InfiRay TL35 digital thermal scope

Dave Barham gives a sneak peek at the new TL35 digital thermal scope from InfiRay

It doesnt get much easier to operate than this

credit: Archant

It’s not often you get to play with nearly three grand’s worth of scope on an air rifle, so when Cliff from Optical Solutions called me and asked if I’d like to pay him a visit, I jumped at the chance. It turns out that he lives just 20 miles away, and with a huge array of digital night-vision gear in his warehouse, coupled with the fact that we both enjoy a pint or two, I get the feeling that we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other over the coming months.

Lens covers are provided

credit: Archant

IT’S A SCOPE!

The TL35 is an all-singing, all-dancing affair. It’s the first ‘scope-looking’ scope in the InfiRay range, by which I mean it actually looks like a traditional rifle scope, rather than the strange box-shaped bits of kit with an eyepiece.

It might look like a standard, run-of-the-mill 30mm body scope, but as soon as you turn it on and look through the viewfinder you realise that is not the case. No, this is a seriously good thermal-imaging scope in disguise!

Because it’s thermal, that means you can use it day or night, so it’s a huge plus point for those wishing to perform pest control, or just hunt in general during daylight into darkness.

One of this scope’s key features is the detection range. That’s not so important for we airgunners, but with up to 1,800 metres of detection range at your fingertips, it’s going to be a huge selling point for deer stalkers and the like.

Theres space for an additional battery

credit: Archant

EASY OPERATION

Unlike some digital NV scopes that I have used in the past, this one is absolutely idiot proof. There’s a single rotary turret on the top of the scope that controls the zoom in and out, whilst the four push buttons on the keypad at the ocular end control the modes and filming/picture taking, with palette choice, brightness and menu choice all being controlled at the press of a button – it really is that simple. The instruction manual provided makes life even easier, and you soon get to know what a short press and a long press of each button does. I’ll go into more detail in part two of the review.

Plug and play

credit: Archant

POWER SOURCE

It’s powered by two rechargeable 18500 batteries, built into the unit, that give up to eight hours of continuous use. However, if you remove the left-hand turret cap there’s a port to load an additional 18500 battery, which will give you a further two hours of run time in an emergency.

Simply unscrew the right-hand turret and plug in the USB Type C cable provided in order to charge, or to download pics and vids to your PC.

The supplied eyeiece is perfect for shooting at night and gives perfect eye relief

credit: Archant

CRISP IMAGERY

This scope features incredible resolution, both through the viewfinder and when shooting video and stills. There’s 16Gb of storage built in, so there’s no need for fiddly micro SD cards, just film away and then plug it straight into your PC to download the images and video. You get up to 24 hours of video recording time or up to 20,000 images of photo storage and it’s WiFi enabled too!

It comes in its own padded carry bag

credit: Archant

PICTURE IN PICTURE

Another really interesting feature is the ‘picture in picture’ function. Click into this mode and it brings up a separate display box in the viewfinder with two-times magnification of your reticle and target. The beauty of this is that you can use the box to home in on your quarry, whilst having the field of view using the rest of the screen – very handy when shooting rabbits in the dark, you can see if they’ve hopped off and where to, whilst taking your shot.

Stay tuned for the full review!

The leads are supplied