Recon 55XR-LH (Left Hand Variant)

At Fusion Thermal clip-ons are in our DNA. In fact, the very first product offered by our company was a clip-on, and our obsession with perfecting the design hasn’t slowed down since day one. The product we call Recon 55XR is the result of our unyielding obsession to craft a thermal clip-on that actually delivers to the expectations of the user. This is not just another thermal system that has been repurposed as a clip-on, a common mistake of our competitors, but a device purposely built from the first screw for the specific mission of turning your day scope into a nighttime monster. Yes, this product does have secondary uses, for example it makes for a killer handheld monocular, but make no mistake it’s a clip-on first and foremost.

You should know the biggest limiting factor with clip-ons is that your day scope has to be set on very low magnifications for them to work, we call this
functional use magnification. With most clip-ons if you tried to zoom up past three or four power on your day scope, the image became so grainy that it was not functionally usable. To solve this problem required some creative thinking, and some serious brain power on the part of our optical and electrical engineers. The big leap forward came with the development of our new optical system called MORE (Magnification Optimizing Range Enhancement). This technology breakthrough was designed to shatter the problem of low magnification use limitations common to virtually all clip-ons. That’s right, gone are the days of using your clip-on with your day scope set at 3X and you acting happy. Our MORE optical system changes the game in a very significant way and will dramatically increase your functional use magnification. Now, in full disclosure, we acknowledge that functional use magnification is very subjective to the user’s eye, and highly dependent on the design and quality of your day scope. However, under all circumstances you can expect the Recon 55XR to outperform any competitive alternative when used on the same scope under the same environmental conditions.

Friends, if you’ve been waiting for clip-on technology to come of age before making your move, your time has come. The Recon 55XR with its MORE optical system brings thermal clip-ons into the modern era, so if you’re ready to add some serious flexibility and lethality to arsenal the moment is at hand.

Special Note: The Recon 55XR is available in variants for both right-handed and left-handed shooters. The units are identical in every aspect except for the location of the target focus knob. Since the clip-on is placed in front of the day scope your arm is almost always fully extended when trying to focus the device, and our ergonomic studies showed that a significant improvement in usability was achieved by placing the knob on the side of lens housing as opposed to the top. To keep things easy on us we could have placed the focus knob on top like we do on our dedicated scopes, but it turns out that’s not the best place for it on a clip-on, so we put it on the side where it belongs. Thus we needed to make two units to accommodate both left and right handed shooters.

Other Important Considerations

In addition to providing a great visual experience a properly designed clip-on should also address some other very important fundamentals. The absence of good solutions to any of these requirements can lead to missed opportunities or a poor user experience. Here is what you should look for:

Easy to Deploy: The unit must be easy to deploy. Attachment and detachment to your rig should be something that can be accomplished in a matter of seconds and done in complete darkness.

Easy Correction for Point-of-Impact (POI) Shift: Thermal clip-on devices do not have a direct optical path to the target. If look thru your scope with a clip-on attached what you’ll see is a video image of the target on a display screen, and not the actual target. Thus, you are not looking thru your thermal, but looking at a display screen within the thermal. Knowing this is very important as it helps us understand a fundamental fact. It is impossible for any manufacturer to honestly claim that no (POI) point-of-impact shift will ever occur when using a clip-on. There are simply too many variables at play. What’s needed is a simply and easy way to correct for POI shift should it occur. It would also be helpful if the device could memorize these corrections so they could be easily recalled for future use.

Magnification Limitation: Many first time thermal clip-on owners are surprised to learn that their devices cannot be used for the full range of their day scopes magnification. As an example, lets assume your day scope is a 2.5-10×50, its likely with most clip-ons the highest magnification you’ll be able to use will be 4X, even less for many devices currently on the market. This limitation occurs for the reason explained above. Your day scope is zooming up on the thermal internal display screen, it is not looking thru the device. If you zoom in too much on the display screen your image will become pixilated and essentially unusable. Unless specifically designed to address this problem this is a limitation you will likely encounter, and it is why most clip-on devices fail to meet the expectations of their owners. This is a common problem as most manufacturers are simply trying to repurpose an existing thermal design to sell as their clip-on, and its exactly the reason we built the Recon 55XR ground up for this specific purpose. Yes, there are many factors that can affect a device’s usable magnification limitation including: optical design of the day optic, quality of the day optic, quality of the adapter system, but in all circumstances the design of the clip-on is the most important factor.

