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Night Vision The Official: Steiner C35 Thermal Clip-on Review and User Thread!

TheHorta said:
So… can only speak to “my” loaner C35, but POI shift on this unit is 6-8 MOA low and 0-1 MOA left. Like any “non-collimated” unit, this one may likely need to be adjusted to your various rifles. Fortunately, it stores multiple profiles and the adjustment process is pretty simple and quick.

Confirm Day Scope Zero
Pop C35 on Rifle
Shoot a group
Note POI Shift
Enter Adjustment Menu
Enter-in recorded POI shift
Re-shoot group
Check/Verify collimation
Save to rifle profile.

I’ve run into a few things I either do not really like — aside from the weight and Soviet-era design any negatives are relatively minor — but I keep having to repeat to myself that this thing is only $3,999 MAP! If I only had $4K to spend, there really is no other clipon out there that offers this level of performance. I’m sure we’re on the cusp of a Chynah-inspired price war, but until that happens, this is the price/performance leader.

I’d like to see a 50-75mm model. 35mm leaves me wanting, but is great for inside 200 yards.

All that said, I took out the “Stable” to compare — wondering just how close the RH25 and C35 are to the Big Dogs that cost 3-5x as much. I was out at about the time of the dreaded “Thermal Crossover.” Both the C35 and RH25 really struggled to show a clearly defined steel plate at 100 yards. It just about completely melted into the background, even with the gain and contrast cranked-up and regardless of color palette. The Voodoo-S, UTM-X, and UTC-Xii could easily present a well-defined plate without having to crank-up the image setting and, with a quick turn of the eyepiece, everything came into razor-crisp focus and there was basically zero POI shift.

Are the Big Dogs worth the extreme price differential? To most, probably not. To me, hells yeah!
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So, you're saying the Theon.
 
$3999 is as good as it gets. It has some warts, but they’re all in the cosmetic/weight department. Image and performance-per-dollar is a solid win.
 
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TheHebrewHammer said:
It's pouring rain here, I might say fuck it and still take them out for pictures.
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What better way to see how they perform!
I played with the Y-C in pouring rain the night in comparison to the night before which was clear and stars. 55-60 F both nights.
I don’t have much to compare to, but myself and two friends were very impressed looking at cattle 875y, 200y, 100y and some farm pets 325y away. Other than that the cars, a couple concrete well heads, houses etc. Seem to do well even in the rain. Totally subjective but a lot of fun had by all.
 
Twistid said:
I know this is the c35 thread but since they are essentially the same here's some pics of the s35. These were taken through the Steiner Connect app, so I'm not sure if quality is degraded as the picture is compressed and sent over wifi to my phone. The first three pics are of rodents or squirrels or something across the street.
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I have a Steiner spotter I picked up as an interim solution….

The apps is awful at getting good quality pictures from any Steiner thermal.
 
GBMaryland said:
I have a Steiner spotter I picked up as an interim solution….

The apps is awful at getting good quality pictures from any Steiner thermal.
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Yep you're 100% correct, my Steiner thermal is pretty great at the 1-4x range, excellent quality. Just waiting on my RC2 before I swap out my daytime optic.
 

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After spending multiple days attempting to take photos, I realized I have the stable hand of Michael J. Fox. Steiner will be showing off the C35 at the big show this weekend in Houston so we should see a lot more videos and reviews.
 
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How did it compare to the 2 other scopes in your opinion?
 
The Burris BTC50 impressed me a lot for the money, the Yoter has a terrible mount that comes with it. The C35 seems the brightest, had a couple clients compare them side by side, they agree the C35 has a better picture.
 
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TheHebrewHammer said:
The Burris BTC50 impressed me a lot for the money, the Yoter has a terrible mount that comes with it. The C35 seems the brightest, had a couple clients compare them side by side, they agree the C35 has a better picture.
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What about for detection at distance?
 
You have to put it right up to your eye, but my dad does it. Less shit to carry and you just throw it on your gun once you find something to shoot.
 
The onboard recording is just through the objective so you won't see the image you see when you are behind a scope.
 
TheHebrewHammer said:
Photo I forgot I took while zeroing it in at a 100 yard range. Video says it's too big and not sure how to upload it.
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You have to upload to YouTube or similar platform and then share that link for video is my understanding.
 
I got mine in yesterday, and it's my first thermal and only the second one I looked through, but very impressive! I threw it in front of a 4x32 ACOG, and could easily pick up and watch neighbor driving car 700m away, neighbor walking with dogs 400m away, and racoons and skunks at 200m.

I'm thinking the fixed 4x might not be the best scope behind this unit. I'm not sure what to expect, but I thought in my simple mind with the C35 saying FOV at 100m was 12.5x9.5m and the ACOG being 12.5m @ 100m, I thought I would be viewing more of the C35 screen. If I turn on the PIP, I can catch just the edge of that display. I have the C35 mounted as close as possible to the ACOG, but as I move it further away I start to get more and more view of the C35 screen, but I have never seen a clip on mounted anywhere other than directly in front of the day scope. So I guess what is coming into play here is AFOV.

I guess my question is, what should I look for in a scope that might take better advantage of utilizing more of the screen, or is that just as good as it's going to get at 4x since the ACOG has massive FOV. Do I just need a scope with a low end of 2x or something?
 
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Yeah with a fixed-power optic it’s really hard to predict exactly how much the clip-on screen will fill (or over/under-fill) your day optic. That’s why you see most people running clip-ons in front of LPVOs. You can zoom out to see more or zoom in for a focused shot. Of course there’s nothing wrong with using a fixed power optic and a clip on, you just lose the advantage of variability and the ability to adjust your FOV.
 
Loaner just arrived this evening and I slapped it in front of the Vortex 1-10 on a stripped out upper to take a peek at the image. Looking good so far, but will need to get it out to some distance with critters. Quite a hefty unit compared to the RH25, but a much simpler menu and likely some extra zoom ability. Still seeing pretty heavy pixelation above 6x. Will try to check for POI shift ASAP too.

 
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Conqueror said:
Yeah with a fixed-power optic it’s really hard to predict exactly how much the clip-on screen will fill (or over/under-fill) your day optic. That’s why you see most people running clip-ons in front of LPVOs. You can zoom out to see more or zoom in for a focused shot. Of course there’s nothing wrong with using a fixed power optic and a clip on, you just lose the advantage of variability and the ability to adjust your FOV.
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When looking at LPVOs, is there any other specs besides FOV which may make it perform best with a clip on? I guess how to tell which LPVOs would view the full screen top to bottom at 2x while another does it at 2.5x (just random numbers for example)
 

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TheHebrewHammer said:
Yall making me start a Youtube channel and shit. It looks like ass thanks to my shakey hand and video compression, but the furthest mailbox at the end of the street is over 330 yards.

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Laying off the triple expresso's might help with a steady hand:LOL: or a tripod. It does provide a nice, bright image.

How many profiles can it save/store?
 
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