No, you never remove the delivered germanium lens and replace it with another, you simply add another.

The germanium lenses have an anti- reflective coating on them to increase their thermal emissivity transmission above 92%.

As a tangible example, I have a Tokina Redline Telephoto that I can install on my PVS-14. The native lens on the PVS-14 is threaded with the photography standard 30mm thread (I don't know the actual lens size off hand). The front lens on the Telephoto is threaded 55mm. This lens collects a lot of light and, even after losses, provides a brighter image than using the native PVS-14 lens alone.

If I added a 30mm Telephoto to the native lens of my PVS-14 then I would expect the losses that you indicate because it would be collecting the same amount of photons and would lose some from inefficiency. The big bell lenses really do act as a funnel. Do the math for surface area of 30mm versus 55mm to get an idea of the delta in light collection potential.

If this does not make sense to you then it is because I failed to explain it properly. It does work regardless of how well I am able to justify it.

In no way am I pretending to be an expert in thermal imaging. I will defer to you on this. I was grabbing from known phenomena to justify to myself and others how it might work and that there were tangible examples in related subjects.

For clarification I would like to ask: Are you saying that an increased diameter Accessory Lens cannot be used on a Thermal Imager to funnel the image like can be done with visible light or I²?

Again, don't think in analogous I2 terms, thermal is different wavelengths with different thermal resistors and RIOC circuits.

Yes you can simply add an extender lens by screwing it onto the original lens and increase the magnification and decrease the FOV for brighter sharper image resolution at longer ranges. This is nothing new or exciting as have been doing this for years and has nothing to do with the Boson cores in particular as every thermal video camera works the same way with extender lenses.

interesting.

@skypup

So the unit you posted in the OP, is that what we'll be getting? Are you a tester for FLIR?
Do you have anything in terms of videos or photos to wet the whistle?

are the Q14B still on track for a end of may release?

I can dig it.

Hopefully so.

Does anybody know which of the 30 different Boson models of handheld scanners, helmet scanners, Clip-Ons, and thermal weapons scopes will have internal video recording to micro high speed Class 10 SDHC cards?

Or will they have have that capability built into them?

tick tock tick tock

^ what he said and I want to see some independent video/reviews before I get too excited.

And I have yet to see any info on the germanium magnifiers for the q14b/c.

Tick tock, the mouse ran up the clock.

!

So the Q14C is going to be ~$2k?? As the Q14B is not collimated, correct?

Or is this a misquoted spec/price?

Q14B is NOT a Clip-On collimated TWS.

Don't know anything about a Q14C?

I'm just going on your post from 4/14 that I quoted above. I am just making sure that myself and everyone else is clear on the specs of the Q14B/C units as this post is about all there is on the web about them.

I kinda think the Q-14C is a misquoted spec/price/piece?

Time will tell soon enough.

I've been following along in this thread for about a month now, as I prepare to take my first dive into NV/Thermal devices, I see this has the ability to be mounted and run as a Thermal Weapon Sight (TWS), and used as a handheld unit, how effective would this be as a first purchase for use on hogs/coyotes/varmints out to about 100-150 yards max, and as a bump in the night investigative tool? I see the ability for up to 4x zoom, but it looks like in the 320 core that might not be a very good image, would it be sharp enough for the occasional 150 yard shot?

Also, looks like FLIR updated their site, image and specs reflect the new Boson core

That looks like last years quark 336 core data. if these things are supposed to be ready this month, how hard is it to put out some accurate data sheets, screen shots, etc?

The Outdoor part of the website hasn't been updated since September '16.

These things are conscious choices for companies. If they felt that they needed to update the website they would. Someone above asked an interesting question, what are they to do with all the existing inventory? That might be part of the reason. When you don't have a product in that space you pre-market like crazy to prevent your addressable market from purchasing competitive offerings. If you DO have existing product that you need customers to buy then you don't pre-market, you remain much more cagey about release dates, etc, so that current demand is satiated by what's sitting on your shelves. (And there's all sorts of complex accounting that goes on for hardware product aging on shelves. Google "Lower of cost or market" if you want your head to spin a little.) If they destroy the value of their existing inventory they have to account for it.

Bottom line is that this is likely all a financial decision.

-Stooxie

 Fucking marketing 

If weapon mounted does this unit have a reticle, dot, or some other aiming device besides a laser?

Checked the FLIR website but found no information except it has either visible or IR laser for aiming....?

Curious how this compares to thermal units that use a reticle

Attached File

That is from my pre-order.

awesome, thanks!

I asked this earlier and I never saw a response: "Does this family of imagers have something similar to L3's Hot Target Level Mode? "

I am still curious about this. It's a feature that I would use.

Not for me it wouldn't.   I think you'd need another optic.

So can you navigate with thermal or is it just for identification and shooting?

Preordered!  Come on Flir.

My question is once the q14 line is out...What need is there for the entire Scout line...This should blow it away in performance, price, size, Features, etc.  I owned a scout and was not impressed.

I don't think it's going to blow the scout line out of the water if it only has 1X with such a narrow field of view that's been stated. 

I used a scout 3 for the first time about six weeks ago and it was very impressive to me based on what I have seen from some of the other scale type products.  It had a nice image good field of view  and what looked to me like about 2X magnification?

 that scout 3 has more magnification than my flir vue19 mm 640,  when used side-by-side.  And frankly I thought the image was better than what I was getting on my monitor with the vue.  And you could zoom in with the scout 3 and retain a much better image then I can zoom in with my vue. 

