Christened the 38S and the 595 .17rem/photon/doubler/t20 last night
...... sat up in a high box with a good view across 3 fields to the hills.... bit of woodland in 130m in front.
Have to say I'm impressed with the 38S.... I could see definition in a scrubby hedge and the trees on the bank and skyline behind it getting on for about 3/4's of a mile away... and definition on the clouds. I followed a jet taking off from Luton, I could see the difference between the engines, the fuselage and the tail... that must have been a good 3 miles away... and then again as it climbed away from me through the clouds! 10 miles by then? Shit!
Could see rabbits way out over the fields....including blobs out around 400m. You definitely need something like a fox or a deer to give scale to the picture... I went onto 2x a couple of times but soon went back to standard.
Thought I caught a bit of movement over on a fence line and had a quick squeak but nothing showed, then after about five minutes looking the other way there was foxy coming in from about 30 yards to within 20feet of the box I was sitting in. Could see it carrying a pheasant 'til it either got my wind or clocked me and legged it. Bugger... any movement and it would have done the runner anyway. I could see some heat in the woodland opposite and I was convinced it was the fox waiting to come back not quite knowing what had spooked it but it turned out to be a bloody rabbit.
Downer.
But these things always happen for a reason as after another 20minutes I saw 2 across the other side of the field.. coming towards me. One got just about in range but I didn't have a clear picture - the photons are pretty focus fussy with doublers on.
Both went away. More bugger!
Saw one in the gateway down the field and started squeaking only to be ignored... then a couple of mins later I picked the other coming back across the field to the squeak and it conveniently sat down about a 100m out ('cos it just knew!) and waited while I faffed with the focus. Result! Big fat heavy vixen.
Saw what must have been the dog working the hedge for rabbits the far side of the next field and went after it but no joy there. Next time.
So, all in all I'm very impressed by the 38S... it definitely got better as it got dark/colder. The display is very bright and a bit of gel might be the answer to tone it down. I did try all 3 of the modes and got on with all of them... and reverted to auto-calibrate even though it gives you a blip of vertigo when it freezes for the couple of seconds whilst panning.
Battery life seems to be good.. I got into the box around 4.30 and left around 9.30 and it was showing 3/4's full on the supplied Ansmanns, turned it back on again tonight and it's showing one bar off full (Warmer in here!)
I also had the 14/tripler lens with me last night and it was quite pleasant to have a look through that now and again..... the thermal is 'kin bright!
My doublered Photon is very focus fussy as others have found and with a very narrow field of view making things difficult to find......I did have to re-check where the foxes were with the Thermal a couple of times. Just wonder if it's worth taking the doubler off and trying that.
's me.
Cheers
Fizz
Edit... Forgot to mention... I took the 4" reversing camera screen with me and initially tried to use that rather than blinding myself but soon gave it up a s a bad job as it just didn't have enough definition at arms length - probably something to do with the need to wear glasses for distance.. or not. I ended up taking the glasses off and re-focusing the thermal and the Photon to match.
I've found my screen gives a really decent pic but not quite as sharp if you really try to look at the small heat source detail at say 500 yrds +. I did think that the picture on my screen deteriorated the other night as it went on and wondered about the frost 
