First public hands-on with the new Hikmicro Habrok 4K Thermal binoculars

Hikmicro is a significant and growing presence in imaging, with a thermal option to suit more or less anyone, and this week have been allowing consumers at The Photography and Video Show an early look at their new Habrok 4K Digital Hunting Daywalker.

The device brings a tried and tested design which looks like traditional binoculars but places a thermal camera in one lens and an optical one in the other, each with separate focusing rings. A simple button press on the top switches views – I tried this out myself on the show floor. 

The new HE25L has a 256 × 192 thermal resolution – actually lower than its immediate predecessor, the HQ35L (£2,799), released late last year, which uses the same rugged build but boasts a 640 x 512 thermal camera. The team told me, though, that this makes a lot of sense for users like birders, or anyone working in daylight. It's still enough thermal resolution to find a bird or animal, then switch to the optical view to follow it and record detailed visuals, but will be significantly cheaper.

This means Hikmicro will be able to offer the device at a price – and with imaging tech – more ideally suited for those who want to use it mainly in the day. The actual figure should be announced soon, and we'll update you as soon as we know.

The thermal display has a refresh rate of 50Hz, so it feels very natural when you view it – much more so than some devices I've tried in the past that followed military regulations (or the import rules that they created).

There is also a built-in 940 nm IR illuminator and Laser Rangefinder of 1000m measuring distance – useful for photographers assessing focus and hunters tracking animals. All of this is under 780g (27.5oz) which seemed portable to me.

The IP67-rated device offers the ability 40 capture video of 4K, and store it on built-in 64GB of storage (this isn't accessible which, I was told by the team, was to minimise the number of opening hatches and maintain the water ingress protection). Instead files are offloaded via wireless tech.

Powered using HM-3633DC – a common type since they're used in almost all vapes – the device can operate from one battery but has a bay in each grip. You can't actually fold the binoculars, but the lenses are adjustable on an internal track.

If you're at The Photography and Video Show from now until Tuesday Hikmicro can be found at stand L200. Until now, the new thermal binoculars had only been seen at industry events following a launch 2 weeks ago; now members of the public at the show are getting an early look ahead of the anticipated on sale date in July. 

We were told by senior staff they'll be priced at under £1,300 (around $1,650), so below half that of the HQ35L.

Hikmicro have a wide range of thermal imaging products including some of the best thermal cameras, with devices that can be attached to your phone.