Hey guys I've been getting a lot of questions and review requests about the brand new Helion 2 XP50 handheld thermal. Hans and I just released our review of it on The Late Night Vision Show and Hans is still gathering footage for his field review video. I'll post that up when he gets it done.

Helion 2 XP50

$3,999
2.5x base magnification
640x480 resolution (new thermal core compared to original Helion)
40mk thermal core (improves detail in image quality)
17 microns
50hz refresh rate
Internal audio/video recording
WiFi streaming app
Picture in Picture

- Jason

Jason, is there much of a market for hand held in that price range?

Yes sir there really is. We had several guys who were waiting on our pre-order list since January/February on this particular model. It is definitely a lot of money but there are a lot of hunters using high end thermal riflescopes like Trail or Thermion XP50's, N-Vision, Trijicon etc and they want a handheld that is going to give them image quality in the same ballpark as their scope.

It's a good question and in year's past handhelds in this sort of price range had a limited customer base but with more and more people buying thermal scopes every day, the market for high quality monoculars is greatly increasing as well.

Jason

Man , now I got the itch to upgrade my handheld to the image quality of my rifle scope.

Please go away, you are a bad influence and I don't like sleeping in the dog house.

Haha!! There are a lot of wives and girlfriends who don't like me, I'm sure of that.

Jason

A buddy just got one and we got to test it out Friday night..
it is an awesome unit..
He had no experience with them and really wanted my opinion on it..

I was able to CLEARLY positively identify deer out 3-400 yards
I would LOVE to have this optic in a weapon sight

It really is amazing isn't it? The comparable optic in a weapon sight is the Pulsar Thermion XP50. It will definitely spoil you!

Jason

yea, I just don't like the form factor of the Thermions

a buddy asked me for a weapon sight recommendation for around 2500
what do you recommend?

I don't have much in that price range to recommend right now. The Pulsar Core RXQ30V is a great little scope for $1,899. The AGM Secutor TS25 will be out soon in that price range. I've been running a prototype of it for a couple months but I want to see the final updated version before I make any judgement calls on it. I'm hoping for the best on it.

Other than that, I don't have anything that I can personally recommend. The now long discontinued Pulsar Apexes were the best bang for the buck in that price range the thermal market has ever seen but since they were discontinued, there is a huge hole in the market there for good quality scopes from a well known reliable manufacturer.

here is a huge hole in the market there for good quality scopes from a well known reliable manufacturer.

agreed

Jason,

Wouldn't the comparable thermal rifle scope (in terms of image quality) be the Pulsar Trail 2 LRF XP50?

Regarding the Thermion form factor, I agree with ccoker: I like the dial of the Thermion scopes (to quickly spin through menu items), but I otherwise prefer the railed Pulsar scopes. As an aside, I've been purchasing railed optical (i.e. non-thermal) European rifle scopes for years, and they're much easier to mount - plus, you don't mar the scope tube if taking them out of their mounts.

Mark

Mark,

In terms of comparable rifle scopes, the Thermion XP50 and the Trail LRF 2 XP50 in theory should have identical image quality. According to Pulsar they will have 100% the same identical specs, internals, magnification, lens etc so they should be the same. And yes the Thermion XP50 has essentially the same image quality as the new Helion 2 XP50. For some reason I think the Thermion XP50 is a touch better than the Helion 2 XP50 but it's splitting hairs.

These new Pulsars with the new image quality update are amazingly good and the XP models are really climbing the ladder to the Trijicon and N-Vision image quality. While not quite there, they are in the ballgame.

Jason