EDITED!!!!!
Safran Vectronix Vector X
The Vector X binoculars are a new release from Safran Vectronix. Safran are attempting to bring an all-in-one package to shooters that combines the features of a Range Finder, Ballistic App/Kestrel, and a Spotting Scope. There are other products already available similar to the Vector, but the Vector is a quality and reliability increase that caters more to the Professional Market vs the Hobbyist.
Like any all-in-one option, there are features and abilities that need to be sacrificed. This results in compromises needing to be made. It’s up to the individual shooter to determine if these compromises are acceptable, so lets break down the Vector X and see what it can, and what it CAN’T do;
Initial impressions;
Quality. As soon as you pick up the Vector X, you know you are feeling something of high quality. Every feature, every detail is refined and feels strong. Some alternatives brands feel plasticy in the materials they use. The Vector’s feel and look are one of attention to detail at every step of their design and construction. They come with an excellent molle compatible storage case that has additional spaces for cleaning equipment and accessories and will absolutely provide the necessary protection to the bino’s when not in use.
Spotting Scope/Binoculars;
The glass quality is exceptional in the Vector X. There’s no chromatic aberration and no strange tinting like that which is present in other brands Bino’s. Additionally, the Vector X features an ocular focus for the reticles inside the optic, and a target focus, or parallax adjustment. These increase the clarity and ability to see through the optic without eye strain.
Out of the box, the magnification is fixed at 8x, 10x or 12x on the Bino’s, depending on the model. We tested the 10x version. You can purchase “range enhancers” which screw on to the objective end of the binoculars to increase the magnification by 40%. We attached these and they increased magnification to 14x on our model but can go as high as 17x on the 12x Model. They also come with their own purpose designed storage case, which is great.
As a basic observation tool, the bino’s are excellent. But can they replace a spotting scope?
Yes. They can. BUT, with sacrifices.
The Vector X binos come with arca mounting plates for use with a tripod out of the box. No more weird lasso type mounts.
The Vector X has 3 reticles etched into the lens of the Right tube only. The left side is clear. Through the right tube, and on the left side of the image, there is a small, MILRAD based reticle, similar to the MIL-C reticle, however there’s a small section of grid separate to the left or right of the reticle depending on which side the reticle is on. The grid pattern is spaced in 1 mil increments. The reticle positioned on the left is to be used as the bino’s come out of the box with their factory set magnification. The middle reticle is a small cross hair for the Laser Range Finder function, and on the right, there’s a larger MILRAD reticle, that is designed to be used when the magnification range extenders are fitted. This means that all 3 reticles are visually present at all times and you reference the reticle that corresponds to the magnification setting you are using.
We took the bino’s out for a shooting session and as we were taking the extenders off and on, we had to switch between the reticles. This didn’t cause any problems for us, in this instance, being well rested, but putting fatigue or stress into the mix, there’s a likelihood that a mistake could be made when referencing a reticle.
We were, however, able to accurately see trace and observe impacts, and the reticles performed their functions.
Note; The reticles are on the periphery of the lens, and we did find ourselves shifting our head positions to get a clear view of the reticle. This didn’t effect all of us. So it’s only a concern if you have a head like a potato.
We pondered if having both reticles present was really the best way of doing things and if maybe etching the reticle in the ocular piece and having removable ocular pieces might be a solution to avoid the dual reticles.
So, can you dump your spotter for the Vector X? Yes, but you don’t get the magnification range of a dedicated spotter, you don’t get the refined Milling of a dedicated reticle. For practical applications in the field, the Vector X will still provide you with knowledge, but if you’re trying to zero at a range or spot precision impacts, you’re going to be left wanting. Having said that though. Our rifles have 20x + magnification in them. Zeroing is on the shooter, so it can be argued that the Vector X is redundant for this purpose and therefore it’s not a consideration.
Laser Range Finder
Brilliant. The Vector X dominates our Terrapin and the other brands we have. The refined aiming mark is pretty well spot on. We took the Vector X and Terrapin to the coast to get some longer sight lines. The surf was rough and there was heavy sea spray. The Terrapin X failed to cut through the spray and was able to reliably range a piece of white cardboard approx. 50cm tall and 70cm wide at 1250m. This isn’t reflective of what the Terrapin can do, just in the conditions we were in. The Vector X cut through the atmosphere with absolute ease and ranged our cardboard up to the maximum distance we could actually get to which was 1978m.
Unlike the Terrapin X, there’s both a Lase button AND a menu button WITH separate navigation buttons on the Vector X. This is our main gripe with the Terrapin. Once we lase, we have to wait a couple of seconds before we can go again. The Vector X doesn’t have this lag.
The Vector X is a powerhouse as far as it’s LRF function goes. It’s ruined our opinions of the other options out there. The Vector X is just superior.
Applied Ballistics Function
The Vector X wants to replace your Kestrel and other ballistic programs. It comes with the Applied Ballistics software installed.
The gun profiles are set up for the Vector X using a dedicated app called the VECSS. We are unsure what this stands for at this time, but the App is excellent. If you’ve used a Kestrel 5700, it’ll be very similar to the Link app. This ran very well and everything, including powder temp variations was able to be input.
All this then gets sent to the Vector X via Bluetooth. This was a super simple process and worked great.
The Vector X has on board environmental sensors that, when compared to the Kestrel, were close enough that they could be called even, and variation may have been just a result of where we were holding them/storing them before turning them on.
