Sharpest image i have seen yet in a thermal scope! - Armasight Apollo-Pro 1x100mm 640x512 30 Hz Thermal Imaging Rifle Scopes

I purchased this and am really pleased with my purchase. It being a demo, it was missing a couple of the rubber light suppressors that are supposed to come with it and you can't get them anywhere else? I did find a substitute eye cup on Amazon so all is well. The picture in the scope is super sharp and very clear, once you figure out just the right "tweaks" to the settings for your particular viewing environment, i.e., high humidity. When I first turned it on and looked through it, I was not THAT impressed as I thought the picture would be better. Then I started doing a little research on thermal imaging cameras and how contrast, SmartScene, and automatic gain control work and after some tweaks to the settings, the picture was more than I had hoped for. Getting used to the automatic gain/SmartScene settings took a few night's viewing to get where I wanted. At first, I was not liking the way the picture "bloomed" when you we scanning and a hot object came into view. Then once I read and article on the Teledyne Flir website titled "Why does a thermal image suddenly turn bright or dark when a new object enters the scene?" it all made sense. It's a little offsetting at first as when an animal (in white hot) comes on scene, everything except the animal kind of gets washed out. Then I realized that the reason is because the camera is auto adjusting the gain to make the ANIMAL sharp and detailed at the expense of the rest of the scene. Most of the thermal hunting videos I've watched don't do this blooming so apparently they have adjusted the settings down to keep it from happening, but I found I really like it now that I understand it. The bottom line is that when looking at mice in my backyard (in white hot) instead of seeing a relatively nice picture with a bright white mouse body that you can only see the form and no details, with the settings adjusted, when I scan and the mouse enters the picture, the scene gets washed out due to the adjusted gain, but the mouse itself is clear, has contrasting details, and and when zooming you can actually still see the mouse and not a bunch of white pixels. Sorry for this being so long but thought it might help someone that buys this scope and then is not satisfied with the view through the scope. Play with the setting and you will fall in love with this thing!

NOTE: Oh yeah, since this is a clip-on, you can't really view through it as a stand alone because the screen is set deep inside of the tube which makes it look very small, because it is made to be place in front of a day scope. And...you can't buy the Armasight 3x magnifier that was made for it for use as a stand alone sight. I ended up buying an extended rail piece so I could attach my Eotech 3x magnifier in front of the scope and that works very well.