scoot wrote:After years of contemplation and internet trawling I'm trying to finally decide on a thermal. I'm pretty sure I want 640res wich obviously bumps the price. Brinny's suggestions of gsic gear look awesome but I've also recently noticed some iray stuff hitting the aus market a fair bit cheaper. I was particularly interested in the rico rh50. To my untrained eye specs look good albeit with a smaller fov than most. Pulsars issues I read about have scared me off spending my money there. I'm a bad enough shot without poi changes. Does anyone have an opinion????. I'm no pro shooter by any stretch but I want my now limited hunting opportunities to be aided by good gear that gets results. At the same time we all like to save a bit of cash where we can. As usual most internet info is taken with a grain of salt but the little info I can find on the rh50 seems positive.
Hi Scoot,
Just found this thread, I'm Ben from HTN and thought I'd give you some feedback on the Infiray devices. Firstly I'll declare my interest as a dealer so you can take what I say with a grain of salt, but I also sell a wide variety of scopes, I am not a distributor of these devices, just a reseller.
In terms of image quality, the Infiray is leaps ahead of anything currently on the market. Their sensor is simply stunning, the ability to hold image retention while zooming isn't something I've seen in consumer grade scopes before (I used to work for Lockheed Martin, I've seen some pretty cool things in my time). Its construction is solid, but it has a few quirks. There is an o-ring around the battery that can cause some jamming issues if you are not careful when putting the battery in.
The software interface is pretty good but again, its not as refined as an ATN or Pulsar menu system. There are less controls over brightness and contrast as the software optimises this for the conditions, and it does a pretty decent job actually. There are things I'd like to see improved in the software, but they are minor things.
The mounts that come with them are typical consumer grade factory mounts, they work, but being quick detach people automatically think "return to zero", I wouldn't call them RTZ if you are switching between rifle platforms and having to adjust base tension. I don't have a way to set the torque on the base as it requires a bit that I don't have for my torque wrench. I use BoBro mounts on mine and they work a treat.
Reliability, they've been great so far. My primary scope is a RL42 (I do contract shooting in Melbourne), and personally I think its the best of the bunch. The only time its a bit to tight for me is when I am on deer jobs and I'm shooting at around 50 meters as it has a base magnification of 4x. For my rabbit jobs I use a Night Tech MS42 with a 2x base magnification anyway.
How they stack up long term, thats to be seen. Infiray have a long history of developing thermal sensors and also being a manufacturing partner for many other brands on the market. Yes they are Chinese, but so is my iPhone and MacBook which are world leading products, when I was young everything was Jap Crap, now Japanese is the seen as the highest quality.
But like Pulsar, ATN and many others, these are consumer grade products, they are designed to stand up to about a 300WM, how they go long term especially on AR platforms needs to be seen. If you want something that isn't ever going to fail and you don't need the best image quality in the world, then GSCI in Australia is the best answer. Personally I think to many people get caught up on having the best picture quality over reliability, like how good does it have to look if you can identify and shoot it?
Having said all that, I think the RL42 at $4400 is by far the best valued scope on the market, its insane for what it is. The image quality and image retention while zooming is off its head. I personally don't see the extra 2k in value in going to the RH50. Yes you'll get a better picture, but you won't suffer with the RL42, I've neck shot sambar deer from 195 meters in the drizzle with it on base magnification. It's a stunning little scope.
I've got my GSCI scopes on order, thanks largely to Ian pushing me in that direction and I personally can't wait to get one in the field to test as well.