Good write up Terry !
I'm still on the fence on the breach ... my helmet mountable NODs right now are:
Patrol 19mm, 1x, 640(60/30) (with modified 3x front magnifier that allows it to be shot )
ODIN 17mm, 1x, 320(30)
PAS-29/COTI 10mm, 1x, 320(30)
The ODIN, perhaps the most similar to the breach, is also fixed focus, BUT, it is fixed focus at infinity, versus the 50yds of the breach. I have been able to ID a moving yote at 500yds while rolling on 4-wheeler (both yote and 4-wheeler moving). Now I can't do that every night, but it did happen once. The yote was out in the open moving up the side of a hill.
Not real sure what the ODIN detection range is, but I can for sure detect cattle at 800yds. Haven't tried farther.
The ODIN can take the same USB battery pack that is sold for and works with the IRD/TEO scopes and I use that 100% of the time, when I am helmet mounting the ODIN and that takes the useful life out to way more than 1 night, even in coldest temps (sub -10F) I get around here. Very useful.
ODIN on helmet:
The ODIN also works as a weapon site on the .22LR using a M-69 mount (made for PVS-14). I tried a PVS-14 ring mount (with a "spear" ) but the wobble in that mount moved the POI 2 inches at 25 yards! The M-69 mount is rock solid.
I just use it as a weapon site on the .22lr for ratting.
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I got the ODIN to replace the Q-14 Mod 0. The Q-14 mod 0 was a 19mm 1x 640(30). Even though the Q-14 was a 640, it rarely had a better image than the ODIN and that was disappointing. I ran them side by side for several months. The Q-14 did improve, when I started the "nuc the sh^t out of it" routine, but I'd already started doing that before I got the ODIN. I could see cattle at a mile and a half one night, they were just blobs, but I knew what was there and had the Zeus standard 640 with me that night and it could see them better. Once I saw a pack rat at 300yds with the Q-14, though the pack rat was just a dot and ID was based on location, movement and size (not shape).
The surprising thing about the Q-14 was I found it most useful as a thermal scope on the .22lr as a ratter. It was easy to get a tight group on the center of a hand warmer at 25yds and the mount had a decent return to zero.
The big disappointments with the Q-14 were the image (once on a coyote hunt, the guys with me called out 2 yotes at 300yds and I couldn't see sh^t with the Q-14) and inability to helmet mount beside PVS-14 (I could mount it solo on helmets with the provided mounts, but not on a dual bridge). The Q-14 was MUM form factor, the ODIN is PVS-14 form factor. That's why I got the ODIN and sold the Q-14. But I would say the Q-14 was a better 1x .22lr weapons site, believe it or not
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Oh, also, the Armasight extended battery worked with the Q-14 as a spotter, but the Q-14 would power down when shot with the extended battery in there, even off a .22LR. That was another disappointment. I never got the 2x magnifier or the Armasight extended battery PACK, just the longer battery and cap.
So even with the focus ring on the Q-14, if I had to take just one of the Q-14 or the ODIN out at night as a spotter, I would take the ODIN, I'm sad to say. I trust that I can see what is in front of me for at least 500-800yds with the ODIN, but not with the Q-14.
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So where does that leave the breach?
Well, when the Q-14B (now known as breach) was first announced I had one in my budget (announced for "around" $2k IIRC). I think I had 2 in there at one point before I sold the Q-14 mod 0 ( I want 2 helmet mountable thermal spotters minimum ). But after all the delays, I finally got a Patrol and I love it. I was a dumbass for not getting one sooner. I listened to bad advice
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So, the ODIN is now the 2nd helmet mountable thermal and it is fixed focus at infinity and so works well out to 500-800yds and it mounts easily beside a PVS-14 on a dual bridge and it can take the IRD USB battery pack on the helmet and it works as a weapons site on the .22LR (in theory it also works on 5.56). So what does the breach have that the ODIN is missing ??
Well the ODIN doesn't do video unless I buy a separate cable for it ... and that isn't likely. I used to do video with all the armasights and I do miss that, but now that I've sold all the armasights, I haven't done video. I just do stills with the various OASYS core units. But that is one gap for sure.
There is price, you can get about some where between 1.5 and 2.0 breaches for the street price of one ODIN (currently around $4k).
I would expect the display in the breach to be the source of a MUCH better image, but not 100% convinced that is the case. Perhaps the breach lens is too small to take advantage of it. Whereas the larger 736 scope can take advantage of the "hi res" display?
So anyway, still on the fence on the breach ... but watching the reports roll in ... and thanks to ALL who posted videos and reports !!! I agree with Todd, the only new FLIR units I'm even interested in so far are the 736 and the breach, but as to the breach, not sure it is much better than the ODIN other than size, price and video.