Pulsar Axion XM30s Initial Thoughts

[DVS1]

Managed to upgrade my Quantum LIte XQ30 to the above named unit and thought I'd chuck up some thoughts after using it in the field...once

The unit is nice and small, palm sized and feels robust in the hand, to be honest it feels heavier than the Quantum Lite with 4x aa battery's inside! That's not a negative point but more reassuring that if dropped it should survive.

Battery - make sure its pressed home well otherwise the battery will slide out the housing and drop to the deck! Fortunately I did this while playing with the unit over a soft landing, I also wonder if possible to place a finger on the battery release button during the dark and letting said battery fall into the gloom! think I'll use some 100mph tape across the rear of the battery to ensure this never happens.

Battery life is not as good as I expected, admittedly I only charged the battery until the 4 lights lit and stayed solid and it was a chilly night but then it gave me about 2.5-3hrs. No WiFi connections, recorded a few small clips for familiarity, and was using the unit almost constantly searching for the elusive fox prior to fog coming down and calling an end to the night. Spare battery now ordered! It would be nice to see a battery cassette adaption to allow a 18650 battery to be used and therefore prolong life but the pulsar wouldn't get the financial gain from selling batteries eh

Magnification- I'm used to 2.5 on the XQ30 and the 4.5x base mag on the XM30s for my shooting permissions is a bit high, I'd like to see a lower base mag and 18x upper mag is practically useless as I struggle to accept anyone can identify anything on such a high mag with pixelling. So a 2.5-10 would be more than acceptable still i reckon.

Buttons are placed nicely for fingers and will take some time to get to know as its like playing a piano in the dark and your option will time out before you quit fannying about trying to find the right one.

Picture quality compared to the XQ30 is excellent! Smoother, finer detail, a big boost up the ladder for picture quality for sure!

Just a few thoughts which I hope helps prospective buyers lads

 

[Rewulf]

You did well to get 2.5 hours out of one of those batteries to be honest.
Picture quality isnt bad , but compare it to some cheaper non Pulsar products, and it makes you wonder if Pulsars thing about higher magnifications are that good an idea ?
Having said that they sell well enough, but my experience with my XM30s and Digex , was not very satisfying.
Dont want to sound like an old record , but Xeye stuff performs far better in the field for similar money.

 

[DVS1]

Not heard of Xeye, will go do some searching, but your thoughts on high mag are right in the world of thermal its not truly needed and isn't of much use

 

[Pellet Pinger]

You did well to get 2.5 hours out of one of those batteries to be honest.

Really? My old Key 30 would run for over 5 hours easily, I walk my perms with it permanently on around my neck, I’d get more if I could be bothered to use the standby mode.

 

[RM100]

I’ve got a second battery, really like this machine. I have compared it to the Quantum Lite (miles better) as well as AQ38, which is very slightly ether but also more expensive.

 

[slider]

I upgrade from a quantum 30 lite to an axion XQ38. Base mag of the 38 is 3.5x and it does take a bit of getting used too but pictures quality is in a different league, especially in wet conditions.

getting 4 hours+ out of a battery
.

 

[slider]

You did well to get 2.5 hours out of one of those
Dont want to sound like an old record , but Xeye stuff performs far better in the field for similar money.

until the Xeye battery runs out then you have to phaff about with an external battery and a USB lead.

And once the non replacement battery gets older and looses power you are stuffed

 

[Rewulf]

Between 6 and 8 hours for Xeye batteries, how long do you want to stop out for?

Xeye batteries can be replaced too, at a cheaper cost than buying a Pulsar one.
At the end of the day, I'm not trying to sell you one, if you think Pulsars are great, that's fine, but there are alternatives, and in my view, better ones.

 

[Coleman21d]

My xm30s runs for between 3 - 4 hours on a battery. I either charge in the car as I move between perms or use a power bank when low.

I thought the mag, at 4.5x, wasn’t great when I first got it but now I’m used to it, it’s no bother really.

 

[Manuel]

Managed to upgrade my Quantum LIte XQ30 to the above named unit and thought I'd chuck up some thoughts after using it in the field...once

The unit is nice and small, palm sized and feels robust in the hand, to be honest it feels heavier than the Quantum Lite with 4x aa battery's inside! That's not a negative point but more reassuring that if dropped it should survive.

Battery - make sure its pressed home well otherwise the battery will slide out the housing and drop to the deck! Fortunately I did this while playing with the unit over a soft landing, I also wonder if possible to place a finger on the battery release button during the dark and letting said battery fall into the gloom! think I'll use some 100mph tape across the rear of the battery to ensure this never happens.

Battery life is not as good as I expected, admittedly I only charged the battery until the 4 lights lit and stayed solid and it was a chilly night but then it gave me about 2.5-3hrs. No WiFi connections, recorded a few small clips for familiarity, and was using the unit almost constantly searching for the elusive fox prior to fog coming down and calling an end to the night. Spare battery now ordered! It would be nice to see a battery cassette adaption to allow a 18650 battery to be used and therefore prolong life but the pulsar wouldn't get the financial gain from selling batteries eh

Magnification- I'm used to 2.5 on the XQ30 and the 4.5x base mag on the XM30s for my shooting permissions is a bit high, I'd like to see a lower base mag and 18x upper mag is practically useless as I struggle to accept anyone can identify anything on such a high mag with pixelling. So a 2.5-10 would be more than acceptable still i reckon.

Buttons are placed nicely for fingers and will take some time to get to know as its like playing a piano in the dark and your option will time out before you quit fannying about trying to find the right one.

Picture quality compared to the XQ30 is excellent! Smoother, finer detail, a big boost up the ladder for picture quality for sure!

Just a few thoughts which I hope helps prospective buyers lads

Thanks for the feedback. I am thinking of the same piece of equipment.
But there is also Hikvision. It has a 25mm and a 35mm, which are interesting. Especially the 35mm is equal with the Pulsar XP50.

 

[Jeff8861]

A couple of us have just compared 2x 35mm hiks with exeye e3max. After 300 yards the exeye was a better unit 10hrs from the battery compared to 4. Plenty of footage of the e3max v2 on Facebook and YouTube. Both the hik and iray have a clearer image than the axion xm30 and xm38

 

[Manuel]

A couple of us have just compared 2x 35mm hiks with exeye e3max. After 300 yards the exeye was a better unit 10hrs from the battery compared to 4. Plenty of footage of the e3max v2 on Facebook and YouTube. Both the hik and iray have a clearer image than the axion xm30 and xm38

Xeye still doesn't convince me. I like to see a decent website and a place where is produced. Hikvision has something like this. Pulsar also.
I noticed that Hikvision has just put on the market the Hikmicro Lynx Pro LH25, with a 25mm lens. The image is almost identical with Hikvision Owl 35mm (the 25mm Lynx has 12µm pixels and the 35mm Owl has 17µm pixels).
The price for the 25mm Lynx is equal to the one for Pulsar XM30s