Welcome back to another Friday Night Lights. Last week we had a new kid on the block, the InfiRay J-31 binocular night vision goggles. Today we take a look at a long-range thermal clip-on, the EOTech ClipIR ELR aka XELR. It is their flagship premium thermal clip-on let’s see how it does.

More Thermal @TFB

• Friday Night Lights: AGM Voyage LRF TB75-640 Thermal Fusion Biocular
• Friday Night Lights: Trijicon/BAE OASYS UTCXII – Long Range Thermal Clip-On
• Friday Night Lights: InfiRay Outdoor RS75 RICO HD 1280 Thermal Scope

ClipIR ELR: Long-Range Thermal Clip-On

We have taken a look at long-range thermal clip-ons. The Trijicon UTC XII is the pinnacle of uncooled LWIR thermal clip-ons but it is pretty pricey. Brand new it is $26k. Pixels On Target makes a VooDoo-M which is similar in performance to the UTC XII. It too is over $20k. So when EOTech brought in the ClipIR ELR, many were excited for a long-range thermal clip-on that boasted similar performance but at half the cost. MSRP is just under $16k. I got this ClipIR ELR on loan from Dallas E. He was kind enough to let me borrow his ClipIR ELR.

The ClipIR ELR comes in a pelican-like hard case with a closed-cell foam insert.

Here is the front of the ClipIR ELR. It has a large objective lens with a plastic lens cover. Do you see the logo molded into the lens cover? That logo is not EOTech. Just like EOTech’s night vision goggles, Theon Sensors made the ClipIR ELR.

The ClipIR ELR has an odd offset shape to it. It reminds me of the FLIR T50 ACTS I used to have.

All the buttons are at the top of the ClipIR ELR. They are pretty straightforward. You have a power button for turning the device on or off. Just above that are the polarity button and NUC button. The ClipIR ELR just has black hot or white hot polarities.  Above those two buttons is the menu button surrounded by a directional pad. Here you can adjust settings like digital zoom, battery, and digital enhancements to the thermal image.

On the right-hand side of the ClipIR ELR body is a data port. Here you can connect the video out cable to this port and record to a DVR.

The rear ocular has a tethered lens cap. But as you saw in the profile image above, the lens cap dangles pretty long.

The ClipIR ELR comes with a Picatinny grabbing mount. Just lift the lever up a little bit to unlock it and swing it out.

To my surprise, the ClipIR ELR is just powered with 4x AA batteries. And has a run time of 10 hours.

The XELR comes with a clamp-on ring of fins to help turn the objective lens to adjust focus. However, the lens cap is held with two rubber keepers and they get in the way of the focus ring. The rubber tethers can get caught up in the fins.

Looking Through The ClipIR ELR

The ClipIR ELR has a sensor that is 640×480. It is an uncooled thermal that is sensitive in the LWIR spectrum. It has a 12um pitch and NetD under 50mK. The objective lens is a sizable 83mm germanium lens and it produces a FOV of 5.3º. The XELR has a 2x and 4x digital zoom.

The XELR has a similar FOV as the AGM TB75 that I reviewed. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the AGM TB75 and the XELR. The transmission tower is 700 yards away and the water tower is one mile away.  The AGM image is on top and the EOTech image is directly below it.

The EOTech XELR image seems to pop, whereas the AGM TB75 image appears flat. Below is the same image but in black hot.

I tried the digital zoom and found the 4x to be actually usable. See the image below. There is a car parked in a cul-de-sac at the end of the street. It is 600 yards away. There is a lot of definition I could potentially positively ID someone that far away. Like what clothes they were wearing and if they had anything in their hands.

Final Thoughts On The EOTech XELR

I am impressed with the XELR given the price to performance. Sure $16k is a lot for many but it is almost half the price of its closest competitor. The height of the XELR does take getting used to. It can block a 12 o’clock-mounted laser rangefinder. So you might need to relocate the LRF to the side of the gun.

Right now the XELR has been discontinued. EOTech still supports it but they are moving onto the XELR MK2 which is smaller, no longer has a moving objective lens for focus but internal focus with a dial. The XLER MK2 has the same performance in a smaller package and has onboard video recording. It also uses 3xAA batteries for an 8-hour runtime. Hopefully, I will get to borrow that from EOTech and review it as well in the future.