For a long time, there have been the dominant brands in the electro-optics market that have always offered the best thermal imaging scopes civilians can buy.
To bring some competition to the marketplace and to those long-time brands is AGM.
With night vision and thermal optics as a staple in their inventory, they may very well prove to be decent competition.
If you’re looking for a thermal clip-on at a steal of a price with quality technology that you thought only the big boy brands could deliver, the Anaconda TC50-640 should be on your list as a potential buy.
Update: The AGM Anaconda TC50-640 appears to have been discontinued. Check out AGM's current range of thermal devices here. Alternatively check out our list of the top thermal imaging scopes (with reviews) here.
Quick Overview...
What We Like: Image quality
What We Don’t Like: New brand
Best Uses: Night Shooting, Day Shooting, Tactical Use, Hunting, Scouting, Varmint Control, Surveillance
- Thermal Resolution: 640x512
- Pixels: 17 microns
- Refresh Rate: 30 Hz
- Eye Relief: 60 mm
- Color Modes: 13
- Battery: 2x CR123/5 hours
- Dimensions: 8.2 x 2.7 x 3.1”/24 oz
Our Verdict: If you don’t have over 10K to spend on a thermal clip-on much less 10K, head on over to AGM for the Anaconda TC50-640. You’ll walk away with something half the price, twice as large and with a huge FOV and multiple user features to take advantage of. Worth it? Yeah.
Who is the AGM Anaconda TC50-640 Best Suited to?
You’ll be interested in the AGM Anaconda if you’re looking for a thermal clip-on. It can easily be used as a handheld spotter and glasser and then quickly remounted to the weapon for shooting. Since it’s a clip-on it can be used between multiple weapon systems and you don’t need to re-zero your day scope. Just mount and shoot.
If clip on thermals aren't for you then you could take a look at AGM's Python TS50 640 thermal scope, its great bang for buck.
The TC50-640 Anaconda would be an excellent thermal scope for coyote hunting and being a clip on it is easily taken on or off your rifle.
How Does the AGM Anaconda TC50-640 Perform?
The AGM Anaconda clip-on is right around the same size and weight as many of its competitors in the market. However, it is slightly larger due to the 50mm objective lens. But, you essentially get a larger thermal for similar dimensions as its smaller non-clip-on alternatives in the market.
With a FLIR Tau 2 core, it promises high-end imaging quality in a variety of thermal environments. With 13 color palettes, user control over brightness, contrast, NUC correction, and more, it’s a feature-packed thermal clip-on.
With incredibly easy mounting, you can clip it on and achieve oneness with your thermal and day scope. You will need to boresight the clip-on with the weapon system each time you use it on a new weapon. But, after that, there should be no POI shift experienced.
Although AGM is a new brand to the game, they have a huge inventory of products. So far, their products deliver quality, value, and performance. The same can be said of the Anaconda.
Features & Benefits
Image Quality
The Anaconda clip-on is based on the FLIR Tau 2 thermal camera with 17-micron 640x512 resolution and 30 Hz refresh rate. It’s great technology at this price point and comes with multiple user customizable settings.
You have full control over brightness, contrast with the ACE feature, and digital zoom with a base magnification of 1x. It provides optimized image quality with day scopes at 8x power. You also have 13 color palettes to choose from. They are: White Hot, Black Hot, Fusion, Rainbow, Globow, Ironbow 1, Ironbow 2, Sepia, Color 1, Color 2, Ice-Fire, Rain, and OEM.
With the various imaging options and solid uncooled thermal core, image quality is as good as it gets for a clip-on in this price range.
Fully Customizable Features
The Anaconda TC50 offers loads of user-adjustable settings that includes Active Contrast Enhancement (ACE), Second Generation Digital Detail Enhancement (DDE), Smart Scene Optimization (SSO), Automatic Gain Control (AGC), NUC and Flat Field Correction (FFC), and Silent Shutterless NUC.
Obviously, the ability to customize and achieve the best imaging quality possible is all there, and it may very well offer more than you will ever need to use.
What are all these features for? Well, when target thermal signatures are similar to the background, you can flip into SSO to fine-tune and improve visualization on targets. Since the thermal has a 17-micron sensor instead of 12 microns, you may need to play around with ACE and DDE to improve contrast and sharpness to minimize image noise and improve picture quality.
It will require a bit of a learning curve and re-read of the user manual to become familiar with all its features and how to use them.
Boresight & Mounting
Yes, the Anaconda TC50-640 comes with a 4-reticle selection of Dot, Line Dot, Crosshair Center Dot, and Crosshair. Once the reticle has been selected, you can then boresight the clip-on by using the left and right buttons for adjusting windage and the up and down buttons for adjusting elevation. You can also switch the reticle to “off.”
The Anaconda comes with a single lever quick detach mount that is very easy to attach to your rail. It’s a true device that can be used in a jiffy and the lever cam clamping device makes it easy to achieve reliable mounting.
Essentially, the TC50 does not cause point of impact shift, but if there is, it should be repeatable and consistent. The optical axes of the day scope and clip-on must not exceed a 3mm difference. If there is more than that, you will have to seek out different height rings for the day scope to bring it into line with the clip-on.
Integrated Picatinny Rail
A convenient touch is the integrated mini Picatinny rail on the side of the scope that allows you to mount an additional accessory. Be it a red dot, flashlight, laser, or whatever accessory you prefer, the option is there and provides for a full tactical setup.
However, since the TC50 does not come with a built-in video recorder, you can use this rail for AGM recommended accessories such as their HD Video Recorder, WiFi attachment, or an extended battery pack.
Multiple Light Suppressors Included
To ensure that there is little light bleed as possible, the Anaconda comes with several light suppressors. There are three that are made for the Anaconda 640 and then one that is used to attach to the eyepiece of the day scope. It can be cut down if eye relief is shorter.
Limitations
New Brand
With no flaws to note, we will pick on the fact that this is a new brand to the game. Based out of Springerville, AZ, they’ve only entered the electro-optics field very recently. AGM has penetrated the marketplace with aspirations to be a dominant authority in night vision and thermal optics. But, whether or not this is a brand that takes off is up to the consumer.
Still, as a new brand, there is no established review base or trend record from the masses – yet. So, if you end up going the AGM route, be sure to spread the word about your experience.
Popular Questions
The Anaconda clip-on thermal scope comes with all the necessary eyecups, wireless remote control, green carry case, batteries, and user manual.
No video recording device was built into the AGM Anaconda Clip-On to maintain a lightweight and compact unit. Instead, you will need to purchase the video recorder device as a separate accessory to acquire this capability. You can also purchase the WiFi module to video and live stream to a device.
The TC50-640 Anaconda Clip-on takes two CR123 batteries. The first set of batteries are included with the package. They provide approximately 5 hours of operation. You can purchase the battery extender pack and equip it to the integrated side rail on the scope to acquire 12 hours of operation.
AGM provides a 3-year limited manufacturer warranty on their thermal clip-on scope as is the case with all their products. This includes repairs or replacements for any branded accessory included with the Anaconda.
Conclusion
Thinking outside the box sometimes requires getting out of the box. If you thought that only ATN, Trijicon, Pulsar, or FLIR were your only options for real thermal products, you can now add AGM to the list.
They offer real competition to these authoritative brands, and the Anaconda clip-on has its own set of benefits worth considering.
When the budget pushes some of those top brands out of the box of reality, AGM may be the new box to consider for affordability without compromising quality.
Update: The AGM Anaconda TC50-640 appears to have been discontinued. Check out AGM's current range of thermal devices here. Alternatively check out our list of the top thermal imaging scopes (with reviews) here.
Further Reading
