Any of you dealers got your hands on one yet for a quick test run? Sightmark got them in early this week per my rep buddy.

I did briefly. We'll do a hunt and such once they come in hand. We've ordered like 50 of them or so, give or take. I think they're going to be home run.

They should be shipping them later this week if all goes well. They've been in Sightmark's facility for about 3 weeks but they've been recoil testing them, checking battery life and updating the firmware etc. They actually quality control checked every single unit. My hat is off to Sightmark for taking the time to be sure they do this roll out right and not just blasting them out to dealers without any quality checks on their end. I'm very impressed with the due diligence they've taken on this project.

All of my units are pre-sold and the ETA for the 2nd round of shipping is a very long wait unless something changes.

Got notice on first units shipped today

Any idea on the price

Nobody is going to tell you in an electronic format a price below the contractual MAP (minimum advertised price). You won't get a best price quote posted on the forum, in other words. Based on online vendors, that would appear to be about $500. Whether or not you pay that will likely depend on you speaking verbally with vendors to see who will give you the best price.

What’s the difference between the photon rt and the wraith?

$499.97 is what they'll run. We have a pre-order program going with a small refundable deposit and then balance only when ready to roll.

I doubt you'll find anyone discounting these. The pre-orders are stacked up and folks out the door ready to buy without any fuss.

Two different scopes overall. Both do basically the same thing but the wraith has a different housing, different mount format and a color day mode on the wraith. Lower cost on the wraith. Biggest points so far anyway.

I can't imagine anyone dumb enough to discount a Wraith right now....I've had customers offer to pay over $499 if they can get moved to the front of the line. And yes I declined and they held their current spot.lol

Myron is right about the Photon RT vs the Wraith. I hate speculating on things we haven't used in the field but I'm 99% sure the RT is going to have a much better IR illuminator built in than what will ship with the Wraith. The real question is, how will the Wraith compare to the Photon RT when it has a really good aftermarket IR illuminator on the side of it? I've said many times, the two things that I'm slightly concerned about with the Wraith are the brightness of the included IR illuminator and the refresh rate might be low and cause "smearing" or lag when you move it around, which is usually most noticeable at night. Again pure speculation from what I saw at SHOT and I've been shown since then but until we get them in our own hands, we just don't know.

Either way, if you're looking for a very affordable NV optic with daytime capabilities from a reputable brand, this is going to be it in my opinion.

Jason

Ok I've been using the Wraith HD for 2 nights and I'm here to tell you something....I'm surprised. It's actually better than I thought it would be. This isn't a full review but I'll throw out my initial thoughts.

I had 2 main concerns, I suspected a weak IR illuminator and possible lagging or smearing video. The illuminator concern is a non issue. I have a wood line on the edge of a creek in my pasture and it's 450 yards. I can easily make out that wood line. I videoed a coon at 300 yards and could tell it was a coon. I videoed hogs tonight at 250 yards and they looked great. I just stopped while typing this and went and looked again and I've got cows in my pasture laying down at about 325 yards and I can clearly see they are cows. And these distances aren't wild guesses, I know where all these distances are because I've ranged them and I even have a steel target down there at exactly 250 yards. My point is, the IR illuminator is great, at this point I see no need for an aftermarket illuminator.

As for the lagging video, it's strange because I notice more in the full color daylight mode. At night, it seems just fine. During the day, sometimes it seems really good and other times the lagging and smearing seems much more noticeable but over all, it's much less of an issue than I expected it to be. I'd actually call it a non-issue for what most people are going to be using it for. The daytime and night time image quality is really good.

There are a few things I think I'd like to see changed or improved but I haven't used it enough to make any hard criticisms yet. My initial thoughts? It's great, better than expected and if the reliability is what I hope it is, it's going to be an X-Sight killer and maybe even a Photon killer.

Stay tuned for more thoughts and reviews.

Jason

I’m in , just ordered one this morning and it should be here Thursday in the brown truck!

I hope to exercise it this weekend and report back on my thoughts.

I’m a bit bummed that they capped recoil at 308 and that it weighs so much ....

Price is right though !

After using it what are your thoughts now of wraith vs rt

I have been eyeing the RT and will be pulling the trigger on one soon. But maybe not depending on what you guys think of teh wraith

This is preliminary but after a few hours behind the Wraith and many, many hours behind the Photons.....I really think the Wraith is going to be a better unit. I didn't think it was possible and I was specifically told by Sightmark that they expected the Wraith to be good at night but not as good as the Photon RT. Honestly, I've used them 3 nights in a row, side by side, both right out of the box, no 3rd party IR's and the Wraith HD is whipping the Photon RT. I absolutely did not expect this. The Photon is still going to have it's place, we're just going to have to see what the benefits of it will be over the Wraith.

I'll go into more details soon when I'm very confident in my assessments. The one negative I can say about the Wraith HD is, if you want a light scope, this ain't it. If you strapped a brick to your AR, this is what it would be like. It weighs 2lbs 15oz with batteries, mount and IR. The Photon RT weighs 2lbs 4oz with batteries and rings. The Photon feels much lighter because of the length and it's not so compact.

Jason

Since you have the Wraith HD, any word on the QD mount you are offering and if it will be a return to zero mount?

thanks for your input!

Not yet but I'll report back soon. I can see absolutely no reason it won't return to zero because it's seems to be of good quality and 2 locking QD levers will really hold the mount in place. It's as good as several of the mounts we use on thermals. I've got commitments the next several evenings but I'm going to do some testing with it and I'll let you know.

Jason

Wraith is in hand

Seems like the near eye display (screen in eyepiece) is smaller than previous digitals and thermal scopes from Sightmark and Pulsar.

I connected the scope to a 2200 mAh battery and it powered on, I’ll report back how long it keeps the scope running...

Range trip on Sunday

How is the audio on the Wraith? I see a lot of videos on YT, but none have sound. I looked at the manual and no mention of a microphone or audio in general.

I saw it posted that the Wraith has no audio.

Yeah, after watching a bunch of videos, I see that Sightmark is stuck in 1891 (first silent movies).

True. I guess they are stuck there with the new FLIR thermals. But if we follow that logic then Trijicon and N-Vision are stuck in 1816 (first partially successful photograph) because they don't even record video but they do record still images. Just joking. But seriously, it's the first generation of a $499 digital optic that is already running circles around the X-Sights and it does more than the Photons can do and they've been around for 6 years. If that's the biggest complaint to date about the Wraiths, I'd call that one of the most successful product launches I've ever heard of.

I am going to be interested to hear how these units do over time and see if there are any problems that crop up. I'm sure there will be some things go wrong, just like any other optic, but hopefully Sightmark will continue on with their excellent customer service.

Yeah, it just seems silly to have video, but no audio, to not even have the capability to audio. However, I am fairly certain that isn't my biggest complaint about the Wraith. The jittery video (output and seen through the scope) is pretty huge factor.

I know you didn't like the weight of the scope and it is hefty, but it is the most solid feeling night vision scope if have held years, LOL.

I'm assuming nobody has one of these in stock?