OpticsThoughts is really just one guy.  Me.

That having been said, quite a few opinions expressed on this site will be based on both my personal experience with certain products and on the impressions of other people, who I have come to respect and whose opinions I consider worthwhile.

Ultimately though, everything you will see on this website is either my opinion or someone else's opinion that I endorse.  If you take issue with anything written here, I am the guy you should take issue with.

This site is all about opinions.  You do not have to agree with mine.

Here is some biographical info:

I hold a B.S. in Applied Physics from Caltech and an MBA from UCLA

That is not necessarily relevant to this website, but I just thought I'd clear this up (I do get asked about my background now and then).

I have spent most of my professional career working on projects related to test and measurement as well as image and data analysis.  I started out working in telecommunications with fiber and micro optics.  In 2002, I transitioned to infrared imaging and worked on imaging sensors for land-based astronomy, sattelite surveillance and night vison weapon sights for both Rockwell Scientific and Raytheon.  Since then, I have been involved with CMOS imaging sensors for high end digital photography, cinema and video conferencing.

A few years back, as I was just starting out with rifles, I went online trying to find some information on rifle scopes.  I knew very little about scopes at the time, but I had a good background in optics and imaging.  A lot of the information I found on the web made little sense from an optics standpoint, so I decided to stick around and clear things up a bit.  People started asking me questions and in order to provide the answers I had to look at more and more scopes.  As the questions were getting repetitive, I ended up writing and posting fairly detailed reviews that I could point people to.  Then, I just kept at it and companies trying to get some publicity started sending me their latest and greatest optics for review.

My conditions for writing a review are quite simple:

• I will look at the scope/binocular/spotter as thoroughly and honestly as I can.

• I will compare it to the competition to the best of my ability.

• Good or bad, the review will be published (if you want a guaranteed "excellent" review conclusion, I am the last guy you want to evaluate your product, I call them the way I see them).

• If someone wants me to look at a product and keep the results private, it is no longer journalism, then it becomes consulting and I expect to be compensated for my time (if you work for a sporting optics company and that is something you are interested in, contact me).