Zeiss DTI 6/40 thermal review

Review: Zeiss DTI 6/40 thermal monocular


The Zeiss DTI 6 thermal monocular provides excellent image clarity, a brilliantly ergonomic design, a simple menu and quick operation, making it one of the best night-hunting aids you’ll get without stretching the budget well beyond this one’s $6300 asking price. 

Improved image processing software and a smart control layout are the two primary factors behind its superiority.

See some footage shot with the Zeiss DTI 6/40 in this video, along with commentary

It also goes a long way to resolving the dilemma between buying a long-distance or wide-angle spotter because it has interchangeable lenses: both 20mm and 40mm lenses are available and you can have a wide-angle and a long-range thermal in one just by buying an extra lens. 

I tested just the 40mm version, which has a claimed detection range of 2km and is better for more open country.

Zeiss has developed its own new algorithms for the DTI 6 to make the most of the physical components, which include a typically clear Zeiss lens, a latest-generation 640×480-pixel sensor and a viewfinder-filling 1024x768p display.

The image is processed in three stages in a process designed primarily to deal with problems associated with high contrast between the very cold sky and the hot foreground, and it does a very good job of it. 

Zeiss DTI 6/40 thermal review
Two views of a feral pig with the sky behind. The contrast is good in this situation because of the clever Zeiss processing software, with the better effect being in red hot mode

The issue manifests itself by blowing out the image when the thermal is trying to deal with such widely varying heat sources — an entire landscape, topped by the skyline, will appear hot all over with low contrast between individual heat sources, and the only way to fix it is to angle the thermal viewer down until the sky disappears and the remaining heat signals can be better separated by the software. 

Zeiss has done an excellent job of this with the DTI 6, which is markedly better than many other thermals in this regard. Developing this technology is still a work in progress, and there’s room for improvement, but here and now I think you won’t easily find anything better and it’ll likely cost you a lot more. Check out the footage in the video above.

This gives the Zeiss a distinct advantage in itself. On top of that, the DTI 6 provides a superbly crisp image overall, along with the ability to tailor it to suit yourself and changing conditions in the field. 

The low latency in the display also helps, as it shows you a sharper image as you pan across the landscape. 

Zeiss DTI 6/40 thermal review
The far tree line is 1.5km away and you can see the deer that far away as small but visible heat signals

From the first minute I used the DTI 6 I was impressed by the image quality, distinguishing wombats from pigs at a good 300m, and seeing fallow-size targets easily at 1500m — probably more if I’d found the location to allow it. 

And the other revelation was that the controls are brilliant: simple, quick and easy to master. 

The large rolling dial set top-centre of the Zeiss’s body can be spun left or right by your middle finger to zoom in and out, or to move through the menu’s functions when you’re in there. It allows incredibly fast zooming 

Your index finger can manipulate two buttons that are very easy to differentiate by feel and position. 

Zeiss DTI 6/40 thermal review
The design, layout and size of the DTI 6’s controls are absolutely outstanding, and definitely one of its best features

The first is larger and square. A quick press cycles the colour palette through whichever three colours you’ve opted to run; a long press activates the main menu, in which you can select more colours and do a host of other things I’ll cover in a moment. 

The second button is smaller and round. A quick press takes a photo or starts and stops video recording; a long press allows you to swap between photo and video modes. 

The speed at which you can call up all the menu items, then select and adjust them, is partly a result of the control layout and partly the way the menu is set up.

For example, if you want to adjust the way the scene is displayed, you long-press the menu button until the options appear; scroll across to ‘scene’ and select it with a quick press of the menu button; scroll around the circular icon to see instantly what ‘universal’, ‘fog’, ‘night eye’, ‘detect’ and ‘identify’ look like; short press to select the one you want and you’re away. You can let the menu disappear from the bottom of the screen by itself after a few seconds, or long-press the menu button again to get rid of it.    

