One of the more interesting technologies available at SHOT was some of the thermal imaging equipment. I had the pleasure of visiting the Armasight booths (they had a couple of locations due to some logistical issues with booth assignment). The main booth had a huge monitor plugged into the “video out” of one of the scopes and was imaging the crowd. It was pretty sharp–I started looking around for the shimmering invisibility of Predators… 🙂

The two biggest releases they had were “Pro” models of their Zeus and Apollo lines of weapon sights. While I realize that the price of thermal imaging weapon sights is out of reach of most of us, it was pretty cool to see how advanced this tech is becoming.

The Zeus is a dedicated sight that mounts on a standard picatinny rail. It has an SVGA 800×600 OLED Display that can be configured with a number of selectable palettes (white hot/black hot/sepia/OEM Custom). The sight will operate on 123A or AA batteries. It comes in a number of available options (2-8×30, 4-16×50, 8-32×100 for lower resolution 336×256; and 1-8×30, 2-16×50, 4-32×100 at 640×512 resolution). And it also has built in Bluetooth to interface with most smart phones (current and future applications).

The Apollo is a “clip-on” sight that can be used (mounted forward) with existing optics. It has basically the same features as the Zeus and comes with 50mm or 100mm lenses (with either 336×256 or 640×512 resolutions). The make a number of scope mounting systems that will pair with different objective diameters.

In addition to the internal features like a compass, ballistic drop reticule, and inclinometer, both sights have a number of add-ons (available for most of their products) that enhance their utility. The three most useful are a range finder (which displays range inside the viewer), digital recorder, and extended battery pack. All of the add-ons attach through the video port. A really sexy option that was mentioned was use of the video port to pipe a map overlay in.

Range finder

Battery pack (with pigtail so other accessories can coexist)

Digital video recorder

They do sell international versions (which are the lower frequency range models). Both sights can be had for between $5k and $10k (which is a bit out of my budget; the Seek Thermal is more my speed right now). I’m guessing this is a normal price range for this tech, though.

I’m assuming a few of you may have thermal imaging sights. Has anyone had an experience with Armasight’s products? What do you think of them?

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