The Close Quarters Thermal from Steiner Optics has been out there for about a year now.
It is a long-wave infrared sensor in the 8-14 ?m range. What makes it different, is that it combines the 320 x 240 pixels, 12 micron sensor, with a red dot reticle overlay.
It runs in three thermal modes: outline, patrol and full.
The CQT features a selectable reticle 2.5 MOA red dot.
??
It uses two CR-123A batteries which runs the thermal for up to eight hours and the red dot for over 1000 hours.
Sounds great, but there are a couple of limiting factors. It runs just under $10,000, weighs about a pound, and has an effective range of only about 12 yards. Remember, it’s a CQB sight.
www.steiner-optics.com/imaging-systems/cqt
Why should a 320px sensor only be usable to 12 yards? What FOV does this device offer?
I think you should be able to use it further out.
Does it fit 18650 batteries with ~6h of runtime – because trashing a dozen of CR123A everyday in training sure gets more expensive than the purchase price of 10k.
Very interesting! Crawl-walk-run, I think this is a great innovative product! Can’t wait to see how time and constant tech-innovation will evolve this to a smaller package over the years. Remember, night-vision 50+ years ago was the size of a telescope atop a rifle and even then it was very grainy!
Keep on keep’n on!