Good not great - Leupold LTO Tracker Thermal Imaging Monocular

It has been a few months since I purchased it and I have to say I like it. There are some problems with it though. I live in Texas so I haven't been in the field with it much because of the heat. But, I have been out a few times and loaned it out to some friends that hunt year round regardless of the heat. The main problem we have observed is that it's near useless in a hot environment but I guess this is possibly true for all thermals, although I don't know that factually. When it's excessively hot everything is heated up so much by the sun that there is no contrast between a hog and a rock. In other words, Everything is hot so nothing stands out. However, after the sun has been down for a few hours Hogs, deer, cows, etc stand out and with a quick scan you will know something is there. I also do not like that it starts up at 1.5x, there is no focus, and it's not really a binocular in my eyes. Personally, I find the best resolution is at 1x. I get annoyed it doesn't start right back up at whatever zoom you turned it off in. A small issue for sure but worth mentioning. As far as the no focus goes, It seems to or perfectly focused at 1x to me but when you zoom in its a digital zoom with poor resolution so it would be nice to try to re-focus the image to make it as best as possible (unless that is already as good as it's gonna get). Now for it not really being a binocular. It is being sold calling it a monocular but it is more of a small display that you have to look at from a distance. For me I can see it fine from about 8" to arms length. My only problem with that is that it does shine some light and in a tree stand for example could affect the hunt. Although, for us so far we have not had any animals run off because it was turned on to look, but then again we are in a blind. When I ordered it I wasn't aware of this and although I probably still would have gotten it, It may matter to some of you more than others. Now for the good... In the thermal world $600 or less for a thermal is about as cheap as it gets. I have a seek xl also but it requires a phone and has it's own merits but I much prefer the tracker and will be selling the seek. As an actual tracker I don't know how useful it would be but I can tell you what I have tested. Outside in the heat, it's near useless. Pouring hot water on the ground it was only visible for a minute or so. However, inside under much cooler circumstances it lasted much longer and the contrast was much greater. What does this mean to me? I suspect during deer season and the cooler nights it may very well function as a tracker efficiently but not in the heat of the day or even a few hours after nightfall. Although the resolution is poor I think for detection under the cooler conditions in the night this thing is fantastic for spotting game. By that I mean this... even with our gen 1,2, 3, and digital night vision we were unaware of every animal. Sure, we could see a lot but where this thing shined was identifying potential targets in some higher grass or in areas that were reflecting back the IR too much to properly look into the brush. It was great for glassing around to identify that sound you heard or the branch breaking and see what caused it. While it is true that you will not be able to tell a Javalina from a hog or even a deer for that matter at 100 yards what it will do for you is let you quickly scan an area and know where to focus your attention with the Night Vision. For detection purposes this is a great tool, not so much for identification at much further than roughly 40 to 50 yards. Even at that range the object you are looking at is either very small but obvious or if you are zoomed in a blurry blob but still obviously there. When it was cooler at night we could see hogs and deer at 150 yards at the feeder as small specks but couldn't identify either. And again, they were just a small dot on the screen. However, I personally find it useful vs picking up a rifle constantly to scan for something. It's much easier to pick this little guy up and quickly scan the area. I have only been through 1 battery which amounts to a total of about 8 hours between my friends and I. Overall, If your expecting to own the night and identify animals out to 500 yards this isn't the unit for you. But, if you have realistic expectations and know how expensive 640 resolution devices are vs this unit I think you will appreciate this units price vs efficiency. It is not going to compare to a 2 or 3 thousand dollar unit. I know because I also own one of those. But it does have a place in your hunting bag if you know what you are getting into. Don't expect much in the heat and don't expect to identify much at any range although detection is good at most hunting ranges. If you can't afford a few thousand dollars for a higher resolution unit, this is a good compromise your wife or bank account might be able to accept. I hope the information helps.