I've used my 5x in bright sunlight with snow on the ground, where the glare was so bad that I couldn't see without sunglasses.
No sunshade needed and No issues with it that wouldn't effect any other optic being used in those conditions.
I was able to darken the screen and hit targets.
Since it's raining and semi foggy out in my location, I did some testing.
No issues night or day, even with the T20 on full power with a tight beam.
100 yards targets were easy pickings with the medium power and wider beam I usually use.
I've got 17 days left in my predator season, so my scope is staying mounted and ready to hunt.
IMO,I can't see returning a scope and waiting all that time for a free sunshade.

I shoot near water and with out my home made sunshade the display flashes so bad that it can make you dizzy, I put the home made sunshade on and the flashing goes away. So in my case it is well worth the wait. If I use it at night I wont need the sunshade, But I plan on using this scope for afternoon hunts so in my case it for sure helps. I think the flashing has something to do with the movement of water. I am hunting swamps so I wont get away from water. I guess it all depends on the environment you are hunting. Some may need it and other dont. It will all be a personal preference. If I didnt think I needed it, I certainly would not send it back and wait the min 45 days. Remember its a min 45 days. Could be a longer wait.

I've never tested it over water, so I just put it on the test list.
I'll get to it when the ice melts, maybe in a month.

I read what Sachal said about the "new units" being thoroughly tested (great idea). I wonder if the mount is being tested for it's alignment to the scope center axis? I know many of us have issues with the mount being misaligned or loose, hence the shimming etc. I would think that correct alignment would be part of QC before a scope is sent out to a distributor or end user. Of course if the mount was either designed or manufactured better it could be a non issue.

IMHO any scope that has an integrated mount should be aligned properly when it's manufactured and QC should insure that is the case. It shouldn't matter if it's made in China or wherever expecting a properly aligned mount should be a no brainer.

Came home late last night from two nights of field testing the 5-18 X-Sight.
First Night: At dusk I checked the NV function prior to needing an IRI. I encountered the flickering. Once it was completely dark I tested again using the IR and experienced the flickering. I verified it was ocurring in both green an black mode, and remained when I lowered the gain. With the IR turned off there was no flicker but it was too dark to see anything through the scope without an IRI. There was a pulse (the flicker) and the screen brightened intensely, consecutive flickers the brightness of the flicker diminished each time until the cycle repeated with the bright flash etc. The med boar I was looking for showed up about an hour after total darkness. He didn't survive the night time field testing.

Second Night: No pigs showed up and I didn't break out the varmit call cuz the flicker dialated my pupil on the bright flicker cycle so longer range shots didn't seem ethical even though the Streamlight Super Tac easily lit up my 300 yard FOV. But something happened this night with my X-Sight. Suddenly when I hit the vid record button, no more flicker. Turn the vid rec off, sometimes the flicker returned and sometimes it didn't. On the first night, I had flicker no matter what.

Does the latest firmware address the flicker? Is there an email address to request the sun shade?

The flicker wasn't fixed in the .234 beta I tested. Hoping it'll be sorted in the final release...

The flicker and dimming issue were not addressed that I know of. The firmware that I tested did not fix it.

Hmmm... Updated the firmware to the .234 beta and when I turn the unit off, the unit turns back on by itself. The only way I can turn the unit off is by loosing the battery cap. Knowing that it is beta, I also can't turn on the GPS and when I turn on the WIFI, the scope doesn't broadcast. Anyone else having these issues?

The old units don't have any threads. They have concentric rings. There is nothing to thread a sunshade too.

Seen that earlier today when I went out with my thread gauge and seen that it looked odd.

Mine did that at first...try a hard reboot.

Ummm..disregard..you already said you loosened the cap.

No flickering, dimming or shutdown issues with my 5X scope and the .234 update.
Haven't tested it with a high recoil firearm, so I don't know if it'll lose focus from recoil yet.
I never use the WIFI, but it says it's on when I switch it to "on" in WIFI mode.
I keep everything off to conserve battery life.
I did go out today to see If I could find some water to test it on.
I found a lake with water on top of the ice due to the rain.
No focus issues day or night(just got back). I tried it up close, far away and at different angles too.
I can also review the videos I took in the scope now. It's nice to have that feature, but I bet it'll eat battery life doing it.
No still picture capability, but I don't take still's anyway.
What would be nice, is a battery strength indicator.
I can live without the compass, WIFI, geotagging and clock.

