Night Vision

Bruce, I can get stock and warranty replacements whenever I need them. Technical support I can do myself so there isn't much more needed.
 
Cliff,
I'm pleased to hear that.
Unfortunately, for my self and many other old time NV hands, ATN is a tainted brand. I guess your customers for ATN products are mainly going to be relative newcomers to NV

Cheers

Bruce
 
I echo the above post. I had an Atn x sight II had nothing but issues. Scott country were useless with it (where I bought it) and ATN were equally useless so in the end I done a charge back on my credit card (took about three months) but got the money back in full. I get fed up with retailers/suppliers saying “we will send it back to the manufacturer and see what they say” No the financial contract is with the retailer at all times if the unit is bought new. They do have a reasonable period to investigate and repair/replace should the unit be faulty. If the unit is not sold as described, fit for purpose or last a reasonable length of time. This reasonable period is about 28 days. If you still not happy you have every right to demand a full refund in the way in which the product was bought I e cash/card. If purchased on line the distance selling regulations help you further. Best advice buy on a credit card (not debit as no protection given)
Regards Steve
 
"Having looked at the NV008 over the last few days it isn't as good as the ATN 4K, but then it is also cheaper"

Would you care to elaborate on what you see as being the superior features of the ATN 4K when compared with the Pard NV008, or at any rate the deficiencies in the latter model, as I'm sure this will help determine in the minds of potential buyers as to the preferred eventual purchase?
 
Just pondering a NV unit for rabbits, mainly on a .22.

Would I be better with a Yukon or a Pard (type thing, that's the price bracket I'm after). Like the idea of an add on because I can potentially use it on other scopes (Nightforces if that makes a difference) but realistically it will be on the .22 so a Yukon is a bit cheaper and fits the bill without being a faff!

Thanks

Dan
Get the Pard as the feedback is very good.The Photon can be very tiresome to mount and zero and it eats batteries.Richard.
 
I did have the photon units they are a pain to get set up and they do eat the batteries as well no matter what batteries you use. What I did get last month was the forward F155 add on for the objective lens and it’s very good but £1000+
 
Hmmm I like to buy British. I like to talk to the people who actually make the products. Not retailers and middlemen. I like to talk to them face to face if I want to. Starlightnv.co.uk with their premises in Manchester is my choice. They hardly advertise. Most of their stuff goes to professionals and the military here and overseas. They do a digital add on... Starlight Arrow. On their website Starlight claim with an Arrow you can ID foxes out to 400 yards using a Starlight Dragonfly. I have an Arrow and Dragonfly. They're not exaggerating. I just sold my Starlight Archer, (claimed fox ID out to 600 yards) to a semi-pro sportsman/hunter who currently uses a Pulsar XQ38 spotter and an Armasight Drone for the shot. He drove over on Friday night and we went out for an hour with the Archer. When we came back he bought the Archer for cash. Enough said!
 
My comment that the NV008 is not as good as the X Sight 4K Pro is based on the fact that the X Sight 4K Pro has a higher resolution than the 008 and therefore can produce a more detailed image.
The 4K Pro will produce a sharper image for daytime use, although, IMHO, the image produced by the NV008 is more than good enough to shoot with.
At night, it's a different story because the X Sight needs a lot more light than the 008 to produce a decent image and the images produce by the 008 at night using a Solaris SRX laser have been excellent - certainly usable out to ranges of more than 300 yards.
The X Sight has many more bells and whistles than the NV008, but for most people, those will be irrelevant - image quality will be much more important.
I'll put my hands up here and admit that I have been a long time critic of ATN for both their products and their service (or lack of it).
However I saw the X Sight 4K Pro at the shooting Show last February and was impressed by both it's day and night performance.
There have been a few reviews since it became available - some good, and some less so, but I was still thinking about buying one.
Then the PARD NV007 came along and changed the game.
For it's price, the performance and features are unbeatable and when I learned that it was going to be repackaged into a digital riflescope (the NV008), I decided to hold off on the purchase of an X sight.
Having now spent a bit of time with the NV008, I find that it does everything I wanted the X Sight to do for quite a bit less money and without a load of features I. don't need .
The NV008 is smaller, lighter, neater and easy to mount comfortably
The 008 also has the advantage of having a removable rechargeable battery so that the rifle can be stored in the gun cabinet and a freshly charged battery installed before use.
The batteries in the X Sight cannot be removed for charging, so the gun has to stay out of the cabinet for charging or some sort of USB powerbank used to charge the batteries while in the cabinet. In my experience, gun cabinets with 240V ac power outlets are not a common thing!!
Here are some pics of the NV008 fitted to my Tikka T1X showing the scope and the mounting bracket that comes with it.
Although the mount is designed for picatinny rails, I used 2 dovetail to picatinny adaptors to fit it to the 11mm dovetail on the Tikka
IMG_3359.JPGIMG_3360.JPGIMG_3366.JPGIMG_3367.JPGIMG_3367.JPGIMG_3366.JPGIMG_3360.JPGIMG_3359.JPG
 
I use the Kentli rechargeable batteries in my photon and only charge them once a month and I am out 2 nights a week. As for zeroing it's straight forward if you bore sight it first using adjustable mounts (Burris/sportsmatch) and the X/Y on o. As for the Pard NV008 it will be interesting to see if it holds zero set right back on Mount like the pictures show.
 
