I'd like to know more about this optic. Please share any experiences/thoughts/comments/opinions on it. Thanks.

me too

The Lucid HD7 is a rubber armored and very rugged red dot with many advanced features.   I have one (pictured below) that has been running over two years on the same single AAA battery.  The auto illumination circuit automatically adjusts dot intensity to your ambient light.  It is very accurate and instantly changes to very dim in near darkness or full, intense brightness in noon day sunlight, with appropriate adjustment for in between conditions.   There is a manual over ride for any odd condition you might encounter.  It has auto shutoff after two hours if you forget to power down.   The combination produces very long battery life.

It has four different reticles, and all reliably shoot to the same point of impact.   I prefer the EOTech type circle dot, as the best for rapid target acquisition.   For punching paper, what I call the "T" dot is good.  It has two horizontal bars on each side of a series of vertical dots.   The horizontal lines help prevent canting the optic to the side, which can produce misses if you are using it at extended ranges.   The Chevron reticle is very neat.  It is intended to provide multiple aiming points on human size targets and is calibrated, as best I can tell for M193 55 grain and M855 62 grain FMJ bullets to correspond to 50 and 100 yard aiming points and extended shooting points at longer range.

It comes with its own built in mount, which is very secure, but not true return to zero.   The height is for lower 1/3 co-witness of your back up iron sights.   It is solidly constructed.  The turrets and battery cap are tethered to prevent loss in the field if you need to rezero the optic or change the battery.  My Gen III version has only the battery cap tethered, but the current ones tether the turret caps, too.  Lucid's website lists the Butler Creek lens caps to use.  You do have to cut a notch in the bottom of the front cap to clear the battery tube.

There are available options.  I have two of them.  One is the Killflash, a honeycomb type screw in insert for the front to reduce reflections off of the objective glass.  It is affordable and does its job.  It is a bit distracting, but does function as intended.   The other is the very useful but pricey ADM sourced true QD replacement mounting parts.   The two hardened square rail cross-bolts are precision fitted to the rail slots and are attached by ADM's proprietary lever and clamp system, adjustable for tension.   This is true return to zero accuracy and great if you want to swap the optic with a QD mounted scope.

There is a 2x magnifier eyepiece to screw in, but I have not tried it.   I am told that it greatly reduces field of view and is somewhat dim.

A couple possible negatives:   it is a bit bulky and heavy.   But, this is one of the reasons it is so rugged.   That is a trade off.   The other is that its sheer size somewhat blocks the ability to see around it with both eyes open.   A possible third negative is that the emitter diode, located at the 9 o'clock position is visible.   Most people will not notice that, some will.

Now, in all honesty, I have since bought two Lucid M7 microdots and now prefer them, although the HD7 has served me well.   The M7 mcirodots are much smaller and lighter at only 4.7 ounces and Aimpoint T-1 size.   The M7 has only one reticle choice, but it is the circle dot that I prefer.   It has all of the other HD7 features.  It is the same price and seems just as rugged, although it does not have the rubberized armor coating.  You will need to separately purchase a one inch riser to run it on an AR for lower 1/3 co-witness, but risers are cheap.

To me the HD7 and M7 represent the best combination of price and value for budget red dots.   While I would not claim them to be ready  for military combat, they are not too far away from that.

I've had one for little over a year now and I love it!  Holds a zero very well (I don't baby my rifle it's a tool and it gets used as such) Also seems to do well on batteries. I've used it a lot over the last year and it's still running strong. I highly recommend as a budget optic. Just my .02

I did a lot of online research before buying this optic for my Tavor.  In a word, this thing feels rugged.  On the rifle it is a little heavy compared to other red dots, but my old squad leader said if it's too heavy, go to the gym (Small Arms Repair Facility).  The glass is clear and dots are bright in sunlight.  The auto brightness feature works well in transitions from daylight to indoors.  Love the fact that this sight uses a AAA battery instead of the CR2032 in my other sights.  Bottom line, search until you find a good price and buy with confidence.

Here is a good deal on one lucid

Does it store the option of disabling auto brightness control?  I just worry about being in shade and then dimming while shooting into a lighter area.

I have one of the early versions. It had a screw on magnifier that I didn't care for. I don't know if it still does or not. I really liked it without the magnifier. For a cheap sight, that's taken some hard knocks, I'd buy it again. I'm thinking of picking up the other version in a little bit. I can't remember the name, but it looks a bit like the T-1.

ETA) Looks like another poster nailed exactly what I didn't like about the screw in magnifier. It's very dim, and gives everything a very blue-gray tint. I know that cheap glass often has that tint, but it's VERY noticeable with the magnifier. FOV also decreases, and for my purpose, I don't need the magnification anyway.

Yes, you toggle with the "on-off" button.  If you depress that button, the reticle flashes several times and changes mode to manual and then you use the up and down buttons to manually adjust your setting.  I've not tried mine to see if it stores that mode and precise setting for the next time you power up.  I can check.  I have not found a reason to need to return to manual after turning it off, but you have peaked my curiosity.   As far as other use of the buttons,  you have to hold the power button down for a full five seconds to turn it off, so you can't do that accidentally under stress.

Excellent optic with top notch customer service.  If it had  "made in USA" printed on it, it would be a $500 optic.  Mine's taken some abuse and not once did it lose zero or have any flickering of the dot while shooting

Where are they made? Thanks.

Lucid is an American company owned by one of our board members, Jason Wilson.  He is a former Brunton optics employee. That is a company that makes very good binoculars and spotting scopes.  He has a strong optics background.  He designs and engineers the optics, but to keep the price down, he does have production outsourced to China.   Warranty work, sales and distribution is all handled by Lucid here in the U.S.  The company has a reputation for prompt and good customer service.  The products have a limited lifetime warranty (limited to original purchaser).  If the HD7 were manufactured here, it would be two or three times as expensive.

As for the warrenty......i overtightened  the base to my flattop and i started to strip the threads.   I thought i was SOL because it was my fault.  I contacted customer service, and within a day, the owner, jason, shipped me out a new mount free of charge.  I have since gotten the quick detach mount (holds zero), but that act alone proves to me that they back up thier product and do care about thier customers.  Cannot go wrong buying a lucid product

How do these hold up to 308?

I can't say. But, I can say that I have run the HD7, and now one of my Lucid M7 micros on a Remington 1100 12 gauge tactical shotgun shooting full power buckshot and slugs.   The HD7 did fine.  Never lost zero or malfunctioned in any way.  I ended up going with the much smaller M7 because it could be mounted much lower and work better with the shotgun stock.   No problems with the recoil, which I would think would be substantially more than from the .308.  The little M7 now permanently resides on that shotgun and has "endured" several hundred rounds of 00 Buckshot and the occasional slug just fine.   I posted separately about actually shooting the entire rail off of the shotgun with the M7 attached to the rail.  The upper receiver was too thin to securely hold that Mesa Tactical rail.   I've since gone to a saddle type rail and reinstalled the M7 on that.   The M7 has never faltered, nor did the HD7.  It was just too high to use on a shotgun.