Passive IR binoculars used in birding? (1 Viewer)

[Troubador]

Over here in the UK the phrase 'the great unwashed' arises out of our class-concious past and some would say, present. The 'great unwashed' is just a wryly humorous reference to those who are not royalty, aristocracy, judiciary or very senior military. In other words the same folks who would be covered by the phrase 'the man in the street'.

Lee

 

[mooreorless]

Hi Lee, Thanks for your reply. I remember reading something like that before and forgot .

 

[wllmspd]

We also have another local variant... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_man_on_the_Clapham_omnibus
. Be good to hear from more people using thermal kit to track down nocturnal bird activity.

Peter

 

[Binastro]

''Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells'' is another group.

 

[Vollmeise]

Hi there,

fascinated by some reports (infrared-birding blog, some hunter's videos on youtube and others) I also started searching for thermal cameras, especially for practical benefits from birder's perspective.

I lately could take a look through some models under real birder's conditions and was even more surprised how much life there is out in the dark around.. and how many creatures can rely on their camouflage successfully as long as they have no idea what a thermal imager is capable of.

Long story short: I ordered a Pulsar Helion thermal imager with a 50mm lens and did receive it last saturday. It's one of the new models they announced in March 2017 (Pulsar Helion XP50). Despite the price they were out of stock in Germany, all the sellers told me on request, they could sell 10 at once esp. to hunters if hey had them available. Well, I was lucky to find a shop in the netherlands and now I hold that beast in my hands.

I was afield only once so far, but what I coud see was impressive. Flying birds passing by, lots of mice in the woods, a tawny owl at its breeding cave, "glowing" woodpecker's caves (no idea what might live there inside).

So, if someone is interested, I will share my experience from time to time.

 

[wllmspd]

Excellent, please keep posting your experiences. Especially about the detail, range you can spot things etc. Only twice spotted owls in flight though I know they are about, just can’t spot them!

Thanks

Petwr

 

[Torchepot]

Hi there,

fascinated by some reports (infrared-birding blog, some hunter's videos on youtube and others) I also started searching for thermal cameras, especially for practical benefits from birder's perspective.

I lately could take a look through some models under real birder's conditions and was even more surprised how much life there is out in the dark around.. and how many creatures can rely on their camouflage successfully as long as they have no idea what a thermal imager is capable of.

Long story short: I ordered a Pulsar Helion thermal imager with a 50mm lens and did receive it last saturday. It's one of the new models they announced in March 2017 (Pulsar Helion XP50). Despite the price they were out of stock in Germany, all the sellers told me on request, they could sell 10 at once esp. to hunters if hey had them available. Well, I was lucky to find a shop in the netherlands and now I hold that beast in my hands.

I was afield only once so far, but what I coud see was impressive. Flying birds passing by, lots of mice in the woods, a tawny owl at its breeding cave, "glowing" woodpecker's caves (no idea what might live there inside).

So, if someone is interested, I will share my experience from time to time.

Congratulations on your purchase Vollmeise :t:

I'm hoping there might be something similar under our Christmas tree for me (but then I've always been hopelessly optimistic!)

It should be very interesting to hear how you get on - very few reports from people using these for finding birds. A couple of things I'm interested in - from memory the closest focus is 3 metres but I'm guessing that it will still show hot spots closer than that - just not in focus?

Also I'd be interested to know how easy it is to hook up to your mobile phone (if you've tried it)

Have you used it in the pitch dark yet? Interested to hear whether you're experiencing the same issues of having to change from eye to eye or to give it a break every 30 seconds as has been mentioned elsewhere?

 

[Cluster]

On a related theme, I have played with near IR cameras. These are ordinary cameras with the IR filter blocking removed and an external IR pass filter fitted. It's a lovely B&W image maker and, if left with the colours from the camera, can look a bit other-worldly.. But, my point is that as most trees reflect IR, the leaves appear to be very pale as does most vegitation. Birds, however, must absorb near IR and appear to be black. They stand out very well (in daylight, better in sunny conditions). Birds that are otherwise difficult to see in foliage are easy to spot (but not to ID as they're all black).

 

[Vollmeise]

@torchepot:
the focus is adjusted manually by turning the focus ring of the lens. The closest distance depends on the lens attached. I just can speak for my device, the XP50 with the 50mm lens. The other models XP28 and XP38 are delivered with 28mm resp. 38mm lenses attached, though the three bodies themselve are all the same.

The shortest focus distance of my XP50 is about 7 meters, closer objects get unsharp. Of course you can see your own hand directly in front of the lens or smallest birds / mammals in the nearest area around.

With the 28mm lens attached the shortest focus distance should be 3m due to the manual (I can't try that as I don't have that lens).

The connection to my iPhone and iPad works great and can be made within seconds, you have to use Pulsar's app (available for iOS and Android) "Stream vision" to manage that. Start WiFi on the Device, login to the "Helion" Hotspot with your phone, start the app and you'll see the imager's viewfinder within seconds. You can remote any function wireless, shoot fotos and videos, change settings and so on. Despite some smaller issues, the app and remote functionality is well done and works with lots of different Pulsar models, both night vision and thermal devices.

As mentioned, I tried my new imager just once so I'm looking forward to day by day experience. But I used it by daylight and in the very pitch dark. The image and detail quality doesn't depend on visible light at all, it only depends on temperature differences.

I didn't experience any of the issues you talked about and during my first session I used the imager for about four hours nonstop, didn't switch it off once. Handheld in the night at about 5°C the battery was at about 50% after 4 hours. The "break" which the device takes from time to time is the auto-calibration of the internal bolometer. The only thing of that calibration you can notice while watching through the viewfinder is, the image is freezing for about 1 second. This procedure is announced at the bottom of the screen, a countdown appears.. 3-2-1- freezing - and that's it. That auto calibration procedure can be switched off and done manually by pressing a button if you think the image quality goes down.

