MTC Viper Connect 3-12X32

[kwiky]

I first thought the same regarding the sight picture, when looking directly at the centre of the ret the edges do appear slightly blurred but I found if I looked at the edge of the image they were, infact crisp and clear. I put this down to the field of view being so wide that the edge of the sight picture sits in our peripheral vision rather than in the centre like it does on a conventional scope. More a problem with the way our eyes work, rather than with the scope itself.

[Gary C]

I first thought the same regarding the sight picture, when looking directly at the centre of the ret the edges do appear slightly blurred but I found if I looked at the edge of the image they were, infact crisp and clear. I put this down to the field of view being so wide that the edge of the sight picture sits in our peripheral vision rather than in the centre like it does on a conventional scope. More a problem with the way our eyes work, rather than with the scope itself.

Hi Phil
It is an optical issue unfortunately, the FOV is so massive that the very edges - at the extremes - tend to suffer a little distortion. Something to do with the laws of optics and eye position, TBH I forget about it as I tend to use the edges only to detect movement and the distortion is such a small % in that it's seldom noticable and never affects function

[kwiky]

Ah well, there you go, I stand corrected. Thanks Gary.

[spready]

Have you tried using a NV addon with it yet??...

[Hurricane]

The distortion around the edge of FOV is very noticable, almost a kalidascope effect but this is outside of the FOV of 'normal' scope, so whilst at first it might seem a little disapointing you soon realise it doesn't matter as you will still see things at edge of FOV that you wouldn't with 'normal' scope.

[kwiky]

The distortion around the edge of FOV is very noticable, almost a kalidascope effect but this is outside of the FOV of 'normal' scope, so whilst at first it might seem a little disapointing you soon realise it doesn't matter as you will still see things at edge of FOV that you wouldn't with 'normal' scope.

Mine is certainly not that bad. Barely noticable really. That's why I thought it was more likely a peripheral vision thing.

[Parabuteo]

Nice review Phil, I could'nt get photo bucket to work so I did'nt do any piccies with my copy of war and peace

Actually, I have to wonder what the hell happened to the second part of Phil Prices review in AGW? This scope has a hell of a lot of potential.

To be honest, I dont really notice the blurr round the edges.

I have 2 of these, a 40mm prototype and a new 32mm unit. I have yet to use the 32mm unit as the rifle it will be living on currently has Nv living on board...sadly there is very little about so it is not getting much time out

What is more noticeable, and may cause concern until you think about it is this.

If you use one off of a bipod you will (oddly enough) be much closer to the deck.

The foreground will be blurred to the bottom band of the image, and the far ground may appear more blurred at the top...wierd until you get used to it.

I have to say that I had a connect 1 for a long time (actually I bloody well regret selling it now, it would have been sensible to keep it) and they were good in some circumstances (longer ranges and squirrelling).

This new Connect has all the advantages of the 01 and none of the disadvantages.

It weighs sod all, it has side focus (almost down to silly close ranges...great for ratting then) has a nice adjustable eye piece (As Phil says, gives extra stability) and the AMD ret is cracking.

The scope is so fast on aim it is silly, and yet it performs better (IMHO) with the AMD out to 50+ than most other rets I have tried (including the SCB) as it is fine enough to be slightly more precise.

A major change against the old Connect is that with this one, if you are sensible, it si far more conventional in eye relief (it has some) so you will be able to use it with some small bore rifles, some well behaved spring guns, and I believe Baz has tried a .223 (although spectacle wearers may come unstuck here, the new eyepiece is better for them too).

I love the way you can adjust it instantly to suit the position...try it at dusk...amazing!!

I reckon with the new crop of LED torches it will be a cracking little lamping scope.

MTC have also got the IR smack on. It can be set so as not to burn the retina!! and the simple centre cross illumination works well and covers most sensible bases for a 35yd zero with .177 for hunting sub12.

I wont be putting these on my spring guns, the mamba lites are fine, and I dont hunt with them, but my main 2 hunting rigs are staying connected

[Hurricane]

I don't know why it should perform particly well with a torch, it is not as good as a Taipan in low light.

