The HOLOSUN house has a new roommate, the AEMS. This stands for Advanced Enclosed Micro Sight. Let's see if the optic lives up to this name.

First, some technical data:

• Dimensions: 39.1 x 55.9 x 43.2 mm
• Material: 7075 Aluminum
• Weight: 158 g with battery and mount
• IP Protection Class: IP 67
• Lens Size: 22 x 28 mm
• Magnification: 1.2x
• Solar cell
• Automatic brightness adjustment
• Shake Awake function
• Battery life: 50,000 hours
• W&E Scale: ± 50 MOA
• Vibration resistance: 1,000 G
• Reticle color: red

As you can see, the HOLOSUN AEMS offers you quite a lot, here's a look inside the opened box. But let's examine everything in detail.

Included are the Lower 1/3 mount and the glass protection covers. The mount is 15 mm from the top of the rail to the bottom of the AEMS. With the window center, you are just under 40 mm above the top of the rail. The mount is tightened to the rail with a Torx screw.

In our video, you can admire all the features of the HOLOSUN AEMS.

An important question that immediately arose for us is whether the AEMS is compatible with the mounting pattern of an AIMPOINT Micro? Unfortunately not. It looks similar at first glance, but it has its own mounting pattern. Too bad, otherwise the whole world of micro mounts would have opened up.

The cover caps can be unscrewed if you don't need them. We would leave the front cap on, but we would remove the rear one. Unfortunately, in poor lighting conditions, the rear cover causes a noticeable "Ghost Ring."

The Reticle

The HOLOSUN AEMS has a reticle with a 2 MOA red dot and a 65 MOA circle around it.

However, it is a "Multi Reticle System" where you can cycle through the different variants by holding the minus button. You can choose between just dot, just circle, or both.

In the image, you can see the "Ghost Ring" above the normal reticle very well. This is caused by the glass of the protective covers.

The reticle is clearly visible, sharp, and visible all the way to the edge. A real joy to look through the AEMS.

The target point can be perfectly adjusted by the side screws, and the AEMS also holds the sighting without any issues.

Unfortunately, the AEMS does not have 1x magnification, but rather about 1.2x magnification. This is especially noticeable as distortion at the edges during movement. This is clearly visible in the video.

The Power of the Sun

On the top of the HOLOSUN AEMS, there is a small solar panel built-in, as found in other Holosun optics. This provides power, but also allows for a deactivatable, automatic brightness adjustment.

The battery is located on the right side and is held in the optic by two Torx screws.

Not the battery itself, but the small slot where the CR2032 battery fits.

Through the solar panel, a small 12 mA storage supercapacitor is charged, which powers your reticle in case it's dark and the battery is empty. And it works great. In the video above, you can see that we didn't have a battery inside and the reticle was still glowing red in full brightness. It took us almost two weeks to realize that there was no battery in the AEMS and it was only powered by the supercapacitor.

Auto Brightness and Shake Awake

The automatic brightness adjustment, also known as "Auto Brightness," works perfectly, but may not always be optimal depending on the intended use.

In the video, we try to demonstrate this. If you are in a dark environment, like a tunnel or inside a house, and aiming at something bright, your reticle may be too dim due to the automatic adjustment.

The solar panel is in the dark, so the reticle is darkened accordingly. However, the Auto Brightness function can be deactivated by long-pressing the plus button. It's a useful feature overall, but the benefit is limited in strongly changing lighting conditions.

The Holosun AEMS also has an adjustable "Shake Awake" function. If the AEMS doesn't detect any movement for a certain period, it automatically turns off. A slight movement reactivates the reticle in its last setting. Very practical.

Comparison to the Classic Micro Optic

If you're wondering how the HOLOSUN AEMS compares to the classic tube-style Micro Optic, we have the photos for you here. The AEMS is definitely a bit shorter than the HOLOSUN 503.

The optical axis is equally high for both. This means you can easily use the AEMS with a magnifier without needing special spacers. Here you can also see the significantly larger field of view of the AEMS, which has earned it the reputation of having a large field of view on the internet. This is true in principle if you are only looking through the optic with one eye, but for red dots, both eyes should be open, so your field of view is ultimately the same for both.

Here you can see very well the more compact dimensions of the HOLOSUN AEMS.

CONCLUSION: With the AEMS, HOLOSUN has brought a very interesting micro optic to the market. Equipped with many useful features, it offers the hunter and sports shooter pretty much everything they could wish for. For tactical users, the AEMS is also very interesting, at least when switching to manual mode. The HOLOSUN AEMS also performs surprisingly well under night vision, but that deserves its own article.

Most impressive was the performance of the supercapacitor in conjunction with the solar panel. As mentioned earlier, we only realized after two weeks that there was no battery in the AEMS, yet it still worked flawlessly. You probably won't ever have to change the battery in the AEMS thanks to the solar module and Shake Awake function.

The slight curvature, or rather the slight 1.2x magnification, can make the image appear distorted when in motion. Hopefully, this flaw will be corrected in future AEMS series.

Unfortunately, there are currently no additional mounts available, but this is likely to change soon, as this optic has great potential to replace traditional micro optics.

The Holosun AEMS is available directly from Holosun.eu starting at €479.90 and from all retailers carrying Holosun.

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