Place | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
Name | ATN X-SIGHT 4K PRO | CCUFIRE NOCTIS V1 | PULSAR DIGISIGHT ULTRA N455 | SIGHTMARK WRAITH | PARD NV-008 |
Price | $ 699 | $ 999 | $ 1559 | $ 599 | $ 699 |
Magnification | 3-14x | 1- 6x | 4.5-32x | 4-32x | 6.5-12x |
Sensor | 3864×2218 | N/A | 1280×720 | 1920×1080 | N/A |
Video, FPS | 1320×1080 (120 FPS) |
1920×1080 (N/A FPS) |
1024×768 (N/A FPS) |
1080×720 (N/A FPS) |
1920×720 |
Eye relief | 90mm | N/A | 50mm | 60mm | 35mm |
Battery Type | Internal Lithium Battery |
4xCR132 | Internal Lithium Battery |
4xAA | Internal Lithium Battery |
Battery life | 18 hours | 5 hours | 4 hours | 3.5 hours | N/A |
Mounting | 30mm rings Weaver bases | Picatinny bases | Weaver bases | Picatinny bases | Picatinny bases |
Weight, g | 940 | 878 | 830 | 1029 | 450 |
Day & Night | (B&W day) | ||||
Video & Sound | Only Video | ||||
Streaming | |||||
App | |||||
Ballistic calc | |||||
Rangefinder | (Stadiametric) | (Stadiametric) |
PRICE: If you need to pay an arm and a leg to get a scope – it is better not to talk about this scope. In this article you will find scopes only with affordable cost.
MAGNIFICATION: If you are a professional paper killer with sub moa results, high magnification is your choice. If you’re a professional hunter, you, for sure, understand the importance of a bigger field of view. Lower magnification => bigger field of view => easier to spot an animal => more hunting successes.
VIDEO RECORD RESOLUTION: Digital riflescopes give you the possibility to record video and take pictures while shooting or hunting. Due to low resolution, old videos on YouTube have pixelated images. If you want to have cool videos in high resolution, then you need to pay attention to video record resolution attribute. To have smooth and without lagging video, it needs to have a high level of FPS (Frames per Second).
EYE RELIEF is a distance from the eyepiece of your scope to your eye. Higher calibers have higher recoil and the distance to your eye should be big enough to avoid getting “scoped”. For air guns and 22LR – almost no recoil, but for 308 WIN or 30-06SPR – it is better to have standard 90mm eye relief.
BATTERY LIFE is a crucial thing for digital riflescopes: no power = no scope. Your scope should work long enough, because you can encounter an animal right after you arrive in the field or 4 hours later.
NIGHT VISION – is a common thing for all listed scopes. Quality of the image depends on the power of your IR-illuminator and sensor resolution in your scope.
MOUNTING: If your AR-15 has a picatinny rail, then there will be no problem with mounting a digital scope. For bolt action and shotguns – digital scopes are mounted too high and you will need to have an adjustable cheekpiece.
WEIGHT: It goes without saying that every gram of your equipment turns into a kilogram of weight when you are exhausted, especially if it is a trekking hunt. Weight is very important and more than crucial for specific hunting types. Unfortunately, most digital scopes are quite heavy. Hope this can be changed in the near future.
[adinserter block=”9″]FEATURES: Digital scopes provide useful features to a shooter (Ballistic calculator, rangefinder, streaming, etc.) Ballistic calculator with a rangefinder helps a shooter to make a precise shot by providing proper corrections to hit the target. Streaming video from your scope can be useful to teach someone how to shoot or to make your shooting experience more fun.
Now let’s take a look at the competitive landscape.
1. ATN X-SIGHT 4K PRO
(Official website: atncorp.com)
Click to see the Amazon price of ATN X-SIGHT 4K PRO
First place in this chart is the ATN X-SIGHT 4K PRO. It has the second best price for ultimate daylight image, good night vision, nice design and a lot of useful features.
Daylight image is extremely good due to the highest resolution (3864×2218) and highest 120 FPS on the market – crisp image with deep colors and it is very smooth without any sort of lags. You can record video and audio, make pictures or do live streaming via wi-fi. If you don’t like long videos but you want to save the moment of your shot – Recoil Activated Video feature will help you (it captures video before and after the shot). Night vision is also good, with the included IR-illuminator you can easily determine small animals at 200 yards (for longer distances you will need to buy a more powerful IR-illuminator).
