New Night Vision Setup

I just received the newest of the SightMark line. It's the Photon Riflescope. I picked it up from one of my distributors to demo. I wanted to see how it performed in the field. It's a digital night vision sight so the quality's supposed to be comparable to a gen 2+. I plan on putting it they it's paces this coming weekend. I'll post the results here when I'm thru. Here's some pics to give you a hint as to what it looks like.9

Looking forward to seeing how it does. If it is at a good price point and works there are a number of us looking.

tallwalker said:

Looking forward to seeing how it does. If it is at a good price point and works there are a number of us looking.

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I second that!

If it works as well as I'm thinking it will then I'll probably put together a group buy on them. I will update when I'm finished. It'll probably be Monday.

As far as the price point. These units sale for ( 3.5x40)$499-$549 (5x40) $599-$649. I'd be able to do better than that if there was enough interest.

Most of what I have looked at seem to be grouped into 2 categories in terms of useful range - 100yds or so and out ($$$$ and additional IR illumination or laser), or less than 100yds (with onboard illumination) and not clear enough to tell a rabbit from a raccoon. Then there's the problem of whether it's gated or not in case you goof up. The digital stuff shows some promise, but so far they haven't been much more than cool toys. I hope you put it through the Jake test and give us your opinion. Been waiting for something to use that won't fall apart before it's paid off!

All right, here we go.
I was able to get this thing out this weekend and run it for a little while. It has good clarity and has a crisp sight picture. I will add that in a thick wooded environment you will need to turn the illumination off because of glare off of closer objects (leaves, bushes, trees,ect.). I was able to use out to 115yds in a field clearing on Friday evening ( it wasn't as bright as Saturday evening. And the wooded areas were a bit of a challenge on the dark night because of me not using the illumination. The next night was brighter and I was able to see good without the IR illumination (out to 40+yds). One of the only cons that I had was the LCD screen is a little bright and will give some night blindness to the eye that you're using to shoot/spot with. It takes about 20 to 30 seconds to get that eye back accustomed to the darkness. I turned the brightness down and it got a little bit better. I had this same issue with an ATN GEN 2+ that I used to run.
It was dry with low humidity and I only tested for 4 hours each night so I wasn't able to get a long turn test done, but it seemed to do its job really well. The retail on the unit that I tested is around $500 and for the results that I got I was extremely satisfied.
I will be putting together a group buy on these. So do your research and see if you want one. They make a 5x and a 3.5x. The unit tested was a 3.5x and you can get a 2x magnified covered lens that threads on the front of it. I will start another thread for the group buy. I'll be putting this together during this week.

Thanks for the hands on. Seems to me that the included illumination on most of the ones I have looked at are way too wide and almost non adjustable creating all that flare. I guess you really have to expect to spend the money on a really good ir torch. Did you find that you were able to bring the display brightness down enough without loosing all your contrast? One of my gripes has been NO brightness control at all.

The onboard illumination is sufficient for the hunting that I do. The only time I had any issue is when the leaves or bushes were close (within 10yds) and I was trying to look out past them. The brightness is easily adjusted and you get a little bit of image washout when you get too low but it's just a matter of what you want. I payed $1200 for my last gen 2+ sight and this one is of the same quality.

Can you pick up the reticle with ease, I don't see that it's illuminated.
Just wondering if it stands out or how much it blends with the target.

This unit does come with an illuminated reticle. The way that the reticle is set up I really didn't need to turn on the illumination on it.

Thanks for the review. Read about these and was interested about the quality. I still have a heavy gen 2 nv unit that a "nice guy" sold me some time back.
I have recently been able to use some Nice $$$ after dark equipment and while thermal is the ultimate thrill ride, I like to use thermal spotting and NV on the gun. Used a Pulsar unit also and was not that impressed with it. I would like to see through one of these though. Might be the ticket for close quarter hunting.

If you'd like to demo this one I think I could arrange it for you. Since I'm a "NICE GUY". Lol.

Group buy posted in the Group Buy section.