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Just a wee update.
My plan is to do a thorough side by side comparison of the Drone Pro, the NV008 and a Hawke Frontier scope fitted with the NV007 add-on, all mounted side by side on a piece of board, all pointing at the same target and using a single illuminator so that all 3 scopes are getting the same amount of light. I also plan to video this using the nv008 and NV007 on board HD video recorders and an SD recorder connected to the video output of the Drone Pro.
If I can figure out how to work the video editing software, I want to put all 3 video images side by side on the screen so that it's easy to see how the scopes compare.
I'll actually start work on this project tomorrow, but tonight I picked up a Drone pro from a pal and we did a quick side by side comparison of the 008 and the Drone Pro using a Solairs SRX illuminator.
BTW this quick test was performed in the ****ing rain and both scopes still worked very well.
We looked at various targets out to over 300 yards and in each case the Drone Pro image was clearly superior to the NV008 in terms of both brightness and detail.
However at each of those ranges, the image produced by the 008 was more than good enough for shooting a rabbit or a fox.
My initial impression that the NV008 was a great value for money digital scope has not changed, but if you already have a Drone Pro there is no advantage in getting rid of it for an NV008
If you don't have a Drone pro and are thinking about getting a digital NV scope, the 008 is, IMHO at the moment, clearly the best bang for your buck.
However, to get the best out of the 008, a laser illuminator such as the Solaris SRX is an absolute must - even the best LED illuminators (T74 with AS pill) don't put out enough light to get the HD camera in the 008 operating well enough to give a good image at ranges beyond what the onboard illuminator can handle

Cheers

Bruce
 
I built a rig so that I could side by side test a Drone Pro, PARD NV008 and PARD NV007 (fitted to Hawke Frontier 3-15x50 ffp scope) using 2 different illuminators - a Solaris SRX laser and a Sunnranger 3x42 with an Oslon AS LED
Here's the rig
IMG_3371.JPG

The Drone Pro is fixed x10 magnification and the 008 is x6.5 with x1.5 digital zoom, making a total of approx x10.
The magnification of the Hawke scope was adjusted to give the same FOV as the Drone Pro. which turned out to be about x6.5.
The additional magnification provided by the add-on is therefore approx x1.5.
I tested in darkness (little moon, overcast and virtually no ambient light) at short range (100m or so) and at longer range (250-350m)
I would summarise the results as follows:
The Drone Pro always wins - it has a clearer, more contrasty image which makes viewing a pleasure.
It works well with the LED illuminator but, is even better with the SRX.
In fact, with the SRX, the entire FOV is evenly illuminated out to silly distances - absolutely fantastic
The PARDs are still very good, and produce very shootable images, particularly at shorter ranges.
They're just not as good as the Drone pro
At short range, the 007 add-on has the edge over the 008, but at long ranges the tables are turned and the 008 is noticeably better than the add-on.
The less good performance of the add-on at longer range may well be down to the scope not letting enough light reach the camera because the image, even with the scope magnification reduced to it's minimum, was still blurred and laggy
The LED illuminator doesn't improve on the PARDs built in illuminator.
If the built in illuminator can't produce a decent image, then don't bother trying an additional LED illuminator - an SRX or equivalent laser illuminator will be needed to see any further.
If you're fortunate enough to own a Drone pro, then you can increase it's performance simply by using an SRX or equivalent laser.
The elephant in the room of course is price - a Drone pro or ENV10 as it's now known, costs over £2k new and used Drone pro x10s typically go for £1400-£1600.
The NV 008 costs around £500 and the 007 about £100 less
You could buy around 4 or 5 PARDs for the price of a Drone Pro, and although the Drone Pro is clearly better, it's not 4 or 5 times better
The NV008 is going back on my 22 rimfire where I'm sure it will account for plenty bunnies, both day and night.

Cheers

Bruce
 
Bruce, cheers for doing the test on NV setups :thumb: I was going to post up asking the question if the Solaris SRX would be a good upgrade over my Armasight ir on my 15x Drone.
Now I think you have answered my question.
Regards
Martin.
 
Some great work there Jimmy, thanks. Just out of interest, what kind of measurable performance increase to you get from adding the SRX to the PARD 007? Just wondering how much further the image is considered good and clear over the onboard illuminator.
 
Some great work there Jimmy, thanks. Just out of interest, what kind of measurable performance increase to you get from adding the SRX to the PARD 007? Just wondering how much further the image is considered good and clear over the onboard illuminator.
I was out last night with excellent conditions and using the SRX I could see rabbits at 365 yards (CRS LRF) with the Pard 007 on the back of a Hawke Endurance WA.
 
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Some great work there Jimmy, thanks. Just out of interest, what kind of measurable performance increase to you get from adding the SRX to the PARD 007? Just wondering how much further the image is considered good and clear over the onboard illuminator.

I would say at least 200m.

80-100m standard with 300m+ in good conditions with a decent laser.
 
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The PARD would be my choice for what you want every time. Like all add ons you can revert to your normal day scope instantly. I've used the PARD now for a year and because of its size, it really is very versatile. If you are using a dedicated night shooting rifle then a photon or one of the other permanent scopes is fine, whether they do a better job than the PARD for night shooting is debatable, certainly, they won't be as good as your day scope during daylight hours.
 
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I have a dedicated night rifle (Tikka .17 hmr) I was going to buy a Pard NV 008, but money was a bit tight and a friend offered me a second hand Photon XT for £200.

The Photon works very well, I use an external IR to save batteries, but does do the job.
 
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