thanks for that. I have a Blade and to be honest I've been a bit unwelmed by it. I've just ordered the Wraith ESL and will be very interested to see how much better it is than the Blade. I current use a 850 Night Star (from Blackwood Outdoors) and find even that is better than the Blade on a 4K.

 

[Clive Ward]

Thanks for that. I have a Blade and to be honest I've been a bit unwelmed by it. I've just ordered the Wraith ESL and will be very interested to see how much better it is than the Blade. I current use a 850 Night Star (from Blackwood Outdoors) and find even that is better than the Blade on a 4K.

It sounds like there might be something amiss with your BLADE or did you order the covert version?

You should get a good image to 500 yards and 'good enough' 500 beyond that to check your backdrop with the 4K and the standard BLADE.

The other clue that something is amiss with it, is that the BLADE is at 95% of the maximum power that is legally allowed to be sold to consumers, so there shouldn't be anythign on the market that is 'much brighter'.


Cheers





Clive

 

[beanieboy]

I also use the Wraith ESL having previously used the Solaris SRX. The SRX is a heavy lump and I wanted something lighter without compromising performance. The ESL is not only much lighter, but the image is cleaner that that of the SRX without any loss of performance at distance.
Ludicrous Lumens is also a great supplier to deal with.

 

[bgkahuna]

Order the Dark Engine BLADE and just mention in the comments section of the order what you are using it with and it will be sent with the beam set correctly for your application and maximum range / clarity.

With an NV007V and an MTC scope I can light up a treeline at 1000 yards at 10x magnification.


Cheers

Clive

Awesome..thank you

 

[bgkahuna]

You shoot deer at night…?
DG

Hour after last light is often just too dark in the woods on a day scope so looking into IR options...thoughts appreciated

 

[Clive Ward]

Thanks for that. I have a Blade and to be honest I've been a bit unwelmed by it. I've just ordered the Wraith ESL and will be very interested to see how much better it is than the Blade. I current use a 850 Night Star (from Blackwood Outdoors) and find even that is better than the Blade on a 4K.

This is the sort of performance you should expect with the BLADE and the Alpex 4K:

360+ Yards


500+ Yards and well beyond for backdrop

If yours is not doing that, then please get in touch for advice.


Cheers





Clive

 

[Ratsbadboy]

This is the sort of performance you should expect with the BLADE and the Alpex 4K:

360+ Yards


500+ Yards and well beyond for backdrop

If yours is not doing that, then please get in touch for advice.


Cheers





Clive

Clive, thanks for that. The Wraith arrived today and I've just done a comparison between that and the Blade out to 360 using a Pard DS35-70 Gen 2. In fairness there very little to choose between them with perhaps the Wraith arguably just having the edge. The 4k was on my friend's .243 and I can't compare the two until he comes over again, but certainly when we were out the other night we played around with the Blade and the Night Star for some time and the latter was noticeably better regardless of how I adjusted the Blade. It was a clear bright night, but the image seemed to have a mistiness about it which wasn't anywhere near as obvious when using the Night Star. I thought that perhaps either the lens of the torch or the scope had misted over but they both appeared clear, but rest assured, as soon as I get a chance (and it stops raining) I will experiment again with all three torches on the 4k.

 

[Clive Ward]

Clive, thanks for that. The Wraith arrived today and I've just done a comparison between that and the Blade out to 360 using a Pard DS35-70 Gen 2. In fairness there very little to choose between them with perhaps the Wraith arguably just having the edge. The 4k was on my friend's .243 and I can't compare the two until he comes over again, but certainly when we were out the other night we played around with the Blade and the Night Star for some time and the latter was noticeably better regardless of how I adjusted the Blade. It was a clear bright night, but the image seemed to have a mistiness about it which wasn't anywhere near as obvious when using the Night Star. I thought that perhaps either the lens of the torch or the scope had misted over but they both appeared clear, but rest assured, as soon as I get a chance (and it stops raining) I will experiment again with all three torches on the 4k.

For the DS35-70, you could adjust the beam profile of the BLADE by moving the o-ring spacer from in front of the pill, to behind, as per the instructions downloadable from here:

Black Sun Dark Engine BLADE IR illuminator

www.nightvisionstore.co.uk

It will give you considerably more power density with the narrower FOV Pard. This adjustment will give you approx 4x the power density which is ideal for higher magnification dedicated scopes or add ons.

It will then however be a 'bit tight' to fill the field of view on the Alpex on base magnification, but worth the experiment, especially if you don't use the 3.5x base mag much on the Alpex.


Cheers





Clive

 

[Ratsbadboy]

For the DS35-70, you could adjust the beam profile of the BLADE by moving the o-ring spacer from in front of the pill, to behind, as per the instructions downloadable from here:

Black Sun Dark Engine BLADE IR illuminator

www.nightvisionstore.co.uk

It will give you considerably more power density with the narrower FOV Pard. This adjustment will give you approx 4x the power density which is ideal for higher magnification dedicated scopes or add ons.

It will then however be a 'bit tight' to fill the field of view on the Alpex on base magnification, but worth the experiment, especially if you don't use the 3.5x base mag much on the Alpex.


Cheers





Clive

Thanks Clive, I'll have a play although I'm not sure what I'm going to gain as I can already adjust my Blade to a dark halo when the scope is at base mag (5.6). If it ever stops raining I'll experiment some more. I guess if I move the rubber 'o' ring to the rear of the pill I'll be able to tighten the beam even more for higher magnifications of the scope.

 

[Clive Ward]

I guess if I move the rubber 'o' ring to the rear of the pill I'll be able to tighten the beam even more for higher magnifications of the scope.

Correct.

Cheers





Clive

 

[Blackwood Outdoors]

Used a Blade and Wraith ESL on my Alpex 4K and the ESL is considerably brighter, has more adjustment and most importantly gives the cleanest image of any VCSEL laser i’ve used and thats nearly all of them at some point, its as clean as LED which is where most lasers fall down.
I was given the heads up by a fellow Blade owner who switched and he wasn’t wrong.

Andys Wraith is better,... Testing the Blade on a Zulus it performed the same as the inbuilt IR whilst the Wraith outshined it no question, forgive the pun....

People go wild about IR's and VCSEL ...

Alpex 4K and Zulus out to 150-200 yards you don't need to spend a fortune and LED is so much cleaner than VCSEL ...

Night Blaster LED IR Torch

The Nightblaster LED IR torch provides clean imaging and works excellent for HikMicro Alpex, Pulsar C50 and other night vision scope models.

www.blackwoodoutdoors.co.uk

Also if you do need VSCEL...
Now diffused with full adjustable analogue power control...

Night Blaster VCSEL IR Torch

Night Blaster VCSEL IR 850NM torch with adjustable tail switch and power intensity control, to allow for full intensity adjustment. Spot to flood design.

www.blackwoodoutdoors.co.uk

Lots of choice out there but minimal gain and spending more than double on them...