Handy recognition and identification thermal spotter - Pulsar Quantum 38S Thermal Imaging Scope

I have had the Pulsar Quantum HD38s for about a month and have found it to be a very capable thermal monocular for recognition and identification of animals in the field. I already own a FLIR PS32 thermal spotting scope and have found it quite useful, but at 1x with just a 19mm lens and 320x240 resolution at 7 hz. it just does not compare well against the HD38s' 2.1x (optical) magnification, 38mm lens, 384x288 resolution at 30 hz., though the HD38s does currently cost about $800 more than the FLIR. I would argue that the difference in price is worth it for the additional performance.

I used the scope for hog hunting and found that I was able to detect game at longer distances, recognize game at longer distances, and most critically, identify game at longer distances. Using the HD38s to a lot of the confusion out of night hunting for me.

I found the controls easy to use, though aside from playing around with the features, the controls most often used were white/black hot, zoom, and the focus of the objective lens. If the user wants to change brightness, contrast, etc., it is easy to do. There is also an easy menus system for some advanced features.

On 4 Li-ion batteries, I was able to get about 7 hours of use out of the HD38s, and that was with the video-out function turned on (which apparently uses slightly more power), so battery life was good.

Below is a brief video I put together of spotting game with the HD38s.
http://youtu.be/17QOLxNEQMk