Night Vision N Vision Halo XRF vs IRay RH50R

EXSOCAL · Nov 23, 2024

Looking for some opinions based in real world experience with these two thermals. I currently own an N Vision Halo X35 and love it but want something with built in LRF. Being a happy N Vision owner, the natural progression would be the XRF but I’ve had the IRay RH50R recommended by several people. For the price, if it does what the XRF does and offers the same reliability and resolution, I’ll jump on it.

Anyone had the chance to compare or own both of these that can give an opinion?

Thanks in advance.

MuleyTime · Nov 23, 2024

I switched up this year and went from the XRF to the RH50R. I have no regrets. In fact the RH50R is my all time favorite so far (I have experience with many brands and models). The LRF is awesome and paired with the ballistics calculator makes it even more awesome. NVision needs to up their game, IMHO.

EXSOCAL · Nov 23, 2024

That’s what is making me lean towards the IRay stuff. I like supporting the red, white, and blue company but they lack in features when compared to the new Chinese stuff unfortunately. NVision hasn’t had any major product advancements in a long time.

How is the resolution and detection distance compared to the XRF?

MuleyTime · Nov 23, 2024

EXSOCAL said:
That’s what is making me lean towards the IRay stuff. I like supporting the red, white, and blue company but they lack in features when compared to the new Chinese stuff unfortunately. NVision hasn’t had any major product advancements in a long time.

How is the resolution and detection distance compared to the XRF?

They are both really good, but different in their own way. The IRAY is phenomenal and like I said, I have no regrets at all.

Aftermath · Nov 23, 2024

NVision recent purchase here. Halo XRF. I looked at most and through quite a few.

Made in the USA was my main determination.

Truly amazing to a guy that only very long ago viewed night vision.

I have this thermal scope but am wanting to get nightvision rigged up. From all of my research, I learned it is generally better to rig yourself thermal for scanning for coyotes and then a night vision scope on the rifle. to do that, I'd need to get rid of this Halo and that is probably not going to happen. I'm looking at setting up a helmet with duals...night vision and thermal.

Just a couple hours ago there were 2 yotes crossing the pasture at 285 yards. I missed 4 times on one and never shot at the other. Looking at bullet trajectory, I was shooting over the one I was shooting at. Not by much. dammitman!! I have not had time to get an actual zero let alone the other zooms available.

Federal's with Hornady 53 grain varmint. I will get this thing tuned in to this AR and then the bolt 223 Ackley, the bolt 243 Ackley and my primary 300 Win Mag.

45cal4life · Nov 23, 2024

Going through the same dilemma but also wanting night vision (helmet mounted to go with the Nox18). Iray came out with a RL42R - 384 sensor with a base mag of 4x and msrp is $2k less than the RH50R. Otherwise specs look the same. The few videos out there look good though

shoots100 · Nov 24, 2024

Not having to focus the Halo scopes, the awesome BAE core, adaptive reticle, 18650 pwr and USA made are what keep me using Nvision.
Having those features with the BAE 1920 res core would be awesome.
The S60R is a feature packed 1280 res scope for a really unbeatable price when it becomes available here.
Don't like the China made, internal battery or 2X base mag.
It does have the 18650 extended battery option and the 2X base mag is negated by the ocular zoom coupled with the 2560 HD display.
Foreign manufacturers are listening, hopefully US manufacturers are too ?

SJC

Lowdown3 · Nov 25, 2024

Good time to get an XRF on sale! N-Vision usually never puts thermals on sale.

tekmann2377 · Nov 25, 2024

I haven't looked through an Iray to directly compare, but have some time behind other units like the Super Yoter. The image quality of the XRF is really outstanding, and the rangefinder works fine. It doesn't have an integrated ballistic calculator though.

