see also:

• night vision - a general overview
• outdoor thermal imaging devices - search and rescue, hunting, hiking

• made by Chinese manufacturer Shenzhen Henbaker Industrial Co
• digital near IR night vision rifle scope
• has BOTH 850 and 940nm IR illuminator lamps and a red laser beam
• HD video WiFi tetherable to a smartphone via app for download only (remote live view does not seem to work)
• up to 10hrs use depending upon IR beam output strength and LCD brightness (WiFi will obviously reduce this)

• “1-8x” optical zoom 30mm f/1.6 or f/1.8 nominal fixed aperture lens (although presumably is much less when zoomed out) which roughly equates to 50-300mm in 35mm full frame terms
• 8mp sensor it seems it may be a 1/3rd“ sensor (same as iPhone 6 size sensor which has around 7x crop factor)
• shutter speed range appears to be 1/16th sec - 1/32000th sec
• aperture is fixed at wide open
• ISO range is 125-8000
• jpeg image EXIF data shows:
  • “Novatek camera model 96660” which presumably refers to the Novatek NT96660 chipset which is used in many dash-cam cameras
  • image size 3264 x 2448 pixels = 8mp 4/3 aspect ratio
  • EXIF reports 3mm focal length at any optical zoom setting
  • in daytime color mode, the EXIF reports ISO 125 and shutter speed 1/26315th sec in full sun and 1/973rd sec in open shade, but at night in indoor lighting, shutter speed drops to 1/16th sec and ISO rises to around ISO 1200 depending on light level
  • for night B&W mode shows shutter speed 1/16th sec (which presumably is the longest) and uses auto-ISO which is usually around 800-3200 ISO but seems to max at ISO 8000
  • you can get recognisable handheld photo imagery of foliage at 150m at max. optical and digital zoom with IR at max and IR lamp zoomed out, ISO hits about 1600 - am yet to test their claim of 400m but presumably this would work at ISO 8000
• 5W dual 850nm and 940nm IR illuminators (intensity adjusted each time you press IR button plus zoom by pulling out the front element) plus red laser pointer (adjustable via supplied allen key)
• manual optical zoom + button-control digital zoom
• manual focus only via MF wheel 3cm to infinity
• can attach lens to rear optic of 35-48mm rifle scope;
• diopter included for long sighted people
• 1080 30P video MP4 with bit rate of nearly 15Mbps
  • audio is mono 95kbps with sample rate 32kHz
• WiFi,
• USB charging port
• microHDMI out;
• up to 128Gb microSD;
• supplied with a 17.8Wh 4800mAh removable 3.7V 21700A lithium battery giving 8-10hrs use;
  • presumably you could use a touch smaller 3.7V 18650 battery if you had to (not tested this)
  • turned on without IR beams on uses 0.83W, additional power used for each setting:
    • 940 IR on level 1 uses 2.5W, level 2 IR uses 3.9W,
    • 850nm IR on: level 3 IR uses 2.5W, level 4 IR uses 3.2W, level 5 IR uses 3.9W;
    • laser on uses 1.2W;
• 3.1” TFT LCD 16:9 800×480 pixels display
• rear eyepiece can be removed via unscrewing hex screws (supplied allen key)
• 353g w/o eyepiece and diopter lens;
• 430g with rear eyepiece and diopter; 214x103x58mm; Will just fit into a jacket pocket;
• $AU496 excl. SD card/rifle mount/adapter;
• comes with a carry case, diopter lens for long sighted people, allen keys, battery, USB cable, 2x sealing rings, lens cloth
• optional 42mm, 45mm or 48mm tube adapters to attach to rear of rifle scope ~$AU32 each
• optional rifle mount rail ~$AU45
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwZvmqH3LSw
• Ebay Australia store

• On/Off button:
  • long hold to turn on and long hold to turn off completely
  • short press to go into sleep mode and a blue LED lights up near the button
• Laser beam button
  • the small button next to the On/Off button
  • short press toggles video mode vs still photo mode vs video playback mode
  • long press to activate laser beam or turn it off
• Default is color vision day mode but the last mode used is used when next turn it on
• For IR night vision, need to switch to B&W “night” mode by pressing + button
  • press IR +/- buttons to activate IR lamp -
    • 1st 2 bars power out of max 5 activates only the 940nm lamp which is just visible to the eye if it is aimed at you (not visible if viewer is off-axis) and becomes much more visible if you pull out the lamp lens to narrow down the field of view and given more distance and adjust angle of beam manually by moving the lamp lens
    • anything higher than 2nd bar changes to 850nm lamp which is easily visible to the eye from a wider off-axis viewpoint and at maximum is “5W” with a range of up to 400m
• For 1-4x digital zoom:
  • press the Left or Right buttons to adjust amount of zoom
• To record a video or take a photo (depending upon mode set by the laser beam button):
  • short press centre button, short press again to stop video recording
• To access the menu:
  • long press the centre button and use short presses to enter submenus
  • can adjust the center position
  • can adjust LCD brightness - best to reduce this to a low setting at night otherwise it is quite blinding to a night adjusted eye
  • can activate WiFi - default user name is Henbaker and password is 12345678 and smartphone app is “VF Cam” which will allow WiFi downloading of images/videos from the camera
  • can adjust horiz and vertical settings
  • can adjust Auto Power off duration
  • can set Loop Recording: Off, 3 min, 5 min, 10 minutes
  • can adjust Font size
  • can set to record audio (on by default)
  • can set date and time and language
  • can format the microSD card
• optionally attach to rifle and rifle scope
  • optional mount rail attaches via 3 screws for maximum stability
  • optional adapter tubes attach the unit to the rear of a rifle scope
  • optical zoom setting can be locked at a given setting using the supplied allen key
  • laser beam spot can be adjusted using the hexnut allen key wrench to adjust the adjacent adjustment screws

• lens is not parfocal - focus changes dramatically as you zoom in or out although there does seem to be a common focus at maximum zoom and almost minimum zoom
• no IR illumination in color mode
• 940nm lamp has only one power output (presumably maximum) - but range can be extended by pulling out the front lens of the lamp
• no filter thread on front objective in case you wanted to use a IR filter in day time
• no ability to set exposure compensation so close objects that are lit very brightly by the IR illuminators result in more distant subjects being overly dark even though the illuminators can reach them adequately
• diopter is very fiddly to insert into eyepiece - you wouldn't want to be taking it in and out for different users
• easy to accidentally cross-thread the battery cap - thankfully you don't need to remove this unless your battery fails
• would be nice if eyepiece allowed a red filter so you retain night vision with your eyes - but this is at last feasible with a hack such as inserting a 49mm 25A red photo filter which will fit snuggly into the rear of eyepiece
• not sure how weather sealed it is
• no USB out function to charge a smartphone from the battery
• no ability to delete files in camera (apart from formatting the card)
• default video on computer (but you can use VLC player to brighten up the video) is much darker than as shown in LCD
• fixed shutter speed of 1/16th sec results in blurry photos and videos in night mode with optical zoom unless you use a tripod - could have done with image stabilisation!
• WiFi iphone connection app (VF Cam v2.7 and VF Cam+ v1.9) buggy:
  • when WiFi is on, buttons on camera no longer function and viewfinder remains in WiFi menu screen
  • app does not display live view
  • app can play and download photos or videos but the delete button does not seem to work
  • need to turn camera off and then back on to return to normal non-buggy function of camera
  • firmware version: CY789_V3.35