Atn x-sight review by anonymous wolverine

[Grumpy Wolverine]

PRODUCT REVIEW: ATN X-SIGHT HD
Last week I had the opportunity to try out the new ATN Digital Day/Night scope. With the numerous features that come standard with this unit I have a hard time calling it just a scope. It is a Camera, Video recorder, Wi-Fi router, compass, altimeter, speedometer (of sorts), night vision and gyro scope. While I didn't have a chance to test all the features I did have a chance to take it to an indoor range and test it out in the field.

FIRST THE INDOOR RANGE.

I mounted the unit on my Ruger 10/22 and headed to the local indoor range, as the temperature outside was around -25 C it was an Ideal location to test the optic without freezing. Installing the scope on my rifle and syncing it up with my phone I was off to the races. I was very impressed with the ease of setting the zero. If you have a gun vise or a stable bipod you can zero the scope with just a few rounds.

After I was happy with the zero I took advantage of the lack of windows (and other shooters) and turned out the lights. at 50 meters the targets were well lit with the IR illuminator. I had no trouble making out details down range.

(side note)- This is when I realized that I had forgot to bring my Micro SD card. As the sight itself does not come with any internal memory for recording video or pictures, it relies on the user to remember these things.

I was so impressed with the results I decided to try to shoot unsupported. This was a mistake, as the sight is digital there is a bit of lag between what the device "sees" and what it displays, if I had to guess I would say about .25-.5 seconds. Lesson learned, shoot from the bench. After a bit more shooting I packed her up and when home smiling. I was very excited to get her out in the field.

THEN THE FIELD TEST.

The weather finally warmed up enough for me to brave the cold Manitoba nights. The conditions were Ideal for night shooting. There was a clear star lit sky with a full moon overhead and a nice reflective blanket of snow on the ground. The outside temperature was only -8 C.

For this test I decided to mount the sight on my Remington 700P .308 Winchester.

This time I had remember to install the micro SD card and was able to record my findings, or so I thought(I'll get into more of this later on).

With my brother helping me we set up a target on a bale about 100 yards out. I'm afraid it all went downhill from there. After changing out the batteries, as the ones I put in a few days before were all but spent, I took aim. The focal range on this sight is extremely touchy. In the night vision mode you have to adjust the focus every few feet as everything in the foreground and background is all but indistinguishable if you do not. To make matters more difficult the IR illuminator is mounted on the left hand side of the sight right where the focus ring is located. For a right hand shooter like myself it makes it very awkward to get to. After a bit of shifting and going to left hand to get the focus I took my first shot. The display in the scope went dark for a few seconds and then slowly came back in daytime mode first then back into night vision. Below is a screen shot from of video I was able to record of the clarity of the sight.


(100 YARDS OUT)

After a few more shots we had to call it a night, after about a hour of shooting the battery indicator started to flash.
CONCLUSION:

While I had a lot of fun with this unit at the indoor range I must admit the practical application of the night vision is limited. If you wanted to use this sight for varmint control you would have to do a lot of prep work and stage an area to call them in. With the difficulty focusing in on your target and the requirement for both you and your target to be stationary it would be difficult if not impossible to take a running shot. With that being said I will say that this is very promising concept and it would be a shame for it to stop here. I believe with some more development this would give traditional night vision a run for its money.

PROS	CONS
Ability to stream display to devices	Focus range is limited -auto focus would be ideal
Digital display eliminates parallax	Lag in the display between movement of the scope and display
Lots of bonus features Like being able to choose your reticle pattern.	Software needs updates Does not always shutdown correctly -has a tendency to freeze
Day and Night scope	Hard on batteries
Ability to record save and play HD video	When zeroing, if the reticle is too far away from center you lose the ability to zoom
	With digital zoom the picture get pixilated at the high end
	Controls for the zoom are not sensitive
	Paper manual has very little information regarding operation.
PROVISO: I would like to point out that when I tested this sight I was focusing mostly on the night vision aspect, after the initial zeroing I spent most of my attention on what it can do in low light/ no light conditions. Being advertized as a Day/Night scope. I do not feel that I have fully tested the sight with the day time hunting/target shooting aspects. I will leave that to a future review.

[wildphil24]

Thanks for the honest review.
It's nice to see you don't only advertise products but can provide honest feedback.

I wonder if the Elcan digital hunter has the same lag on display.

[Grumpy Wolverine]

Thanks for the honest review.
It's nice to see you don't only advertise products but can provide honest feedback.

I wonder if the Elcan digital hunter has the same lag on display.

IN all fairness, after applying the newest firmware it does seem to have addressed a lot of said issues. So we are hoping Ryan will take it back out and give us another update.

[Scarheart]

After doing some Googling I couldn't find anything on the refresh rate of this unit. Many of the civi ones especially in this price range are 30 hz and you need 60 hz to get a fast enough refresh rate to help cut out the lag. Of course for a lot more money.

[Astute Observer]

Like being able to choose your reticle pattern.

Now that gets my interest back. Are they bringing out additional reticles? (e.g. mildot?)

[Grumpy Wolverine]

Now that gets my interest back. Are they bringing out additional reticles? (e.g. mildot?)

no idea, haven't heard what all the plans are down the road.

[Grumpy Wolverine]

After doing some Googling I couldn't find anything on the refresh rate of this unit. Many of the civi ones especially in this price range are 30 hz and you need 60 hz to get a fast enough refresh rate to help cut out the lag. Of course for a lot more money.

Depending on the resolution you choose, one has a 30Hz and the other is 60hz.