I'm not trying to be the great cheerleader for the scout 3, but to me, if the Q14 has the same attributes or similar as the scout 3 that I used it would be perfect. Nice field of view, some base magnification and super clear digital image. 

Im not buying a current model scout 3, and I am patiently waiting to see what boson core products are going to be available? Not sure if I want to buy a Q14?

I am not trusting any stats till I see the final released stuff from flir.  the size alone and the boson core have me willing to preorder before they are even released.  As soon as I have it in my hands I will do some comparisons and know if I am gonna keep or sell.  I am betting its a keeper.

I got to use a new Boson Q14-B with a manual focus 25mm objective lens the last two nights out hog hunting and am throughly impressed, am sticking by my statement that the 320 Boson core view is as good as most current 640 cores except for the narrower FOV. Pretty much provided almost the exact same vivid image as my 640 TAU2 core FLIR M-18s do, which is impressive to say the least.

The CR-123 Battery is the heaviest component to it and the entire unit probably weighs about the same as 4-CR-123 batteries, making it super nice as a helmet mounted detection scanner. Super lightweight, super handy, very small, with a big viewing screen image. The 1X, 2X, 4X and 8X digital magnifications all work just fine.

This particular lens was an experimental lens and worked great but did not have a great depth of view when focused, I think different diopter settings would change that but could not mess with that in the dark and with the 320 Boson core I would prefer a smaller 19mm lens for more FOV, depth of field, and less range, although with a 640 core Boson core the 25mm objective would be totally awesome and provide much more FOV and range distance clarity. Out 250 yards scanning was not a problem with this lens though, which was the range of my elevated shooting stand to the other side of the food plot, feeder was laser ranged at 175 yards and everything was in plain view with all palette settings.

Pretty awesome for such a tiny lightweight thermal kit.

Excellent can you post some video?

Dang, dang, dang.  Another post that  makes me feel like a diabetic at an eclair exhibition. Another juicy  steak hung just out of reach of a starving dog. Fie on you... Not really. Thanks for the info. Now, tease us some more soon. Keep the post alive. I beg you.

Navigation on foot is iffy due to hazards that will go unseen. Navigation behind a windshield is not viable. Navigation is best done with image intensification.

It has some type of proprietary USB like video connector but none of my USB cables fit it so could not take any video, this port is also used for downloading and installing new updates, but I don't have the cable.

Thanks Skypup.

I'm very excited to get some release information now!

Rats. 

Does it not have onboard recording to the micro high speed Class 10 SDHC card? 

Thanks. 

The Q14B is too tiny to have the internal recording setup, it has an external video cable.



The new Boson C-Series Clip-On and TWS scopes do have internal recording to SDHC though.

For 300 yards, get the 640, for <200 get the 320, better POS ID and FOV with 640 at that range.

The Q14-B Boson core 12 micron 320 core is some kind of handy functional kit.

It has alot of additional image control features I wish had been built into the previous RS series scopes that virtually have changed the entire setup for the end user.

There are now 100 variation settings for the AGC (automatic gain control) to adjust to personal preferences or you can turn off AGC and manually adjust.

There are also 100 variation settings for both Sharpness and Contrast and Brightness to allow you to fine turn you own individual preferences in the menu and save your adjustments as a User Preset so that it boots up exactly the way you want it each and everytime!

Many different reticules and reticule color choices and a boresight adjustment to adjust and save your reticule position on different rifles after targeting each different one.

Also some new and to me very exciting color pallettes, including one I had not seen before that is absolutely totally functional for scanning heat signatures for targeting or finding downed targets. Urban Glow looks like a major extension over the Graded Fire pallette, it has a fire red-orange bright tightly contrasted heat signature target in basic black hot mode that I was able to adjust to the point to the only thing showing in the image was the highly lite up and contrasted target, major improvement over the previous Red Alert pallette for much more precise location of thermal signatures while muting out anything else, only the heat signature lights up.

The ocular lens on the Q14-B is not a PVS-14 copy but a little bit smaller with a rotary diopter adjustment, while the objective lens was a manual rotary adjustable lens too.

I really like the ability to go into the menu and adjust all the various parameter settings and save them as you like so that when you first turn it on it boots right into your favorite setting. Boot up time is about 4-5 seconds and then you are GTG.

Did I say this kit is tiny and lightweight?

My Colt Jr. .25 ACP is four inches long and weighs three times what the Q-14B weighs.

My Spyderco Enduro is five inches long and weighs twice what the Q-14B weighs.























Oh, and to put an end to all the comments about the Q-14B "being only 1X magnification", I can state that it works extremely well at 1X, as it does at 2X, as it does on 4X and 8X.

Until it was posted above, I had not heard the horizontal FOV was only 12 degrees. It's going to be interesting hearing and seeing feedback from users on something that narrow.

Which one of the lenses are you talking about?

Here is some interesting feedback you can see from a user ->I could see about 150 feet horizontal at 200 yards distance, which was enough to target and kill this 520 pound boar hog last night!

Did not have any problem detecting these hogs in the thick dog fennel at 275 yards either with the diminutive Q14-B: