Bushnell Equinox X650 Digital Night Vision Monocular – 5x32mm

I bought this on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. Burned through the Alkaline battery pretty quick because I had accidentally hit the power button putting it in the case. Oops. No documentation came with it, but I was able to go online and download the most current version. The IR illuminator comes on the moment you turn on the device. Once I read how to use the menu, I was able to turn it off. I could also increase or decrease the brightness of the illuminator. I do have IR floodlights around my house so I don't need to use the illuminator on the device unless I move further away from the house. The IR floodlights keep the neighbors from complaining when I turn them on. I was able to see accurately out to 300 yards. Another thing I noticed, I can see a lot of stars when I point my Monocular into the sky, even those I can't see unaided. I have been very pleased with the Monocular. I did replace the 8 GB card with a 64 GB one for more storage. With a 1.0 view, the device works great. When I increase the zoom up to 3.0 the image becomes grainy. For me, the 1.0 view is just fine. 10/16/2023 Update When using the 64 GB card, the device will shut off at times while in use. Sometimes it won't even come on. Once I removed the 64 GB card and replaced it with the 8 GB version that came with it, the problems ceased. Since I primarily use it for wildlife spotting in my neighborhood and night viewing of the sky in conjunction with a couple of telescopes, I don't need to record any video or pictures. I did buy a couple of IR lights for it and they work well with the scope. The quality is pretty good for the price. I would buy one again if I needed another one.

I have a number of Bushnell products, ranging from budget optics for rifles to high-end binoculars, and generally find them to be good value for the prices charged. Living in a rural area with 16 acres of wooded property, night vision could be a useful tool for ensuring nothing is amiss at night, so I got these as a simple 'check things out' night vision device. After reading the manual and loading the batteries, I check them in both 'starlight' conditions and nearly complete darkness; in both cases, what I got was a small, illuminated screen of blurry, indistinct bright and dark spots and swirls. The magnification, which never goes below 3x, doesn't help. The IR illuminator does seem to 'work' in that the brightness of the screen changes, but objects remain unrecognizable. I was able to see my car in my driveway from about 20 feet away, and it was *slightly* more visible than with the naked eye, but that has been the only time it's actually 'worked.' I'm not sure if this is a defective unit, or this is simply what it's capable of, but I'm certainly not thrilled with it.

This is a 1080P Chinese dash cam at it's core. They added a viewfinder, a single 850nm IR illuminator and a handheld form factor and here we have it. These 4 button night vision kits are usually about $60 new and for this price you are buying that same night vision with one of the hilarious brand names they sell them under but getting the illusion of an American brand and a 5 year 'warranty' included. That's the only advantage of getting this version. The illuminator and other functions work okay, except the settings are not retained. When switching the unit on anywhere but outside the illuminator will overwhelm the optics and it will constantly switch on and off and interrupt the image and so on until you change the illuminator to 0 or 1 on the scale of 9 so it's not too bright. Image quality is okay but not great. It's a 2X magnifier so FOV is very limited. Works with three AA or LR6 batteries - alkaline only. The unit I have will not even power on with NiMH or Lithium batteries. This is likely due to voltage tolerances since NiMH batteries are usually 1,2v DC and Lithium are 1,7v DC or more. So get heaps of alkaline batteries as you will need them. These work pretty good OUTSIDE and when they do work have a decent image, just know what you're buying first and don't even think of requesting support! The support for this model on the Bushnell main site doesn't even have the right model listed, it shows the Z2 and what they call a 'manual' is also a laughable handout and not even close to a proper how-to document. I emailed the correct Bushnell support channel about the issues I have and the reply I got only mentioned one of the four issues I asked about and had no resolution or options whatsoever. If I do keep it which is unlikely I'll follow up more. Buyer beware

Ok there is one caveat to this. You really need to buy a quality aftermarket either red or infra red light for this. Then it becomes an incredible value. I already had the light. I have been trying to coyote hunt with lights with zero luck. Someone recommended this on a fb page saying they were picking up eyes at 800 yards with it. I can say that they are correct. But you have to have a light that will get out there. Without an aftermarket light it's basically a toy and useless for what I need. But as mentioned I already had a awesome light and this has a pic rail that let's u mount the light. With a good light I can sweep a half mile field in a few seconds with a great degree of confidence whether there is anything there or not. It picks up eyes amazingly. Way better than we could ever do with just flashlights. This is a great way to see what's going on while trying to call them in and have your second guy at the ready with a light on his boomstick. Then once it's in close enough to pick up good with a light you are ready to go. Under 200 yards this thing is 100 percent capable of i.d. out side of that u can usually tell by their mannerisms but may or may not have a good look at their body. It has no problem picking up eyes 500 yards our from a racoon in a tree. It's like a spotlight on steroids. You have to understand this isn't a 3500 dollar thermal, but as a scanner and being used in conjunction with lights, this thing will step your game up I promise. I think coupled with a 100 dollar ir light off Amazon you will have a very capable scanner. Or, if like me you already have one, then this is a no Brainerd. I included a couple pics from a coyote that was 150 ish yards out. It's better in person than the pics show.

