I figured this was pretty fitting in the optics forum since this was the most popular and anticipated Thermion model since their announcement at SHOT in January. This is big news for a lot of folks.

The logical next question that many people keep asking for is a detailed "Why?". This was my answer to someone else who asked this on FB.

The reason given was with the change to the fixed focus and small lens, the image quality didn’t meet Pulsar’s standards.

The next logical question is, why the change to the fixed focus? That answer I don’t know for sure but from what I gather and suspect, the new design, the full color AMOLED, the new 12 micron core, batteries etc made the unit too expensive to produce at the $2799 price. Something had to be cut, which was the focus-able objective. That in turn reduced the image quality. So rather than just making it anyway, they opted to scrap the whole idea.

Honestly, this makes perfect sense. The Trail XQ30 was a fixed focus $2799 scope and was a terrible seller and they rightly discontinued it a long time ago. This would have just been a repeat. People want and expect really good image quality for $2799 AND a focus-able lens and if they aren’t going to get it, they just buy a different scope.

As much as I don’t like it, Pulsar made a very wise decision.

There have also been some upset people calling Pulsar out and saying it's bad business. I disagree. Bad business is putting out a scope that doesn't have the image quality that meets their standards but putting it out anyway because they know it will sell and they will make money on it. Giving up a whole price point to your competitor because you can't make the scope that you really want, that meets your standards is good business and that's a standard that most companies won't hold themselves too. Also, if we look at every new hunting/firearm related product announced at the SHOT show every year and see what percentage of them actually never come to the market for some reason or another....I think you'd shocked how high that percentage is.

- Jason