Starting off in the world of thermal.

[gloucestershireDan]

Yeah sorry Dan, it's sold. Keep an eye out on the classifieds on here though, a nice xm30 key might come up for good money and honestly I wouldn't go back to anything less than a 30mm lens.

No worries thanks for the speedy response

 

[Blackwood Outdoors]

Quality at shorter ranges will be nominal differences, it's when you stretch there legs the the bigger objectives will become apparent.

Exaclty .

Testing a Guide Nano 25 or TrackIR25 against an Axion Key or XM30S the guide looks better upto 80-100yds with a wider field of view but after that the 12 micron 320 crop sensor has more detection range at distance resulting in a better foxing setup than the 17 micron 400 res 25mm Guide, even though the Guide is more than capable for foxing out to 250yds+, the Axion XM30 is a better longer distance tool, comparable to the Helion XQ38 at distance past 150yds in all fairness...

The 15mm FIXED focus HIK will not be great regardless of the people pushing them, they may have gained popularity due to the shortage of major brands available , but you cannot defy the laws of physics a small fixed focus lens will not be amazing... the fixed focus 12 micron Axion XM22 offers more detection range and is a better long range option with replaceable battery , although once again the higher resolution sensor will always look good up close in comparison to these, which is what confuses some people I'm sure ..

 

[User00036]

As above, last year I went out with a friend who has a helion 38mm and I was impressed he could see things in day or night that I was completely unaware of. I decided I still didn't need one or could justify the money for one until this year when it got the better of me!
I went out and bought a hikvision 6mm thermal at £479 thinking all I needed to do was scan,find heat sources and bino them to find what I was seeing a heat source from. This works well tbf and I was happily searching fields and woodland picking up heat from all-sorts. All was good until I went out with my mate again and we compared how sharp the images were......it all went to sh*t. Obviously his helion would show a crisper image but what I didn't expect was that sheep at 200yds were basically invisible to the hikvision whereas through his I could pick them out instantaneously, and when I looked back through the hik I could then just about make out a heat signature from them.
Safe to say my hikvision wasnt the best purchase for long range stalking and it more suited to woodland airgunning where it will, without question source squirrels and rabbits with it having a 1x basemag that's basically what it was probably designed to do......so it's sat in the drawer and I've just had a xm30s delivered from Edinburgh rifles last week. GAME CHANGER. It's sharp, picks heat sigs up from God knows how far away and has multiple modes to choose from Inc colours. Removable battery (it needs it too!), ordered a lanyard from a chap on here as the hand strap is fine if your not carrying rifle and sticks already.
Here is a critter from 70yd away the other night, got that close in on it I got a photo with my phone but the xm30s picked it up and was glowing red like a beacon.

Moral, save up and buy what you need for the kind of shoots you do, should have just bought a pulsar to start with . Mon a different note the hikvision will be coming up for sale on here soon, once I've boxed it back up etc.....

Ah yes, the dreaded stick legged devil mouse, you were lucky to spot it before it manifested itself!