TFB Review: Zeiss DTI 3/35 Thermal Spotting Camera

-“Would you like to review the Zeiss DTI 3/35? Zeiss brand new and first-ever thermal spotting camera?”

(Me) -“For sure!”

-“The good news is that you’ll be the first in the World. The bad news is that you can only have it over a long weekend and the forecast says it’s going to rain most of the time.”

Those were the conditions for this review, and something you need to bear in mind. Normally I do my best to test any gear for at least over a few weeks, preferrably over months or – even better – something I’ve own for a very long time. But there are exceptions to the rule, and this is such a case.

The thermal sensor has a resolution of 384 x 288 with a thermal sensitivity ( NETD) of ≤50mk (the lower the better). This is good, but not among the best on the commercial market. The LCOS display (which you look into) has a resolution of 1280 x 960 with a frame rate of 50 Hz.

The focal length is 35 mm with an optical magnification of 2.5. The maximum digital zoom is 4x, and you can change it in 0.5 power increments, from 1 to 4x. This means that you in reality see 2.5 to 10x magnification on the screen. The field of view (FOV) at 100 meters is 19 (62 ft), and the device appears to me to have a wide FOV as you walk around in the forest (about 30°).

Below: Wild boar spotting with the new Zeiss DTI 3/35. You can spot details that you most likely wouldn’t be able to see with your daylight binoculars. Remember that you can use your thermal camera in daylight as well.

The digital zoom is very smooth in steps of 0.5 and there are also functions for picture-in-picture and something called hot-tracking. The start-up, until you can see an image from the thermal sensor, is in the region of 11-12 seconds. This is quite slow compared to many of the competitors, and may (or may not) bother some customers. However, the automatic calibration which freezes the image for a little while is very fast. You just hear a little “click” and then it recalibrates. Most other units I’ve tried take longer to do this, and even if it’s just for a fraction of a second it’s annoying and feels like forever. Well done Zeiss!

In terms of color palettes, there are four: White Hot, Black Hot, Red Hot and Rainbow. In my opinion, the black hot gives a very white picture overall, which may be bad for your eye’s night vision. You can adjust the brightness and contrast, but even then it’s very white, almost like a white paper that you put a back-light on. The purple is similar, except it’s purple. The rainbow gives you a very purple picture and was not a favorite of mine. I used Red Hot and White Hot mainly.

Note that the weather conditions were quite bad with rain and very even temperatures. This is optimal for testing the performance, but the quality of the pictures may look to Zeiss’ disadvantage if you compare them versus other units.

Example: Black hot. I’m not sure about the distance, but I guesstimate it to be around 25 meters.

To my knowledge, the Zeiss does not record any audio.

This is the first time I’ve used a device with something called “Hot Tracking”. Once turned on, you get a small red square that tracks the hottest place on the screen. Cool feature, for a while. Your eyes will be able to tell you which is the hottest surface anyway, and then the jumping red square may be a distraction rather than a help.

WLAN and Apps

This sample unit did not yet have the WLAN functions, so I haven’t been able to evaluate them or the apps. There will be software and possibly firmware updates and live sharing through the app once the camera gets on the market. The Zeiss Hunting app has a very high rating (4+ out of 5), so there’s hope the software is going to be useful.

All of the videos and pictures were downloaded by cable, which worked without problems.

The overall impression is positive. The device looks good and handles well. The material choices are well thought out and it feels and looks like a premium product. There are a few areas where Zeiss need to try harder, but for a first try, they got most of it where it should be. Zeiss may also attract new customers to the thermal game. People who have little or no knowledge of how these devices can be used in hunting for instance.

The Made in China label may come as a negative surprise for some that were expecting Zeiss to use their knowledge in optics and semiconductors.

The first Zeiss DTI 3/35 Thermal Spotting Cameras should become available in stores soon. It wouldn’t surprise me if Zeiss have more thermal products in the pipeline. Did anyone say a Thermal Front Attachment? Developed, branded and integrated together with their daylight riflescopes Zeiss could have a pretty strong offering within a few years’ time. I hope they play their cards right.

You can find Zeiss DTI 3/35 Product Page here.

What do you think about Zeiss’ new DTI 3/35 Thermal spotting camera?