Cheers

 

[Torchepot]

Thanks Vollmeise

A lot of valuable information there - I didn't know that the closest focus was 7 metres with the 50mm lens - a definite consideration for anyone with a primary interest in small stuff at closer ranges. I guess the 38mm lens would have a CF of around 5 metres.

Looking forward to hearing of your experiences.

All the best,

Phil

 

[Vollmeise]

Well, I agree that the shorter lenses may be helpful to scan the nearest area around, especially as they show a wider field of view plus closer focus range.

To choose the right model and lens one should know, that Pulsar's new model series "Quantum light", "Helion XQ" and "Helion XP" have sensors of different dimensions inside. The higher resolution sensor of the XP series is larger than the sensor of the other series, which uses the same smaller sensor size inside. This causes a different crop factor / field of view, even if exactly the same lens is attached.

Compared to photographic "full format" 24x36mm the Pulsar XP series has a crop factor of about 3,3x. So a 50mm lens attached to the XP device shows an image equivalent to a 165mm lens on a 24x36 camera.

The crop factor both of the "Quantum light" and "Helion XQ" series is 5,5x, they seem to use the same sensor (size and resolution) inside.

So the XP series need lenses 1,66x longer than Quantum light / Helion XQ series to get the same field of view, regardless of its higher resolution.

That's why e.g. the Quantum light XQ30V shows exactly the same field of view as the Helion XP50, regardless different resolution, no WiFi functionality, no interchangeable lenses and way lower price.

Cheers

 

[Vollmeise]

A short walk through the park

Today I took a moment for a short walk through the park nearby.

The pics shown were made on this cloudy december noon, air temperature about 8°C.

The quality depends on the current settings of the camera, esp. Brightness and contrast. Best results to find birds means changeing these "exposure values" manually by try and error.

The view finder's image is a bit sharper than the saved images, also do the birds' movements help to locate them. The distances are estimated and without liability

- Eurasian Magpie on the rooftop: 30m
- short-toed treecreeper: 90m (two pedestrians in the right corner, the tiny white spot in the center is the treecreeper creeping up the oak's trunk. Two meters below at about 7 o'clock is a second tiny spot, that's a coal tit. As these points are moving it's easy to find them in reality)
- squirrel: 25m
- 7 birds in the bushes: 15m (coal tits and blue tits, with my bare eye I just could see 4 of them)
- Carrion crow: 30m

Hope it could help somewhat..

Cheers

 

[Torchepot]

Very impressive Vollmeise!

The resolution is remarkable and considering that the images would look pretty much the same in total darkness - to be able to detect something the size of a Treecreeper at 90m is something special. :t:

 

[wllmspd]

Looking like even the smaller lens versions will still deliver plenty of fun?!

Peter

 

[DMW]

Thanks for posting these images... very impressive.
Could you say whether a bird sat in dense foliage would be visible in the viewfinder? The scenario I'm thinking of would be something like a scops owl in tropical forest, perched say 10m away, bit possibly concealed by leaves.

 

[Vollmeise]

Looking like even the smaller lens versions will still deliver plenty of fun?!

Peter

They certainly will! I'm going to order the 28mm lens as soon as my bank account has recovered :egghead:

In germany separate lenses aren't available jet, but I found some shops in the UK listing them as "on stock": http://shop.drewslab.co.uk/17-thermal-imagers?p=3

 

[Vollmeise]

(...) Could you say whether a bird sat in dense foliage would be visible in the viewfinder? The scenario I'm thinking of would be something like a scops owl in tropical forest, perched say 10m away, bit possibly concealed by leaves.

You can't see what is hidden by foliage, but if you move slowly while watching from shorter distance, even those birds can be found as their heat image should partially flash between the leaves' gaps from time to time.

I think a shorter lens should fit your needs best. Try to get a view through a Pulsar Quantum Lite XQ23V or sth compareable in that range if you don't need to shoot photos or want to interchange lenses.

Cheers

Image attached: the five spots in the background I took by accident. I wanted to get another creeper right at the trunk but was too slow. The 5 blackbirds in a yew tree 50m away couldn't be seen with my bare eye as they didn't move, some bins did the ID job then.

 

[DMW]

Thanks! This technology looks like it could be a real game-changer. I guess two concerns I have are how effective these devices are in the tropics, with high ambient temperatures, and whether airport security / police might be an issue in some countries.

 

[Vollmeise]

(...) and whether airport security / police might be an issue in some countries.

That seems to be a concern really. Pulsar explicitly points out, that their thermal imagers must not be taken outside the EU. I think that is due to some military restrictions. The Yukon company (Pulsar is one of their trademarks) was found in Belarus but produces the thermal imagers in Lithuania (which is inside the EU). I think its solely to serve european customers wihout any trouble.

 

[Torchepot]

That seems to be a concern really. Pulsar explicitly points out, that their thermal imagers must not be taken outside the EU. I think that is due to some military restrictions. The Yukon company (Pulsar is one of their trademarks) was found in Belarus but produces the thermal imagers in Lithuania (which is inside the EU). I think its solely to serve european customers wihout any trouble.

I talked with a couple of suppliers in the UK (Pass Thermal were particularly helpful) and raised this subject with them. Many countries have restrictions on bringing such devices in, consequences could be serious with confiscation of equipment (bad enough considering the outlay) or worse!

This is where a more discreet device has advantages - something like the Therm-app which attaches to a mobile is less likely to be detected or recognised - but there is a big difference in performance!