Upon testing the scope this morning, I had it freeze two times after pressing the button to start taking video.
The date and time count showed up in the bottom right corner, but no Red light to signify it was recording in the top left corner.
No buttons would function when pressed and I had to do a hard reboot to turn the scope off.
After the reboot, it recorded video and all buttons functioned.
Now I need it to stop raining, so I can hunt.

As I understand it, this is truly a beta version to test the reticle fix. Many of the functions are either disabled and or not working as they should. Wifi definitely doesn't work, recording is patchy. The final release will be available once bugs like those are fixed.

Why can't sachal send us the new scope first?
Then I'll send this old one the following day?
It will take me 45 days just to get to talk to a human at customer service....

jimmyb79
I found out how to get out of the recorded content menu.
Press enter for 2 secs.

I was informed what functions were disabled and other issues before downloading the 234 version.
I still have some reticle movement from 5x to 7.5x zoom, but after hitting the 7.5 magnification it stays centered to 20x.
I deleted a lot of video content learning that MKL.

During my testing last night and this morning, I noticed that the scope has a lot of Back splash, especially when using the IR illuminator. My face was lit up and would be a definite deterrent when hunting at night. To take care of the problem, I located a spare shuttered eye guard for a PVS-14 in the mess I call my man cave. It didn't fit around the eyepiece of the scope after taking the ATN pc off, but it did fit inside of it with some finagling.
For the light recoiling firearms, it'll work tucked all the way inside.
For the heavier recoiling firearms, it can be pulled out to the last fold and still have plenty of eye relief when used.
It works for me and the guard is only around $25, if you don't have one lying around.

Good rigging. Thats what this is all about.
I took one off of an old gen 2 unit and basically its the same setup.

Good work!!

Thats it! X Sight has failed to excite me. Its going back. Not so stellar reviews from the place where I purchased it from either.

X-Sight at SG

I have not added my review yet, but it"ll be there soon enough. I will be purchasing a different product from a manufacturer OTHER THAN ATN! Check out these reviews for this Pulsar:

DigiSight at SG

The difference between these two products is as clear as night and day. One manufacturer had their act together while the other tediously dawdles along with firmware updates to fix what should have been working out of the box. Yeah the Pulsar costs more, but the place mentioned above lets me split the payments into 4 equal payments over 4 months. Also considering this product:

Photon at SG

Its not shipping yet, but the smaller Photon which preceded it is ranking good in review everywhere.

Ya know what that means Satchal? You just lost marketshare to a competitor. I am the American consumer, and WE are always right.

So apparently everyone has different opinions on what's "GOOD"

Because I'm running the .228 firmware with the included IR illuminator, and I'm able to see out to ~100 yards, under a deer feeder, and popped a raccoon.
(spoiler-ed because blood and image size)


Yes the image was a little dim, but the scope is still usable out to that range for a positive ID and shot.
No, I don't have a video because by the time the raccoon showed up my rechargables were flashing the battery indicator and I didn't want to deal with video corruption issues.
The only things that I'm considering doing is getting a new illuminator so the illuminated area is larger, and rolling back to the previous firmware or up to the beta version.

I agree with you.

I just used my 5-18 X-Sight and my son used a 3-12 X-sight for a weeks hog hunting trip in TX. After playing around with the settings I could tell the difference between a cow, a donkey and a llama across a field we laser ranged at 180 yards in darkness before the moon came up. We used the X-Sight the whole week on one set of Lithium AA's and 2 sets of CR123 in the IR illuminator.

There was a little flicker in the low setting, but I ran mostly in medium with no flicker at all.

My nephew, who had never used night vision before, loved the X-Sight. I really think there is a problem of expectation management. If you were expecting a whole bunch of features to work, and they don't you are upset. If no one told you about the features, and you picked up the X-Sight and started using it you think it is great.

The one problem we had was on my sons AR-15. It has the traditional front sight and there was quite a bit of glare of the front sight tower from the IR illuminator. He actually saw better if he turned off his illuminator and just looked where I was aiming.

Nice find!

Nice....I was in that screen forever trying to figure it out.