[kwiky]

Have you tried using a NV addon with it yet??...

I haven't mate, I'm still waiting to see what MTC come up with regarding a front fitting add on for them.

[Hurricane]

Have you tried using a NV addon with it yet??...

Have been playing with Bresser digi NV and Connect this evening. I have a 'system' which can be adapted to work as a stand alone NV spotter with laser pointer that 'bolts' onto dovetails or in this case 'bolts' onto scope body to act as add on.
Well there's good and bad news. Opticaly it seems to work reasonalbly well, ergonomicaly it might not work if you shoot prone off a bipod.
The Bresser is standard Lidl one with lens replaced by 1( ?)x24, to get a comparison to using add on with standard scope I first bolted it on my Taipan, as expected the clarity was very good but FOV at the minimum 4x was not! also minimum focusing distance was increased by I think several yards, not an issue as it would be almost impossible to use close up due to FOV.
Next I bolted it on Connect, using reticle as guide to FOV I moved scope forward and aft but found little differance so mounted it almost touching scope, at this distance as a guide to FOV I could just see 4th 0 under cross hairs, next I focused it on trees at about 20yrds and was supprised to see same FOV as Taipan ,Whoops, I had scope on 10x, a change to 3x and the FOV was not too bad, no where near same as without addon but usable. As per the Taipan there was a loss of close range focusing, sorry didn't measure it but several yards I would guess.
Next I played with different illuminators, could only check out to 25yrds, longer range will have to wait till another night. The on board worked but not very well requiring a lot of gain, so on to IR LED, this is old HTH one, worked very well a good picture with not much added gain, as is often the case with LED some items look black and you lose cross hairs unless you put in lots of gain, but as this is digi you can keep gain low and switch on reticle illumination to no1, this works well with no flare from reticle just a white cross instead of black. Next was a 200mw laser, the cheap £35 one, the laser could not fill FOV with light so a little work required there. As I moved laser in and out of FOV it was ovious that it was slightly overpowering NV and whatever compensating circuitry it has was cutting down light, the reticle was always visible as the laser flooded everything with light, so looking good for longer range work.
Next to ergonomics, if you want to just 'bolt' the NV straight to back of scope it will add a good 4to5" for me this is not too bad if I adopt a leaning back stance or sitting down, but if you rest forward on anythig or use a bipod prone you will struggle I think, the solution to this would be to move scope forward, on my AirWolf this is possible and using laser pointer rezeroing is a doddle esp with a digi system which can be used in daylight.

[Hurricane]

Once again been playing with the Connect and NV this time using my old NVMT3 as an add-on.
The NV unit is one I brought off Soviet Bazaar some years ago and it's had a hard life, so this trial was more how the scope would deal with the inadaquaties of the NV, not least because the eye bell adjustment doesn't work properly and the tube has more black spots than a dalmatian.
First up I mounted it on my Taipan as a referance, it worked, the reticle was slightly fuzzy, but a decent FOV and a half resonable picture. Next to the Connect, as before the scope needs moving forward to get any sort of comfatable position, I had real problems focusing on the reticle not sure how much was due to the poor eye bell on NV but worse than Taipan. The FOV was very good. The close focus was another struggle, best I could get was 14yrds. Overall it wasn't usable for shooting anything live, so I swopped back to Taipan to recheck, with the Taipan I could focus down to 10yrds, and the scope was just about good enough to hunt with.
Looks like we need someone with a decent NV to try it out, but the Taipan just has the edge it seems.

[Amac]

Despite my problems making out the ret' last time I checked one out at BAR, I am once again becomming tempted by this innovative scope. I have read elsewhere that parallax error is reduced to insignificance, and I really fancy trying something a bit different. Looks like another trip to BAR next week for me!
Andy

[Amac]

Despite my problems making out the ret' last time I checked one out at BAR, I am once again becomming tempted by this innovative scope. I have read elsewhere that parallax error is reduced to insignificance, and I really fancy trying something a bit different. Looks like another trip to BAR next week for me!
Andy