Excelente

This is my first experience with a night vision scope. The X650 appears to work as advertised. At this price point it is not "military grade", nor does it produce HD quality views or pictures. It gives a color view in daylight mode with the included IR filter cap in place while the night views (using IR illumination) are black & white. The still pictures are 3 MP (2048 x 1536) resolution while the video clips are VGA (640 x 480) at about 27 FPS. At these resolution, you will want to stick with a true optical monocular or binoculars for daytime viewing, but at least the daylight viewing option is available with the X650. In spite of the resolution, the nighttime views can actually be pretty good especially if the target is fairly close and the IR illumination high. The unit appears to always power up in the daylight mode and then automatically switches to night mode (turns on the IR illumination) depending on the lighting conditions. The IR power setting is automatic and ranges from a value of 1 to 5. You can, however, set the IR illumination to a manual value of 1 to 9 via the "Settings" menu. High IR settings produce better views and pictures, but quickly run down the battery power. Regardless of the IR setting, capturing targets at long distances (i.e. 200 yards) will be difficult. The unit comes with 3, AA alkaline batteries, but good quality rechargeable NiMH batteries also seem to work as well. I don't have much experience with NV, but at the price level of the X650, it performs well. If you are a hunter trying to spot deer at a couple hundred yards the X650 will probably not work for you. If you want to look at critters in your backyard at night that are up to 50 yards away, the X650 should work fine. Now for the X650 big issue! It does not come with an instruction manual, but you can download a manual from the Bushnell website. The operating buttons are not intuitive and without the manual it is very difficult to decipher how the X650 operates. The problem is that the on-line manual is full of errors and in some cases is just plain wrong! The on-line manual appears to be a very poorly edited "cut & paste" of a manual that applies to another product (probably their "Z Series" monocular). The result is a manual that refers to operating buttons that don't exist, specifications that are wrong and some instructions that obviously don't apply to the X650! Wow! Come on, Bushnell, surely you can do better than this! If you sit down with the X650 in hand and print out the on-line manual, after a couple of hours of trial and error pushing buttons, you can edit the on-line manual so that it actually applies to the X650. Once I understood how the X650 actually operates and what its actual capabilities are, I came to the conclusion that it does work pretty well for the price....BUT, BUSHNELL, PLEASE CORRECT YOUR INSTRUCTION MANUAL!!! 1/24/2022 Update: There appears to be a very long shutter delay when taking still pictures at night. This makes it very difficult to hold the X650 still enough to not produce a blurry night picture.

For the price the quality of manufacturing is amazing very sturdy in the hand and feels very solid the picture is clear and bright but the field of view is small. This is just to be expected and is not a deal breaker. I would buy this again and would gift it

I got this. Cool. I turned it on. It wasn't so great. I thought, "Okay, fair enough. It will probably work better with a good IR light source." So I got a good IR light, and I'm excited to try it again. The stupid thing will NOT power up. I go online to look for an answer. I try all the things. Use new batteries (duh), make sure the contacts are not corroded (duh), make sure the SD card is installed (I wouldn't have thought of that, but it was), take the batteries out for a while and let the capacitors drain (I also wouldn't have thought of that, but it was also done). Nothing. This hunk of junk powered on exactly ONE time and never again. Apparently this is a common issue. You'd be better off buying old Gen 1 Russian surplus (noisy, grainy and green as it is) than this thing.

For the prise, value for money. I would have wish the IR light more sharper..... But I bought a additional IR light..... Really light up the night Overall this item did not disappoint me

Esta bastante cortito y la imagen nomas bien pobre.

Well it does what it says..I have not used another to compare it by , I wasn't expecting much for the price, however the night vision works quite well. I did look at video feedback on you tube before buying it. So am pleased. The zoom isn't the greatest but then I knew it wasn't the most powerful

Piece of crap!!! Put in the batteries it came with. Pressed the on button. Set the date and time. Turned it off. Picked it up to test it at night and what do you know it doesn't work. Put new batteries in - nothing worked. Tried the power supply lead - nothing works. Now I have to spend more money sending it back!! And Bushnell sells them 50$ cheaper direct.

Es una aparato de calidad, con buena calidad de imagen, a distancias inferiores a 100 m es bastante bueno, pero el campo visual es reducido y la linterna IR que lleva es insuficiente. Si se acopla una linterna externa la cosa cambia y mucho. Se puede trabajar a más de 100m