Bigwilly556 · Nov 26, 2024

Same boat here and I'm no expert as I just purchased my first thermal (RH25 V2) a few weeks ago but I was literally at my local dealer today comparing the XRF, RH50R, and hybrid 75. None of the employees knew how to NUC the XRF so keep that in mind but the Irays (auto NUC) blew the XRF out of the water. I was indoors with about 100 yards to deal with. The manual focus on the RH50R was very touchy but also very crisp when set correctly. I really liked the throw lever and .1 magnification increments are fantastic. That being said the auto focus, 18650s, and USA made still has me leaning XRF. I'll be returning to take them outside and NUC the XRF. Even with the current sale and my discount on Irays the $3400 price difference is hard to swallow.

EXSOCAL · Nov 27, 2024

I ended up going with an XRF from @SkyScrapin with Strictly Offensive Kit. Preston was absolutely awesome to deal with and the price on the XRF made the decision much easier.

Aftermath · Nov 27, 2024

EXSOCAL said:
I ended up going with an XRF from @SkyScrapin with Strictly Offensive Kit. Preston was absolutely awesome to deal with and the price on the XRF made the decision much easier.

I bought mine from Preston.

Smith1 · Nov 27, 2024

Bigwilly556 said:
Same boat here and I'm no expert as I just purchased my first thermal (RH25 V2) a few weeks ago but I was literally at my local dealer today comparing the XRF, RH50R, and hybrid 75. None of the employees knew how to NUC the XRF so keep that in mind but the Irays (auto NUC) blew the XRF out of the water. I was indoors with about 100 yards to deal with. The manual focus on the RH50R was very touchy but also very crisp when set correctly. I really liked the throw lever and .1 magnification increments are fantastic. That being said the auto focus, 18650s, and USA made still has me leaning XRF. I'll be returning to take them outside and NUC the XRF. Even with the current sale and my discount on Irays the $3400 price difference is hard to swallow.

For what it’s worth I had a pulsar before going with the XRF and the auto NUC sounds great until it does it in the middle of a countdown on a sounder or right when you stop a coyote coming in

MuleyTime · Nov 27, 2024

Smith1 said:
For what it’s worth I had a pulsar before going with the XRF and the auto NUC sounds great until it does it in the middle of a countdown on a sounder or right when you stop a coyote coming in

Agreed, but keep in mind you can go into settings and change from Auto to Manual.

Smith1 · Nov 27, 2024

MuleyTime said:
Agreed, but keep in mind you can go into settings and change from Auto to Manual.

Agreed, just pointing out that an auto nuc isn’t as cool as it sounds

parshal · Nov 27, 2024

I have an RH50R and my buddies have the Halo. The picture in the iRay looks nicer to my eye than the Halo.

Take a look at the nocpix stuff that's shipping to dealers this week. It's made by iRay. The lasers are now integrated into the objective.

EXSOCAL · Nov 27, 2024

The biggest thing that ultimately turned me away from the RH50R was the proprietary batteries. I know battery technology these days is good, blah, blah.... I like using good old 18650's I can buy from my local sporting good store or Amazon whenever I want. 18650's these days are almost as common as AA's and work great and last a long time. I can throw a half dozen in my pack and have a lot of time in the field coyote hunting on an extended trip.

Regarding my experience and research, the Iray stuff appears better because they use a higher resolution viewing screen, if that makes sense. I agree though, the RH50R does probably appear nicer than the N Vision stuff. I had a Rico Micro back in the day and comparing that to my Nox-18, the Rico had a nicer picture.... But I sold it because I was using it as a dedicated head mounted rig and the small FOV and slightly off 1X was poor compared to the Nox.

Maybe N Vision could throw a couple software upgrades into their next model to integrate ballistics and upgrade the res. on the screen to a new, modern OLED unit????

parshal · Nov 27, 2024

I meant to mention that the Nocpix scope uses 18650 batteries as do the new Lumi scanners. I agree about the proprietary batteries. They cost more and who knows how long they will be available to purchase.

ping · Nov 27, 2024

parshal said:
I meant to mention that the Nocpix scope uses 18650 batteries as do the new Lumi scanners. I agree about the proprietary batteries. They cost more and who knows how long they will be available to purchase.

