Restored my faith in thermals! - Athlon Optics Cronus ATS 50-640 2.36-18.9x 30mm Tube First Focal Plane Thermal Scope

Athlon gave me this free product to try and review. I had so little expectations about finding a solid thermal. I have product tested a few really prominent brands in the industry, and most had come up lacking. I surely would never choose to purchase the ones that I had tried: until this one! The Cronus ATS Pro 50-640 thermal scope is everything I had ever wanted in a thermal.
I started by taking it out several places along the mountain bench of the Wasatch in Utah, unmounted so that it did not startle anyone. I went to several canyons, a State Park known for wildlife, and several deep canyon sides. I used this scope in a variety of ranges from 200 yards up to the 3500 yard max and it truly did a fantastic job of detecting temperature changes. Granted that at extreme distance, I could not detect what animal I was seeing clearly, but I knew if it was a deer/elk/moose/bison versus a person or a warm rock.
Set up was a piece of cake once I settled on my 300 Black Out. This scope even comes with it's own custom rings for mounting. That made getting this scope secure and level a breeze.
The Wifi/bluetooth connectivity was super easy both at home and on the mountain. I loved sharing this scope test with friends and being able to watch along as they searched the mountain for animals. Using my phone to view allowed me to take still shots or even switch the camera on and record without disturbing the person behind the scope with me. At one point, we had a line of hikers super interested and wanting to look through with me. It was a really fun experience.
The visibility of the scope was amazing. Several that I have tried were so dang bright that I had night blindness for at least a minute after taking my eye away from the scope cup. This Cronus had just enough lighting to be super crisp and clear but not create a blind effect that several other thermals did with me. This in itself was one of the biggest pluses.
The refresh rate is quick and doesn't glitch for an extended period of time. It equates to one second to just instant refresh the view and then it keeps on trucking. I really like the eye cup as well that comes with it. It fits well to the face and really blocks out any interference while keeping you a proper distance from the front of the scope for a well sealed visual with good eye relief.
Not to mention, the magnification is crazy powerful. There is some grainy outlines at distances over 2000 yards, but I would be foolish to expect a perfect picture that far. It did a phenomenal job at what it was designed for, detecting temperature changes. I was super pleased with the performance.
This scope does not have any sense of being delicate or in need of protection. I hiked for miles with this in the snow and mud several times and I was very impressed with the rugged strength of the scope in general. The battery life was exceptional between the internal and external power sources.
Final point is the price point: this tops it all. I have tested 2k scopes and wanted to toss them in the garbage. Then I have worked with 8-10k dollar scopes and I truly feel that this scope parallels the performance and quality of scopes nearly twice it's price. This is a stout purchase, but you will never need another to replace it due to poor performance!