I’ve owned both an XP50 and an KG50 Krypton and have now gone back to a Pard 007. Going out foxing is not a hobby for me it’s part of my job and I’m out 4 nights a week. I’m much happier with this set up and have shot more using it. A question I’d ask is why on nearly every Pulsar video is the shooter running the PIP function on the scope….. it’s because the base magnification is to low for our quarry. Using the XG50 was a joke zoom into 6 x on a scope and it’s all but unusable on a fox, a hog in Texas it is probably great. Pulsar need to listen or loose out. I’m aware there are some specialist companies making better thermals with better magnification but I’d not be convinced again. Spot with Accolades shoot with NV.
You make an excellent point on base magnification, I think it’s an important factor to consider if you‘re getting a thermal scope. You have to work out what you’d be happy using in a glass equivalent for your intended use, if it’s mainly short range (woodland, hogs etc) then a baseline mag of around 2x would be great in a glass scope, so you can happily use a range of thermals at their full image quality. If your desired base mag is more in the 6x-10x range ie normal fox shooting magnification, things get a bit more complicated and compromises come in to play.
Currently (people on here more eloquent than I will be able to explain the reasons better), available technology on high end sensors is limited to a resolution of around 640x512 pixels paired to a lens giving a base magnification of 2x-3x depending on make, drop the sensor size down to 380x288 and you can increase the base magnification through the lens size, good design up to 6x7x. much more in line with fox shooting through glass optics
In order for manufacturers to sell their high end sensors (with highly detailed base mag images at 2x) to people wanting more magnification, you have to magnify the image digitally, this halves the resolution of the image for each doubling of the magnification. This means your highly detailed 640x480 XP50 image at 2x base mag becomes a 320x240 image at 4x zoom and a 160x120image at 8x zoom, so if your shooting is normally at 4x or above, you’ll likely be using the same image resolution as a much cheaper scope with higher base mag.
There are lots of things that come into play with clever algorithms, software design, quality components etc that make a big difference between manufacturers and how they manage to create a useable product, but a fairly common route to “mask” some of this degradation in your magnified image is to use PIP, that way you are presenting a smaller image and the quality loss is less noticeable. But effectively, your expensive high resolution scope is only pumping out its amazingly clear image at a relatively low magnification, any magnification is degrading the resolution on the image seen on the viewing screen.
For lots of people, PIP works well and is a good solution, the range that they shoot at means the base mag is more than adequate for quarry, or they aren’t bothered by a full screen fuzzy image, all of which are fine if that works, personally I dont get on with PIP.
Fortunately (until we get high base mag scopes with high resolution sensors) there are solutions available that use the 380x288 sensor at a decent mag (I use a T-Ceptor 55-3, but there’s the Senopex A7 and even the venerable Pulsar XM50) and to me that makes them a better alternative than IR For what I do.