Leupold LTO Tracker 2 Thermal Viewer, Black (177187)

I have and/or had a few thermal scopes and cameras over the years from Flir Scout series to a Pulsar Quantum HD38S, I’m not new to thermal scopes. If you are new to thermal imaging, forget what you’ve ever known about night scopes. A thermal image device will see to the horizon on the blackest night, hills and mountains in the distance included. Even in a cave, mine, or tunnel, (pitch dark, zero light whatsoever) the walls are fully visible. In fact, a thermal imaging device works fantastic to monitor or count bats or see down-tube well past where your flashlights fade away. (I’m a caver)I do have to heartily agree with other reviews (magazines etc.) that the Beacon Mode is a game changer, and makes getting the version 2 worth every extra penny. It’s not new to thermal imaging. Flir calls their system Instalert for example, but, Leupold does take it to new levels in this unit. The Pulsar has a manual sensitivity adjustment with two buttons, and there’s plenty of room for buttons because the thing is like putting a brick up to your eye. What makes the Leupold’s Beacon mode so good is the way it works, and it’s all automatic by pushing the left button.First and foremost, the Beacon Mode is NOT a screen contrast or brightness adjustment. The software changes the sensitivity of the microbolometer, and highlights anything warmer than the surroundings, even if by only a few degrees. Hi-Black (black = hot) and Hi-White (white = hot) modes in any thermal device works fairly well, that is until pretty much EVERYTHING warm lights up in red or whatever. That means tree trunks, branches, rocks, boulders, fence posts, and then you try to pick out an animal from the busy view and it gets lost until it starts moving.In the version 2, Beacon mode drops everything back to gray-scale, and then anything that’s even a touch warmer highlights from orange to yellow depending on how large the delta temperature is from the surroundings. And you can reset by a single button press. It also becomes a full manual mode by just holding the left button down. A minus, plus, and X appears to show you the button functions. The X exits out. The plus and minus changes the sensitivity manually like high end thermal gear. All this makes finding something alive very easy, night or day. Except, of course, for reptiles; turtles, alligators, snakes and other non-body heat generating creatures. You can still see them of course, they just blend into the surroundings because they’re the same temperature as everything else.My pictures show the various palettes with Queenie our family cat in the dining room, but it doesn’t matter she’s 8 feet away, it’s the same at a distance outside with deer or whatever. Notice how the Beacon mode makes the surroundings (carpet she’s sitting on, dining table leg) easier to see, and she herself is fully bright orange highlighted. To exit Beacon, just press the right button to jump back to Hi-Lo-Green or whatever you were using already. Note that Beacon Mode works ONLY in the Hi-modes, NOT just white, black, or green.To properly use Beacon mode, ignore bad reviews here and remember what it really does. Make sure you do NOT have an animal or person in the view, or it will null them out as well. If you see wildlife, aim off to the side until there’s only brush, woods, or empty grass, then push the left button to set the Beacon mode baseline. Then, when you swing back to the deer or whatever, they will be like lit light bulbs on the grey background. If it gets too far off, (or the manual mode if you’re in that) just a press of the right button exits Beacon and returns to your normal mode. You will use the left button quite a bit as you aim at various areas, even at the sky. The Beacon Mode will also make an airplane easy to spot due to hot engines or jet exhaust.Digital zoom is the center button, and cycles up from 1.0, (Shows a rectangle in the screen - an image about 1 x 3/4 inch) 1.7x, 3x, 5x, and 7x. Since the thermal sensor is fixed at 320x240 (76,800 pixels) the image doesn’t start to fall apart too bad until after 3x. The screen is 390x390, and at about the same size screen as my 360x360 Galaxy Gear S3 smart watch, it’s sharp as a tack. (Well over 300 DPI) The cellphone photos taken by aiming at the screen with one hand while I hold the scope with the other doesn’t do justice to what your eye actually sees. Speaking of seeing that screen, if you’re over 40 (I’m pushing 60) you will need reading glasses to see it clearly. Not a big deal if you wear Clic glasses, you just click them into place (magnet) over your nose, and they’re always with you around your neck. You do not look through this device like a monocular, you look directly at its little round screen.The unit comes with a neoprene boot/jacket and the flip covers you see in the sales photos. It’s an either-or. If you put on the jacket, the flip covers won’t fit, and vise versa. I prefer the flip covers on mine. Remember this: that artificially grown germanium crystal lens that probably took ten hours to machine and polish that’s on the front end is at least three quarters of the cost of the entire unit: it needs to be WELL protected.The instruction sheet unfolds like an 80’s road map and is thin glossy cardboard. But, it’s for the non-version 2 and doesn’t quite match reality. The palettes are (as you press the right button) white, hi-white, black, hi-black, green, and my favorite: hi-lo-green. The pale green looks like an old gen 2 night scope, except low temps are blue, and high temps are highlighted in orange to yellow. Notice the telephone pole transformer. And, of course, Beacon works in that mode making warm bodies very easy to see. Plain ol’ green mode is a good one too, warm creatures are very bright green against dim green.Despite what the manual says, there is NO reticle to turn on. There also isn’t any red palette. (One of my other thermals has that, and you’re not missing anything) To turn the unit off, long press the right button. One last thing, the flip covers help orient the device in the dark so you can find the buttons easier. While you’re using it, you can turn it even upside down, and the image stays upright. I find myself ending up pushing the wrong button because the scope gets turned 45 degrees to the left for some reason. The power/palette button is a different shape so you can feel for it and reorient the scope upright. (Or feel where the flip covers are while open)A recap of the buttons: (Since the manual is not correct for version 2)Right. Tap turns unit on. Tapping (while on) cycles thru the color palettes. Long press turns unit off.Center. Tapping zooms from 1x, 1.7x, 3x, 5x, and 7x, then back to 1x. Long press is screen brightness.Left. Tapping turns on Beacon Mode as well as resets it while in use. Long press enters manual thermal sensitivity mode. Tapping right button exits Beacon or manual mode.Left, center, right while in screen brightness or manual sens. setting modes: minus, plus, exit. (Icons show you)Photos: Size comparison with a Leupold Quest HD. (Which itself is pocket sized, about like an old flip phone) Cars at neighbors, and one going up the street. My butt print several minutes after sitting on the log bench. An LED light fixture several minutes after getting turned off, showing zoom modes. Different palettes with the last one in Beacon Mode in hi-black. Zoom levels to 3x while looking at an 1800’s freight wagon a hundred feet away.