Does the Nocpix also have an internal battery? If so, what happens to it when it goes bad?

parshal · Nov 27, 2024

Yes, it does. It's not user replaceable but is by iRay USA. It uses 18650's in addition to the internal battery.

The only scope coming in to the US is the ACE H50R. It's a traditional scope tube and has all the features of the RH50R. Laser is in the objective vs on the side (it's rather small on the side of the RH50R, though) and the f-stop is .9 on the ACE vs 1.0 on the RH50R. Other than that it's the same package in a different form factor.

The Nocpix scanners are pretty nice. Some even have image stabilization.

I only discovered the Nocpix because I was planning on getting the iRay Finder FH35R (my buddy has one) and saw they have a 50mm version but it's not available here. When talking to iRay about the 50mm they mentioned the Nocpix line.

Sorry to derail the thread but, if you were looking at the RH50R it's worth looking at the Nocpix line.

EXSOCAL · Nov 27, 2024

parshal said:
Yes, it does. It's not user replaceable but is by iRay USA. It uses 18650's in addition to the internal battery.

The only scope coming in to the US is the ACE H50R. It's a traditional scope tube and has all the features of the RH50R. Laser is in the objective vs on the side (it's rather small on the side of the RH50R, though) and the f-stop is .9 on the ACE vs 1.0 on the RH50R. Other than that it's the same package in a different form factor.

The Nocpix scanners are pretty nice. Some even have image stabilization.

I only discovered the Nocpix because I was planning on getting the iRay Finder FH35R (my buddy has one) and saw they have a 50mm version but it's not available here. When talking to iRay about the 50mm they mentioned the Nocpix line.

Sorry to derail the thread but, if you were looking at the RH50R it's worth looking at the Nocpix line.

All good info, thanks for adding. Hopefully this helps people out who were in my shoes.

ping · Nov 28, 2024

parshal said:
Yes, it does. It's not user replaceable but is by iRay USA. It uses 18650's in addition to the internal battery.

The only scope coming in to the US is the ACE H50R. It's a traditional scope tube and has all the features of the RH50R. Laser is in the objective vs on the side (it's rather small on the side of the RH50R, though) and the f-stop is .9 on the ACE vs 1.0 on the RH50R. Other than that it's the same package in a different form factor.

The Nocpix scanners are pretty nice. Some even have image stabilization.

I only discovered the Nocpix because I was planning on getting the iRay Finder FH35R (my buddy has one) and saw they have a 50mm version but it's not available here. When talking to iRay about the 50mm they mentioned the Nocpix line.

Sorry to derail the thread but, if you were looking at the RH50R it's worth looking at the Nocpix line.

Thank you for the information. Do you know what IRAY charges to replace an internal battery that is out of warranty?

I'm also worried about what happens to the internals if the battery swells or explodes? Not a big deal if under warranty but could be expensive if out of warranty and the damage is significant. I really want to buy a scope with a more traditional look but spending $5000+ for something with internal batteries still has me very hesitant. This goes for Pulsar, Iray, Rix, Nocpix, etc... Can anyone with an internal battery issue out of warranty give feedback on how their issue got resolved by any manufacturer?

parshal · Nov 28, 2024

I asked iRay what they would charge for that and they seriously couldn’t give me an answer. The guy I talked said he wasn’t aware that had been needed.

Magsz18 · Dec 3, 2024

parshal said:
I asked iRay what they would charge for that and they seriously couldn’t give me an answer. The guy I talked said he wasn’t aware that had been needed.

It's not until it is lol.

I can't knock them too hard for not knowing as that means it's not a widespread issue and perhaps something they've never dealt with...yet.

Cbum · Dec 4, 2024

Ive got a RH50R and had a Nox 35 previously, as well as a Trijicon gen 3 something something.. Iray beats them out for sure. Batteries arent fun but you get 2 and they last much longer than 18650s luckily. Still waiting for the consumer market to make a proper pic mounted clip on that is factory collimated, then im gtg.

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