Two are better than one – ThermTec; the Cyclops D-Series CP340D Dual FOV Monocular

I first saw ThermTec at the 2023 British Shooting Show and was quite impressed with the rubber joystick control and the subtle dual focal length lens control. They call it Dual FOV (field of view) thermal imaging, and it uses a 384x288 pixel sensor with 12um pitch and 25mk NETD rating. The 20/40mm lenses are swapped back and forth with a rotating collar, just behind the front image focussing collar, and when rotated, swap the image instantly between wide FOV/low base magnification, then high mag/narrower FOV without resorting to digital zoom, which will always pixelate an image. It is one or the other though and there is no gradual increase like a variable magnification riflescope, for example.

The build

The Cyclops is a tubular thermal in terms of overall shape, with a slightly tapering diameter from 63 to 46mm over its 203mm length. There is a clip-in rubber lens cap (which rarely stays in position), followed by a rubber image-focusing collar, the 20/40 optical zoom collar, and then a series of three top controls. The back end shows a left-side eyepiece focussing dial and an ambidextrous rubber eyepiece allowing an immediate left or right eye position without reversing the shield. The underside has an aluminium ¼” tripod mounting bracket, a secure lanyard anchor, and a USB-C charging/data retrieval port for which a cable is supplied. Battery and data storage are integral and not user-interchangeable. The dual battery life is suggested to be 12 hours and is dependent on the features in use, but after that, you need to use an external battery pack and cable.

The upper shows a grippy rubber surface with flutes for tactile grip. The front button requires a long hold for the unit to power up, and the image goes live after about ten seconds. Short presses turn the display off/on to save battery. The eyepiece is easily focused on the left side and has a reasonable quality ocular lens but is quite critical for the exact eye position to retain focus within a full field of view of the internal 1024 OLED display. Icons across the top, display the remaining battery capacity, 20/40mm focal length, chosen digital focus, time etc. in a discreet pattern that I found easy to view. The icons seem relatively intuitive.

The second of the controls is an orange rubber joystick that pushes forward and backwards to increase or decrease up to 6x digital zoom of whichever optical lens is in use. Moving the joystick right changes between the six colour palettes, which include favourites like white and black, although red-hot is still good for adding more texture. The time is set in the menus via GPS satellites, and although I like knowing the time, I don’t particularly want my location known to anyone. This can be switched off without disturbing the time once set, but it cannot be set manually.

A two-way Wi-Fi Connection is available and the icon on the screen is easily visible. I’m not really an app fan when hunting but the functionality will appeal to some, allowing immediate control of things like screen recording or remote viewing from inside a vehicle, for example.

Tech

An IP67 waterproof, dust-proof, and fog-proof rating is assured, with a 1m drop test capability. ThermTec offers various acronyms for their image processing algorithms, like WDS or Target modes for high-contrast lighting conditions as opposed to specific targets with slightly differently weighted display intensity. The AI rangefinder is essentially a bracketing system to estimate the range to quarry based on its image size, but this is restricted to specific animal sizes and subject to significant variations in the real world. It’s not something I would use, although it’s marketed to be based on an “independently developed deep learning algorithm”. We are used to the precision of laser rangefinders now, so perhaps not one to dwell on?

The unit is advertised to give a 5556m detection range from its optics and electronics behind the 50mm diameter objective lens. I certainly didn’t find it let me down in hunting scenarios, with animals from rabbits to Fallow deer, yet felt slightly disappointed the antlers on some bucks at 200m barely showed.

A double press of the joystick enters the menu mode, which is reasonably well presented, with easily understood functionality. Image mode offers ten settings for sharpness, brightness, and contrast, as well as de-noise. Further investigation allows you to select from six animal/human/vehicle sizes for the AI rangefinder. Picture-in-picture is offered as well as a zeroing function and multiple reticle types. The OLED screen menu offers five brightness settings as well as grey, purple or a blue hue. The system offers overall settings for things like metres or yards, language, and time zone. Tracking enables a live detector on screen that immediately picks up new heat sources, which can be useful over large areas. There are numerous other settings, and you can internally view previous videos or still footage captured by the unit. The rearmost button on top takes photos with a short press and a longer press records video, which I found immediately easy to access.

Thoughts

The ThermTec is an interesting unit and the more I used it, the more I came to appreciate some of its functions. There is no doubt the immediate two-stage optical zoom is superb because it doesn’t add pixelation and is fast to swap back and forth without needing to find buttons or enter menus. I liked the joystick from the instant I first used the unit, as it keeps lesser-used functions separate, with power in front and camera/video behind it.

The depth of field on the focus rings is quite shallow and you do need a couple of turns from minimum to maximum focal distance, but a 100 to 200m setting will cater for the majority of fox and deer scanning needs. You can re-focus if you want more detail once any prospective quarry is detected. I avoided the image stabilisation, as I felt it introduced some lag to the display when you were scanning about, which felt awkward. It might be good for specific filming but not when you are walking and need that fast refresh rate operating to avoid feeling seasick.

Although I quite like the general presentation and layout of the icons and display screens, I found the text used for the AI rangefinder very small, and although I agree you need a lot of data on the screen, yet not obscuring too much FOV, it’s not something that appeals to me on small vermin. It might come into play on larger animals, like Deer or Boar, but only if you know their likely maturity and size. As always with such a device, investigation of all the screen settings and functionalities will benefit the user and I will pay it the compliment of never crashing or failing to offload captured footage.

I never got controls mixed up, although it is quite easy to nudge the joystick and change colours. The only real weak spot on the device is the lens cap never seems to stay in place, so be careful when storing it away as you will forever cry if you scratch the silver ‘objective’ lens.

I liked the fact the image didn’t excessively darken when looking up towards a skyline with a cold sky, which loses animals in the foreground, and I thought the image showed decent texture to allow relaxed depth perception within the field of view. I didn’t use the digital zoom at all, as flicking up to the 40mm focal length was so fast and easy.

Conclusion

Overall, this unit offers a lot for a very reasonable price. I like the ambidextrous ergonomics and I think tubular thermals are superior in a dynamic hunting environment.