Multi Use Capability: Having the ability to use your clip-on as a handheld monocular is a big plus. To do this properly requires a couple of things: First, you will need some type of eye shield so it’s comfortable to use, you don’t want to be holding the back of a metal housing to your eyebrow. Second, you’ll need a menu option that lets you change the device settings from clip-on mode to monocular mode, and menu options for other features handy to the monocular application, like digital zoom. Fortunately, the Recon 55XR has both of these requirements covered quite nicely, so in no time you’ll be using it for all kinds of things like scouting, finding wounded or dead game, stealthy pre-dawn walks to your stand, finding lost dogs and lost wives, checking on cattle, navigating your boat, and home security. If your a deer hunter this is nothing short of a total game changer. You will easily triple or quadruple the number of deer you see during a hunt. You’ll spot every deer in the field and those on the edge of the woods in a matter of seconds. Remember thermal vision is not night vision, its completely usable during the day, all you need is heat differential and it will work, so the applications for all types of hunting or other outdoor recreations are nearly endless.

Fusion Thermal Exclusive Technology

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) Menu – You Might Never Read the Manual
We think you’re really going to like our menu; it uses words, English words. Written for Americans by Americans. That’s why we called it KISS. You’ve heard the phrase, Keep It Simple Stupid, and at Fusion Thermal we took it to heart, and it’s the reason we can make a very bold statement: Our thermal scopes are so easy to use you’ll likely never read the instruction manual. We just thought life was already too complicated, so if we were going to make a living selling thermal scopes why not make them simple to use.

T3 Control System – Don’t Let Your Fingers Get Lost in the Dark
The only thing cooler than the way our T3 – Three Button Control System looks is how easy it is to use. This highly intuitive design with its Center Tower makes using your scope simple and easy. Every command is at your fingertips, and the Center Tower evenly splits the control panel, so you’ll never be confused about what button you’re going to press. We thought this a particularly good idea especially since you’ll be using it in the dark most of the time. Besides, we think simpler is better, and the T3, well it makes life as simple as 1-2-3.

WAVE Thermal Sensor – Same Money, Better Performance.
Is it possible for one thermal scope to dramatically outperform everything else in its class? Might it even be possible that it could outperform products costing hundreds or thousands more? Yes, so don’t make the mistake of shopping by specifications alone or you just might miss out. Our WAVE thermal sensors are the Olympic champions of the industry and perform way above their class. So, before you plop down your hard-earned cash make sure you do a side-by-side comparison to the competitive alternatives. We think you’ll see for yourself that the difference is clearly obvious.

 Arclight Ultra HD Germanium Lens – High Purity for Maximum Energy
The single most expensive component of a well-crafted thermal is its germanium lens. If you skimp here, you’re not even in the game. Our high purity ArcLight Ultra HD Germanium Lens is the crowning jewel of our technology package. It perfects the task of collecting and funneling infrared energy into the thermal sensor unhindered by distortion. This clean transition results in an infrared energy dump that unleashes the full potential of our WAVE thermal sensor delivering a user experience well beyond expectations.

Micro Click Focus – Leave the Collars to the Dogs
Getting your target into focus quickly and easily is a must, and you won’t find a better system than our Micro Click Focus. For clip-ons our focus knob is conveniently located on side of the front lens housing making it easy to reach and easy to adjust, and unlike the dog collar design used by our competitors you won’t need to perform a circus act just to focus your scope. Plus, you’ll always get your best shot as the micro click adjustments put you on top of the perfect focus point every time.

XGEN Armored Housing – Plastic is for toys. Metal is for tools. 
It’s a fact, thermals produce heat, and heat is the enemy of all things electronic including thermal devices. If you don’t get the heat away from the sensor and out of the device your image quality is going to degrade, and long-term your sensor is going to burn up. Our XGEN (Next Generation Armored Body) shields your expensive investment in a metal clad of armor, and our high-end AL6082 Conductive Structural Alloy displaces heat at an astounding 71,900% better than plastic. Using a high-grade metal housing is not cheap, but this is the way a thermal scope should be built, so this is how we build them. You don’t think of your thermal scope as some cheap plastic toy, why should it be built like one?.

*Source Sciencedirect.com Thermal Conductivity Coefficients: Plastic & Epoxy Glass Fiber W/(m-K) = 0.25 max as compared to AL 6082 Aluminum W/(m-K) = 180

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