Pulsar Quantum HD19A 1-2x16 Thermal Imaging Monocular

I bought this to scope for any owls/coyotes when I let my gf's useless little dog out at night when we are camping. It's such a useless dog. It's a very useful product. It's fun to just creep yourself out with too. Walking through the woods at night. It's like you really don't actually want to see any bright white (or pitch black depending on setting obviously). In all seriousness I have spotted a few birds of prey in advance and potentially saved the dog. I have also come across warm bear scat and that was a use I never even thought of. It's a good product. Eventually an HDMI port really should replace my dad's port. Still good though.

I purchased one last year for hog and varmint hunting. In some ways, I really like it, but it doesn't do what some of the reviews of thermal scopes suggest they will do. Day or night, it will highlight birds and squirrels or larger animals (or humans) at 100 yards or so. 500 yards? I think that's a reach unless it is under perfect conditions. It could find a hot truck engine at the range but probably not a person. It is suggested that it can see animals through brush where a regular scope or night vision device would not. That may be true if it's close, the target is big and the brush is then. My other problem is that this things just eats batteries. Don't count on being out all night with one. Even with the spare battery pack, I wouldn't count on more than about 4 hours. From inside a vehicle with an external power supply, it might be useful (if the heat of the vehicle didn't interfere). Use rechargeable batteries, and get 3000 milliamps if you can find them. I'd rather have it than not have it, but if I had used in the field for a few days, I would probably bought another unit, even if it added another thousand to the cost. It's advantages are that in total darkness, it will work without giving off an IR signature as required by most NV devices. It is also not effected by smoke or fog.

I'm still amazed everytime I look through this unit, excellent value for the money. Purchased for coyote hunting and I couldn't be more pleased. Works very well picking up any heat, birds, mice, you name it. I wouldn't go without it now. You can expect to see several hundred yards in the pitch dark no problem.

I was going back and forth between this and the FLIR but decided on this because of the interchangeable batteries. Opens up a whole new world especially at night.

I was considering a Scout PS32 to upgrade from my PS24. I thought I’d see what’s “out there” first, and I’m very glad I did. The resolution is 2.56 times more than the PS24’s 240x180 pixels, and even higher than the PS32’s 320x240 pixels. It operates at 30hz instead of the Scout series herky-jerky 9 hz. It’s every bit as detailed as watching a black & white TV set at standard def. (480P) I thought the 2x function would make for pixelated viewing, but it’s as clear as the normal 1x view. The 1x isn’t quite that, more like maybe 0.9x, so it doesn’t have “paper towel tube” syndrome. I really like the knob on the front, my finger lands on it naturally as I hold the scope. Looking up into trees with a sky background, then down into foliage or structures can confuse the can’t-control-it Flir making things hard to see, but rolling the contrast knob on this scope immediately brings out the full detail again. A click on the same knob changes it to brightness mode, but 98% of the time you’ll need contrast as you look into different temperature zones. The controls are easy to figure out. Startup isn’t bad, around 10 to 12 seconds. (Most thermal scopes take time to boot up) I like the included extra battery carrier, but you do have to pay attention to unconventional spring arrangements. The coil springs are on the positive terminal in some positions, so load up batteries where you have good light. Changing them is very easy though, the release knob looks like a machined billet like any gun’s magazine release, and the battery pack takes a few seconds to replace even in the dark. I don’t know why complaints on battery life, I’ve used mine for a couple-three hours and the battery meter hasn’t moved yet. That’s with cheap dollar store alkaline AA’s too. Use 2,300 mAH NiMi’s and you’ll be golden. It also includes a very nice ballistic camera type case, with extra battery pack, hand strap, video output cable, and vehicle cord. The vehicle cord is pretty short, so you might have problems aiming out the window if the cigarette lighter socket is down on the console. This isn’t my first or even only thermal imaging scope. I fall down laughing every time I see a 1 star review because you have to roll down a window to see with it, or someone complains because they can’t see thru windows. Thermal imaging CANNOT SEE THRU GLASS. Google why it can’t yourselves, but IR blocking is a major reason your car heats up in the sun and/or why greenhouses stay warm in the winter. It’s also a major reason why thermal scopes are expensive: the lenses are made of germanium, which pass the region of IR these scopes “see” in. That region is shifted quite a ways from the visible spectrum, and that’s why you can use thermal day or night, looks very little different other than sun heating objects during the daytime. The only thing this scope lacks is Flir’s Instalert (hot items marked in red) feature, but it’s far superior in every other way, so I doubt I’ll ever miss it. Besides that, too many times I’d see a red object and look closer only to realize it’s just a sun heated rock and not an animal as first thought. The manual and semi manual calibration is nice, otherwise it’ll do it at inopportune times. (All thermal scopes close a shutter and recalibrate every couple minutes be they a home inspection camera or rifle scope) The external shutter is handy, no lens cap to lose. Turning the ring on the lens closes a “ying-yang” looking shutter to protect that uber-expensive germanium lens.

This is a excellent thermal scope and you will not be disappointed!