Inside the Vector X is a small HUD display. Like the reticles, it is only visible in the right tube. The HUD provides most of the information you’d find in your kestrel. Elevation hold, wind hold, and direction of fire are all displayed cleanly and are plenty large enough to read.
The HUD display is between the 2 reticles and just under the centre reticle for the LRF. This means it doesn’t impinge upon your view of the reticles, and vice versa.
The separate menu buttons and their respective scrolling buttons are exactly what you’d find on the Kestrel. You can scroll through menus and change the display to provide you with different information. These include; Environmental information, Gun profile information and profile select, range card, and then settings for the Binoculars. It’s great. It’s so easy to navigate through. Huge win here.
To view the information, you are required to look through the binos though. That’s a little inconvenient compared to the kestrel but it works. The Vector X however, doesn’t give you wind speed or direction. You need to use a separate device for wind, OR, be very confident in your wind calls if you aren’t going to bring another device with you. The wind information is manually input into the binoculars to give you a hold. If you already have a Kestrel, do you need the AB function? Probably not. Not that kestrels are heavy and bringing one with you to get wind info is a huge burden, but you’re paying for a capability you already have.
Symmetry
We’ve talked in detail about each of the features and what the Vector X is trying to achieve and what it lacks, so lets talk about how they work in a real world application;
We shot out to 650y from a couple of different angles to have to change wind calls. The target was a 30cm steel plate.
We ran tests to see how long it would take for the spotter to give the shooter a wind hold and elevation hold with the Vector X vs our dedicated gear.
The Terrapin is Bluetooth linked to the Kestrel. We ranged the target with the Terrapin, which sent the data to our Kestrel and we gave the hold and wind, then jumped onto the spotter and our shooter took the shot. No dramas. Accurate wind call, accurate elevation, clear impact on target through the spotter. The majority of the time here was lost jumping between the LRF and the Spotter. Interestingly, we decided to adjust the mag range of the spotter without looking until it looked right and we thought we could see what we needed to. This was 15x. 1x off the Vector X with the range enhancers fitted. So the mag range really isn’t an issue.
Time to test the Vector X. We ranged the target, got the hold, didn’t come off glass, shooter took the shot. Results were faster than using the separate gear. But, there’s a couple of issues with the tests. First, we pre-positioned the spotter and the terrapin on target. They were ready. To lase, the Vector needs to be centred, then adjusted to see the reticle to spot the shot. Additionally, the shooters already knew the wind call from the previous string of shots.
The solution,? Get up and move and reset ALL gear as if we had just got to position. With this test, the Vector X was the clear winner. 1 device, spotter doesn’t have to move themselves or gear. Loosen a knob, align, good to go.
This wasn’t just as trip to test the Vector X though, it was a yippy shoot to burn through some powder and get some reps up. This is where the bias evolved. People progressively started navigating towards the Vector X as it was far more convenient than jumping between different devices. This is probably the most telling when it comes to preference. We can analyse. We can extrapolate. But when it comes to what works and what people like, well it’s the thing they reach for first (or argue over!). And here, there was no mistake. The Vector was the pick.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth connection between the device and phones/kestel is super easy. HOWEVER, when we first started using the binos, we tried to connect the Kestrel. The HUD displayed KSTRL in that it was working, however when we checked the app and the setting in the HUD, we couldn't see anything that denoted the kestrel was providing anything over to the Binos. The HUD still stated atmosphere was "sensor" which is what it is set to to use the Bino's environmental sensors. It didn't change to KSTRL in that setting so we believed the Binos was still the source for environmental data. This turned out to be incorrect. When we checked the App, the app settings, which state "sensor" when the Bino's are providing environmental data, had change to "manual" for manual inputting. This caused us confusion as to where the environmental data was coming from. This was solved by sitting in the car with the heater on and leaving the bino's out in °3C weather. The Bino's took on the data from the Kestrel and the temp now reflected the toasty warm of the car. Once we were aware of this quirk, we set everything up in the app, hit connect on the Kestel, and it was done. Seemless and immediately provided range to the kestrel and environmentals to the binos.
Conclusion
Is the Vector X a one stop solution? Well… Yes and No. It is absolutely functional at everything it does, and straight up dominates as a range finder and progressively, what it lacked became less and less of a concern. But, here’s where the Vector really wins out;
Our dedicated single use equipment weighs 6.1kgs all together. With the range enhancers fitted, the Vector X weighs 1.3kgs, and 1kg without the range enhancers. Even with the heavier of our 2 tripods, the weight is just over half of what taking all our dedicated gear weighs. This was emphasized when we were walking up and down hills to get to some of our firing points. In a field setting, where carriage is a consideration, the Vector brings 90% (arguably more) of what you need to the table for half the weight. We have very much enjoyed using the Vector X and it’s going to be hard to move them on. Their convenience is going to be greatly missed. Especially how good the LRF function is.
One final thought
There is a separate model of the binos available called the Vector Radical X. These are the same bino’s with the reticles in the right tube, however they do not have the AB function or the LRF. We feel this might’ve been a missed opportunity here. We already have a Kestrel that gives us all our ballistic data, and it’s weight isn’t a massive consideration. A model of the Bino’s without the AB function, but including the exceptional range finder, probably would have been the best compromise in our opinion.
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