Thermal..... Again!

[Fox Hunter]

I was out the other night on a few rabbits for the traps. The thermal was picking up rabbits but some you just couldn't see with the lamp on the gun to take a shot. They were in long grass and extremely well hidden so had to stalk closer, switching to nv sometimes turned out to be snipe. It was handy having a decent spotter to locate the eyes and then on turning off the IR you could see the long beaks. I hadn't done much thermal snipe spotting prior to this but again by the end of the night quite often you could just about work out the difference and tell what was snipe and what was a rabbit with the thermal. It's so much easier when the quarry is out in the open though and not in the rough. I agree with Adam regarding any thermal would do for bait points as its so much easier to ID quarry on the move and it would still pick up heat sources easily. I still dream about that fusion thing so I could have the best of both worlds.

[rodp]

Once thermal starts to take off in the leisure industry (as it is) and the Chinese twig it then prices will drop dramaticaly.

a british thermal company tells me guide is a chinese company

[phoenix]

The ongoing price limitation - which might get worse if they become a mass market product, is the cost of the germanium objective lens.
If someone can come up with a cheap material to replace the germanium lens, then the price will drop quickly.

Cheers

Bruce

[rodp]

If anyone can get round it then it will be the Chinese. The market for thermal could be vast, way larger than nv, and they will move heaven and earth to crack it. Whoever comes up with a useable and affordable thermal system will be very, very wealthy virtually overnight.

Just the security camera market alone will be larger than you could possibly imagine. Just think, how good would it be to spot someone lurking in the bushes waiting for you to put all the lights out and go to bed, or waiting to break into your premises As an add on to existing cctv systems affordable thermal will sell faster than you could produce them.

[PESCA]

The ongoing price limitation - which might get worse if they become a mass market product, is the cost of the germanium objective lens.
If someone can come up with a cheap material to replace the germanium lens, then the price will drop quickly.

Cheers

Bruce

Exactly right, Bruce, it's 100% the limiting factor. At around $2000 per kilo and having to be machined from the solid, not moulded, this is what we're paying a premium for.

The electronics associated with ti will be coming down as more companies get on board. I envisage smaller lenses, enhanced by the electronics and I'm guessing that lower quality lenses will be available which will be be conglomerate germanium (what would previously be regarding as a by product).

And Rod, yes, the Guide is indeed Chinese.

George

[rodp]

I think you're right there George in saying they'll boost the electronics to get round the lens problem, or at least help to get round it along with some other form of lens material. It's not too far away when they'll be sub £500.

Those damned Chinese can be very smart you know, and very, very astute when it comes to making a dollar or two
But, you've got to love them for it, they see a market, corner it and that's it, all over.

[Darren24]

hi all, getting back to my 518ec can any one with same model switch unit on and go into the auto menu and tell me what your offset and gain readings are. I'm not seeing a lot in auto I have to go into semi auto and up the gain to around 150 on a good night, this will be much appreciated as I will then have some ammo to hit the suppliers with. Take tonight as an example switch on unit. Picture was not to bad at first but not at its best, unit calibrated a couple of times and that was it greyed out image. When to semi auto upped the gain to 170 and cauldron see hares at 400 yards (range finder confirmed). Will post some pictures tomorrow. This info will be a great help cheers all.

[Fox Hunter]

I switched mine on earlier and they were constantly varying depending where I pointed it. 300-1000 in the first column and 80-130 in the second. That was in daylight but they are constantly going up and down in auto. I'm off out again tonight for a sit and wait, I'll check again as I've never really paid any attention to the settings.

Not sure if you noticed but you had an offer to compare your guide with another members on a previous page..

[phoenix]

When the Guide is in auto mode, the gain and offset numbers are continually changing depending on the range of temperatures it's detecting at any instant in time.
If there is only a small variation in temperature over the whole sensor then the offset is reduced and the gain is increased to highlight those temperature variations and you get higher sensitivity and can see more detail.
If there's a large temperature variation over the whole sensor, then the offset is increased and the gain is gain is reduced and you get less sensitivity and can see less detail
This latter situation often occurs if you have a lot of sky in the field of view.
The sky is much colder than the land (don't point it at the sun!) so the the sensor sees a wide variation in temperature and has to increase the offset to be able to "span" that wide temperature range. The consequence of increasing the offset is that the gain has to be reduced and you get a situation where you can see the where the sky and the land meet, but you lose most of the detail you could get if the sky was kept out of the field of view.

Cheers

Bruce

[Darren24]

cheers fox hunter keep me informed of these readings mine is no ware near this . toninght switched on offset around 1000 and gain was 17 dont think the gain was fluctuating will check tomorrow. time for sleep now as im cream crackered. just something for every one, i just called a dog fox into 50 yards from out of thermal range half mile may me? purely with a vixon call on my foxpro. ive now done this twice has any one else tryed this. if not ill tell you all how to do it. (top secret)