HIK Micro Lynx LC06 Review - Wildlife Watching

 My latest experiment in wildlife watching is the use of thermal imaging. I have been toying with the idea for a little over a year, exploring different technologies and options. Initially, I looked at plug-ins for the iPhone somewhat like the bat detector Touch 2 echo meter, but this seemed expensive and energy intensive. A lot of options on the internet were all for commercial use used by home insulators and electricians. By shifting my search parameters to the hunting sites, I started to get a few more options. Flicking through Birdwatching I saw an advert for a couple of scopes and focused my research.  I came up with a couple of main companies Flir, HikMicro, and Pulsar.

I got some money for Christmas and so decided to take the plunge. My largest concern was finding out the distance and sensor quality. Despite a lot of reading, I couldn’t really make heads or tails of the values and figures. The only way was to get my hands on one and try it out. Most models seemed to be around the £1000 mark but there were some for less than £500.

I opted in the end for the HIKMicro Lynx LC06 Thermal telescope. It is made by a Chinese company and the build quality seems good.

The scope has up to x4 zoom, the ability to take JPEG stills, and four colour modes. The modes are White Hot, Black Hot, Red Hot, and Fusion. The controls are well placed, and the eyecup cuts out any extraneous light. It is light and fits well in the palm of the hand. But how good is such a cheap imager.

My goal was to be able to pick up the Roe Deer in the long grass or small rodents in the undergrowth. I took the imager out into the garden and down my patch to field test. First off the modes. Each mode has its pluses and minuses, I have come to like the black hot setting for detecting birds and animals although the fusion is very useful for picking up heat signatures but does little to pick up the surrounding features like the others.

White Hotspot

Black Hotspot

Red Hotspot

Fusion - Yellow/White Hot

Distance was always my biggest concern and with this model it still is. The test stills of the pigeon on the roof were taken about 2 metres away and show the body shape and hot spots of the individual. Out in the field, anything over 10 metres was difficult but not impossible to identify. The following image shows a pony perhaps 100 metres away. The shape is a little indistinct but it’s clear there is something there.

Fusion image of a pony at 100m with x4 zoom

I think some of the issues I am having are partially due to the weather, it’s been quite warm this past week and so the temperature differential isn’t very wide. I suspect at night and in really cold weather it will have better quality. It’s also true that a higher-end model would have better image quality. Lastly, I found it operated best when panning to try and avoid getting too much sky in the viewfinder as this helped keep a reasonable temperature differential.

Robin perched between trail camera and tree feeder 4m away. Black Hotspot

As one may expect the Roe Deer still ‘outfoxed’ me when I tested it this week appearing and bolting before I had even got the scope out of my bag, so I have yet to test it as a technique for spotting the deer first, it’s deer 1 Scope 0 at the moment.

There is still much to try out, especially on more night explorations and in colder weather. A more nuanced review will be added once I am more familiar with the device but for now, I can say that for the price, this device operates as expected. I had hoped for better but was not overly disappointed. I can see plenty of applications that I have yet to explore and will have fun trying them out.