Thread: Thermal

Hey all, looking at thermals. Never used one before but just curious what people think for lens size? Would just be used to spot animals if that makes any difference

i would go 50mm, it gives more clarity,
i went from a 50mm mono to a 35mm bino and the difference is massive

50mm way better.

Depends upon your hunting situation to some extent. If using bush hunting, wider field of view is desirable. Smaller lenses achieve this while still providing adequate definition to identify what you’re looking at. If hunting wide open spaces a bigger lense may provide more useable range and definition although having read some comments on other threads people still seem to have trouble identifying animals much beyond 2-300 meters even with the biggest/best unit out there. Whatever you get, you need to become intimately familiar with how it operates and any shortcomings you or the unit has. I’ve got a 50mm unit that a mate has a loan of so I’m stuck? with using my older/smaller unit but don’t feel particularly disadvantaged with it. I am however using thermals/night vision several days every week so may be subconsciously disregarding any shortcomings of the smaller unit, don’t think so though. Buy the best you can afford regardless of size/specs and hunting situation. Regardless of what you purchase, if using during the day, don’t leave your binoculars at home. In all situations, just because you see something in a thermal doesn’t mean it’s shootable.

If you are using it to just spot animals it doesn't really matter. Plenty of 35ish mm lens you can still spot deer easily out over 1km away.
Depends entirely on what you want it for. Closer range stuff you might even want a nice compact 25mm unit.

Everyone has their own opinion on things. Give nightvision NZ a message (55six on here).

Worth also considering base magnification as a useful spec. Is a function of sensor size and focal length. 2x seems to be quite versatile.

Take a look at the FAQ area on NightVisions website:

https://nightvision.co.nz/?srsltid=A...tewJNiG82yivlW

Kinda depends on what country you want to cover, I like my 35mm lens as I use it for rabbit shooting on a quad as well as deer hunting around bush edges etc (closer - medium range). I don't think for my purposes I would want any less field of view than a 35mm. When you are travelling from paddock to paddock or peaking around trees into a river bed (closer range) I really want to be able to sweep the area quickly. It's really painful trying to quickly cover large areas with high zoom/small field of view. With a 640x512 and a 35mm lens, the detection ranges are still very good. I still can see the heat signature of a rabbit at 900m, and deer etc would likely still be visible out toward 2000m.

Small lens = Wide fields of view (for scanning hillsides)
Large lens = Narrow fields of view (as with everything there are exceptions like; Large Lens = Wide fields of view, but that is the later technology and more expensive.
Are you looking at hand held or mounted scoipe.
My suggestion is Small lens = wide field of view for locating the heat. Large lens on rifle for zooming in to positively identify the target.
BUDGET:
- Small lens = Small budget
- Big lense (with all the bells and whistles) = BIG budget.

I went for the "better" (i.e. more expensive) model becuase it had a longer range. Turns out I do not need to ever ID deer at 1.7km -- where I hunt it would take hours to walk there and the deer would be gone by then. The cheaper model had less range but wider FOV, which in hindsight would have been much better for fast scanning. Anyone want to trade? lol

FWIW I got the Sytong. Should have sprung for the rangefinder option too. Quite a PITA to swap between thermal/binos/rangefinder/rifle, but life is still way better than pre-thermal

i don't know bugger all about the specs etc but i took the plunge & got ones of these as a complete newbie and it is freaking awesome! it's small, easy to handle, well priced and does an incredible job.
https://owloptics.nz/collections/han...ts/leopard-256

Originally Posted by smidey

i don't know bugger all about the specs etc but i took the plunge & got ones of these as a complete newbie and it is freaking awesome! it's small, easy to handle, well priced and does an incredible job.
https://owloptics.nz/collections/han...ts/leopard-256

Yeah, I agree, if you have never had one any thermal is freaking awesome. But it’s when you have some experience with them and make some comparisons that you start making the best choice.

Originally Posted by Tahr

Yeah, I agree, if you have never had one any thermal is freaking awesome. But it’s when you have some experience with them and make some comparisons that you start making the best choice.

I bought it to locate animals and for me, this unit does a brilliant job of doing just that along with being great to handle and far exceeding my explanations for what I paid for it in comparison to others available so that’s why I think it’s so freaking awesome lol

Originally Posted by smidey

I bought it to locate animals and for me, this unit does a brilliant job of doing just that along with being great to handle and far exceeding my explanations for what I paid for it in comparison to others available so that’s why I think it’s so freaking awesome lol

Of course.
And I guarantee that one day you will end up with one that is awesomer. Its a natural consequence of delving into this stuff.

Thermal gear is so good for old farts,I glued my thermal clip-on to my day scope.It hasn't moved in nearly a year and shoots a 4 in1 on a good day.

SytongXS06-50 (50 mil lens)

Red deer at 600 yards at base mag (2x). 3 colour pallets. Hour after dark.