Speaking about included features: it has a ballistic calculator – you just need to input data about your rifles ammunition into the scope and you will get ballistic drop for different distances (your reticle will change accordingly). As an option you can use the Smart Mil-Dot reticle which works on all magnification ranges (same as a FFP reticle in day time scopes). Stadiametric rangefinder is included but if you would like to have more precise data for longer shots – you would need to buy a rangefinder as an accessory.
The X-Sight has the best energy management system, it`s battery lasts about 18 hours – you won’t find any competitor even come close to these numbers. And you don’t need to think about batteries or a specific charger, you can use any type C USB-cable.
Last but not the least – scope is made from aluminium alloy, which makes it heavier but it is more durable and protected from environmental factors. Design of this digital scope was made to be similar to a daytime rifle scope: it can be mounted with 30mm rings on any weaver base. Using standard rings, it can be mounted on a bolt action rifle with no issues (the scopes profile does not interfere with the ejection port). It has 90mm eye relief – standard distance for daytime scope, that will allow you to put this scope on a higher caliber without any risk of being “scoped”.
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2. ACCUFIRE NOCTIS V1
(Official website: accufiretech.com)
Click to see the Amazon price of ACCUFIRE NOCTIS V1
Second place is the ACCUFIRE NOCTIS V1 – not the cheapest scope but it has nice image quality and can work for 5 hours. Video can be recorded with 1920×1080 resolution. Night vision mode is fine and can provide you multiple colors for viewing. Included IR-illuminator gives the possibility to see clearly at 300 yards.
Downside of this scope is it`s price and 4xCR123 batteries. You will need to buy expensive batteries every time you would like to use your scope (you can use your power bank as an alternative but it won’t be a comfortable use with your rifle).
3. PULSAR DIGISIGHT ULTRA N455
(Official website: pulsar-nv.com)
Click to see the Amazon price of PULSAR DIGISIGHT ULTRA N455
This scope is the most expensive on our list, but for a good night image and good additional features it takes 3rd place. Night image is one of the best on the market for this price range and included IR-illuminator helps to find a target up to 500 yards away. Picture-in-picture mode provides you the possibility to find a target with a big field of view in lower magnification and to make a precise shot with high magnification – all on one screen. Integrated stadiametric rangefinder will be a nice tool, especially with 5 individual shooting profiles for different distances. Scope has 10 different reticles (scalable ballistic reticles also included).
Scope has rechargeable lithium battery which lasts about 4 hours in max consumption mode. It also has a specially designed port for charging cable (better not to lose it, because standard type C USB-cable won’t fit). Body of the scope is made from cheap quality plastic and you, probably, will face some issues during use, but it makes the scope a bit lighter than others similar scopes. Scope is shockproof (you can put it on a .375H&H) but due to small eye relief (only 50mm) it is recommended to be used with only medium calibers.
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4. SIGHTMARK WRAITH
(Official website: sightmark.com)
Click to see the Amazon price of SIGHTMARK WRAITH
4th place and the cheapest scope is Sightmark Wraith. It is made from aluminium alloy and is the heaviest scope here. Image quality in night and day mode are quite medium in comparison to others scopes. It has no additional features, no App., no possibility to stream. You can record video but without audio. AA batteries are used as a power supply for the scope and it lasts about 4.5 hours, which is not bad. But buying AA batteries every time is cumbersome and not environmentally friendly. Main advantage of this scope is it`s price and simplicity – just a digital scope with day and night modes.
5. PARD NV-008
(Official website: pard-tech.com)
Click to see the Amazon price of PARD NV-008
Digital scope Pard NV-008 is in last place of our chart. It has the lowest weight, affordable price and nice image quality. It has no Application for your smartphone and it is not possible to make wi-fi streaming from your scope. But the main crucial disadvantage of this scope is it’s eye relief – only 35mm. I am using centerfire rifles in .308 WIN and .30-06 SPR – this means they have some recoil. With 35 mm eye relief I will injure my eye.
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For this reason, you will see a lot of reviews on the web with this scope only on air guns or 22LR. This scope is OK to eliminate rats at night with your air gun but a bad option for hog or coyote hunting with .308 WIN.