DD Optics Night Hawk Binoculars

DD Optics are a German company making a wide range of optics including spotting scopes, rifle scopes and night-vision equipment. Their range of binoculars is extensive, to cover most possible applications, and a 30-year guarantee on their products indicates that they have extremely high confidence in what they make. Having handled a couple of items from DD Optics the author can certainly attest to the quality ‘feel’ and function of their products.

Specification

The glasses are definitely designed to maximise vision, with 56mm lenses and 12x magnification contributing to massive light gathering and enhanced target detection at greater distances. At just 940-grams these binoculars are relatively light, particularly for glasses with this level of magnification and lens size, but they have not compromised on quality or build as the feel is definitely solid and workmanlike.

The main focusing wheel is positioned on the upper bridge and for fine adjustment of the binoculars there is a dioptre adjustment wheel on the right eye piece. Both move very smoothly and stay in place once focusing is complete. Both eyecups are retractable and they lock in place with a reassuring ‘click’. Protective caps are supplied on the objective lenses and these remain fixed to the binoculars at all times, hanging down on small rubber straps when in the open position.

Day & night

In full daylight, the view through these binoculars is truly impressive. The clarity and magnification of the image, right up to the edges, is so sharp that you instantly question how they do it for the price. Making a direct comparison with the top end brand of glasses, with similar lens size and magnification, it is almost impossible to perceive any difference in the quality of the image.

However, as the light fades these binoculars really come into their own and perform so much better than the competition. The initial loss of light as dusk falls is something that many binoculars can cope with, but the Night Hawks seem to be able to find noticeably more light from somewhere and allow you to pick up far more detail for much longer into the deteriorating light.

When there is plenty of moonlight the view through the binoculars is ‘spooky’ as you can pick out a fair bit of detail, and movement is very easy to detect. With a part of the field of view including a moonlit sky the lenses seem able to use this backlighting and enhance the rest of the field of view. The performance of these glasses when the light has all but gone is something of a surprise, leaving the much more expensive ones well and truly in the dark.

Conclusion

The binoculars performed extremely well in all types of light but really shone in low light conditions, very much living up to the name ‘Night Hawk’. The build quality is much better than you might expect at this price level and DD Optics might just shake up the market with these binoculars, offering a high specification and performance product at a very challenging price.