This is what I love about this site! TRUE answers to one of the most critical thermal questions out there. They last time on another site there was a question on the HD19A on how far one can spot hogs? Mind you, it was not detecting hogs but a "few" selected users and a dealer said they can spot hogs at 500 yards which is utter BS. Internet lore. While I believe they can DETECT an object that far, there is no way on earth they had PID on a hog at 500 yards! Then after the argument progressed, we see another employee of the company state, well if you can't ID, just get closer! Duh, that was the whole point to begin with.
We also see clever marketing tricks nowadays how far thermal can ID by looking at deer at looong ranges. Target specific animals as we know like a deer is a bit easy to ID, but that is NOT the true ID story with thermals.
Great thread with question and TRUE answers! Bravo!!