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  This is a game changer for hunting. Not sure how good it is to track blood trail as it gets cold quick. But very good to scout and find game. It will defeat their camouflage.

I have a night vision scope I use for hunting hogs and it works well up to about 150 yards. I purchased the hand held thermal monocular for scanning and identifying critters outside the range of the night vision scope. The first night I used the device, I was able to see rabbits playing at 200 yards, two deer eating in a soybean field 315 yards, and I was able to see hogs at 150 yards (5 yards inside the woods before they came out into the open field). Without this device, I would not have known the hogs were there and would have moved to another location. It is somewhat pricy, but good equipment is not cheap. This is a good product and you do not need a degree from MIT to use it.

I work at night in an area that is completely dark. I can now see if anyone is outside, down the street, or close. Not only for hunting, you can be safe if you have a job by yourself at night. Use this for your protection. I am former Military and highly recommend.

It works, but not as advertised. The detection range is more like 50 to 80 ft, and when you zoom in anything past 1.5x the image gets extremely pixelated.. very disappointed

Don't order this.Seriously. I haven't used Thermals since Iraq 15 years ago and I was STILL disappointed. Amazon charged me for the return shipping too which pisses me off further.Look through these for 3 seconds somewhere where it won't cost you and you won't buy them either.Poor field of view, poor effectiveneas, poor performance. Complete disappointment all the way around.Positives: although the instructions are non-existent they are easy to use.Con: you have to cycle through all the settings.Great toy.Useless piece of kit.I used them last night in my woods, Stalked my cat etc.Used them again tonight to confirm they suck.They still suck.I want my $5 back.

I was really looking forward to this but was very disappointed. First of all, note that this model DOES NOT have reticles, no matter what people say in the reviews and questions. The zoom is a purely digital zoom and 7x zoom is so blockey that I could not identify our pet rabbit. 2x was questionable. For the price, it should do better at settings other than 1x.Mine made a faint camera shutter noise about every 2 seconds (I don't know if that is normal or not). Lastly, though it is praised as a feature, and possibly is, I found the button to 'tune' the heat signatures to be greatly flawed. Walking at night and then pulling out the tracker to look around, it was difficult to get the tracker to properly see all the heat of people for example. It's hard to describe, but it just didn't seem to have a good idea of what were useful heat signatures and what weren't. For example, if you look at videos online of nigh hunts, wild hogs were clearly wild hogs. Not so with this tracker.

Keine Ahnung, was man damit machen soll.Für die Jagd völlig ungeeignet.

2世代から、レティクル(➕)がなくなったそうです。(メーカー問い合わせしました)なのでレティクルのシールを貼っています。性能は抜群ですが、レティクル付きが欲しい人は、第1世代を買いましょう。