ATN has solved one of the challenges facing Thermal Imaging today: making a powerful and tough imager that’s also compact. The new ATN Odin Thermal Imagers satisfy all three of these. They’re Tactical Thermal Imagers that are the exact same size, weight and shape as ATN’s extremely popular PVS-14 Night Vision Monoculars. That’s a perfect size for either handheld or weapon-mounted use. Soldiers and police officers all over are enjoying this quality, but soon they’ll be able to do more because the Odin Thermal Imaging Monoculars will give them that same great size!
Thermal Imagers are pretty serious hardware, with a ton of great uses for hunting, home security, tactical operations and more. While there are some good units on the market today that aren’t too big, it’s a challenge to find a compact unit that give good performance and can withstand a degree of abuse. We’ve been blown away time and again by ATN’s ThOR Thermal Imagers, which we covered at SHOT Show and a few more times over the past year right here on GearExpert. They have a ton of features to make them useful for many situations, and we love that. The one drawback from having all these features is that they force the units to be a bit bigger and heavier. This isn’t really a big deal in many instances, but if you want to use the thermal imager with headgear it might be a bit too heavy.
The Odin doesn’t have this problem. It’s designed to work very much like the PVS-14, with a number of different ways to mount it, either on a firearm or on headgear. All these mounting options played a big part in making the PVS-14 so popular. You get a ton of great performance without being weighed down or constricted. Having a thermal imager with the same potential is huge.
Whatever you mounted your PVS-14 on you can Mount Your Odin!
What makes the Odin even cooler is that ATN designed it to complement the PVS-14. If you already have one of these great night vision units and the various helmet mounts, headgear or weapon mounts, you can use the same equipment with the Odin. That’s HUGE! I love that. Let’s be honest: you put a fair bit of time into getting your gear just right, whether that be through sighting in a scope or adjusting headgear to your particular head. Not only that, you also train with that gear. You get used to a particular feel and performance, and how well you perform is largely based on your muscle memory and how well you can do something without thinking about it. That’s the whole point of training, so if you get used to working in the dark with a night vision device that fights or works in one way, then have to switch it up and get a totally different feel, you probably won’t perform at the same level. Granted, thermal imagers don’t do the same thing as night vision, but you’ll still be on familiar ground if you’re using a similar system.
ATN proved the quality of their designs with the PVS-14, so you’re already more than capable of trusting their performance. Add in some truly phenomenal thermal imaging technology and you have one of the most exciting new products to be released this year! If you’re not sure if the Odin is right for you, or maybe you’re looking for something else from ATN and can’t decide. Check out my earlier post on ATN’s new Interactive Night Vision Catalog. It has a ton of great info for selecting night vision. And make sure you get your night vision at the web’s best source: OpticsPlanet.com!
About Brian
Avid outdoorsman, writer, shooter and amateur astronomer with experience working with and explaining rifle scopes, binoculars, red dot sights, night vision and more. He appreciates it when you LIKE his posts!
Comments
Since the Odin-14 can be mounted behind a Eotech like the PVS-14 and you’ll see the Eotech crossshairs?
Also, since it says that it uses most of the accessories for the PVS-14, can you also use the snap on 3x lense on the Odin just like the PVS-14?
Any info on those two questions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!