Affordable innovations for civilians and law enforcement - ATN Thermal Imaging OTS-X-F314 Monocular, 320x240, 14mm, 30Hz

Compact Thermal Optics are a new and coming wave of technology getting into the hands of hunters and law enforcements. The ability to see game in a field full of grass and trees and law enforcements being able to detect hiding suspects are very advantageous. I picked this up and was impressed how it came. The OTS came in a Pelician type case, well protected. The OTS is able to see clearly during day or night and detect temperature difference. I got this optic to be able to detect people and animals during day or night and it worked great! Even though this is uncooled version I am still able to make out objects from a distance clearly. Facial recognition is not great with uncooled. A neat feature is it has multiple mods of different color shades, but what I find the most usable is the black/white or white/black mod.

Couple complains I have are the battery life and the type. The battery is expensive and will only last about 1-2 hours of usage. Also the OTS requires MANUAL calibration everytime its turned on. Not sure why it can't have automatic to save the time. There is no dedicated lanyard loop which should be an important feature. Dropping this $4,000 optic would be tragic. They do provide a lanyard that needs to be looped around the body, not the most stable but works. The lens cap has no retain strap and can easily be lost or bumped off. If they could have the feature of a PVS-14 that would be great like running AA batteries, lanyard loop, lens cap cover that's looped.

I've own many ATN products in the past and most are very disappointing where they break with no abuse or use and just goes out. Supposedly there's been changes at ATN and the products are suppose to be improved and better customer service. Hopefully I'm not having to gamble on this purchase.

I have only used this optic for an hour or so and I'll see how this unit holds up. I'd be pissed if this product just dies without abuse and become a $4,000 paper weight.

After longer usage I will probably do a Youtube review or calguns review. I'm user kel-tec-innovations on calguns if you have questions.

There are other thermal optics to consider that has SD cards to take pictures and video outputs for video recording. But overall for the most compact package ATN OTS-X is the best in the category.
Pros: Compact, affordable
Cons: Battery type, battery life 1-2 hours, lanyard loop

This review was written in the old system and had content requirements that are different than reviews written today.