New user. Bought a 5-18 NIB and took delivery last week. Did everything recommended by ATN and other users, watched the youtube videos, etc. before taking it out to hunt.
Sitting in an airport in Texas with some time so am posting my impressions and experience. I have a fair amount of NV hunting experience and currently use a Photon XT/Sightmark IR805 illuminator and have rented some higher end thermal kit. A few friends have the X-Sight. I liked that it had the video function and the day capability so I bought one. Again, these are only my impressions from direct and first hand experience. I don't really care if a reader disagrees or agrees with them.
I hunted 3 nights from blinds for about 6 hours per night. Weather conditions generally clear. Some light rain showers (very light). Hunted the full moon then two nights on waning moon.
First thing: I did kill hogs. But...
I had to work way too hard fighting with the sight to make it happen. I missed at least 4 opportunities (hogs in range and clearly seen in night binos) because the scope would dim to the point of being unuseable within seconds. The only way around this (there are two actually) was to cycle the IR illuminator off and on...and continually. The useable sight picture lasted about 3-4 seconds max. Yes, tried the low/medium/high amplification settings. I tried in white and green. I tried another IR illuminator. Same result. I called ATN and got a basic "sounds like a problem - can't really help you - need to see it to diagnose it" reply. The rep said he's never heard of the problem. Pardon me but I don't believe it...especially after reading numerous forum posts about this issue. (FWIW - the other way to get temporarily adjust the gain is to put your hand in front of the illuminator for a second or two)
Unsat. Many other issues as well. Every so often the dimming function (via button icon) did not work. Had to use the full menu. I also find it very odd that with the scope zeroed, the reticle was dispaced almost 1/3rd of the visual field to the left of optical center. Also odd (I know it has been written about extensively) is the reticle jumping around when using the zoom function.
Other issues: I tried to take some pictures and video. Worked okay - sometimes. Other times the image would go black (taking a picture). Had to fully recycle off>on to see anything. Video worked one night but not another. One video has about a five second lag from hearing the "kaboom" to seeing the flash.
Rarely did everything work as advertised at the same time. Good concept and a decent device - when it works...but it doesn't consistently work. My assessment after using it for this hunt: twitchy, temperamental, unreliable, inconsistently performing moderately priced boat anchor. Done being a beta tester. Will be returning it and will not buy another ATN product. Too many other good options. That is all.