Zeiss DTI 6/40 thermal review
The DTI 6 image is so good it will show deer antlers. This rusa stag and spiker are in hard antler

All this can be done using the Zeiss Hunting app, too, of course. Overall setup is very easy using the app, but it’s not essential. 

Connectivity, by  the way, is quite clever. The DTI 6 uses Bluetooth as its main connection to your device and the Zeiss Hunting app; this uses less power than wi-fi. However, for larger data transfers, such as software updates and gallery downloads, it automatically switches to wi-fi, and all you have to do is confirm you’ll allow it. 

Getting back to setup, you can established up to six profiles, that is, six different pre-set configurations covering all the settings. You might have one for regular use; another for foggy nights with not only the ‘fog’ scene as the default one but different colour, brightness and contrast settings that work better for you in those conditions; and whatever others you like. 

As well as colour profiles covering the usual white hot, black hot, red hot and rainbow, you can create three of your own in the menu. 

Zeiss DTI 6/40 thermal review
Four of six possible colour palettes, clockwise from top left: white hot, night eye (to prevent completely ruining your night vision), rainbow and a user-programmed one I called vomit

The zoom can be tailored to your preferences: faster or slower; to go around in a loop or to hit a hard stop at 1x and 10x; even what the default initial magnification is when you start up.

The Zeiss has a base magnification of 3x and goes up to 30x. The display shows 1.0x to 10x, but it’s set to begin at the optical 3x magnification built into the lenses; it varies in increments as small as 0.1x at the lower end. 

This brings us to the picture the DTI 6 displays. Normally, 10x magnification would blur everything to useless pixels but Zeiss has created such a fine picture that even this huge increase provides what’s usually a useful picture — not always, but the pixellation isn’t too bad at all. 

Putting that in practical terms, there were many times when I’d spot a potential target several hundred metres away that, at base magnification, appeared as a clear but small and indistinct shape. I could zoom in far more than I’ve do with other thermals and get proper identification; lesser thermals just provide a blurred blob of pixels in the same situation and I know this because I was in familiar country. 

Zeiss DTI 6/40 thermal review
You can swap lenses with the DTI 6, with the options of wide-angle 20mm and long-view 40mm

There are plenty of other points to praise, but I’ll briefly mention just two. The long battery life tends to at least match the 6½ hour claim, and it’s a replaceable unit so you can carry a spare. Start-up is quick, although the unit runs some calibration functions in the first 30 seconds or so that mean you don’t get perfectly smooth operation during that time.   

There’s plenty more to say about the DTI 6 but most of it is available in the specs table, in Zeiss’s own descriptions and in the downloadable handbook.  

The key points, though, are that this is a very well engineered thermal monocular with better imagery and controls than virtually anything else, and a huge list of practical and beneficial features, not least of which are the interchangeable lenses and the extensive ability to customise settings. 

Zeiss DTI 6/40 thermal review
The proprietary battery lasts really well, as good as its claimed 6.5 hours and sometimes better. If it runs out, you can swap it for another

SPECIFICATIONS

Note: these specs are for the DTI 6/40 (with DTI 6/20 in brackets where different)

  • Manufacturer: Zeiss, Germany
  • Focal length: 40mm (20mm) — interchangeable
  • Aperture: f1.0
  • Field of view at 100m: 19m (38m)
  • Range: 2000m (1000m)
  • Optical magnification: 3x (1.5x)
  • Digital zoom: 1x to 10x
  • Sensor: 640x480p, 12μm, ≤ 35mK
  • Display: 1024x768p AMOLED, 50Hz
  • Battery: Zeiss 3200mAh Li-Ion, removable, rechargeable, claimed 6.5hr run time
  • Connectivity: Bluetooth & wi-fi
  • Internal storage: 16GB
  • Dimensions (LWH): 228 x 69 x 73mm (230 x 62 x 68mm)
  • Weight: 755g (690g) including battery
  • RRP: $6309. Lenses, $1389; battery pack, $209; charging cradle, $159
  • Distributor: OSA Australia

 

 

 


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Mick Matheson

Mick grew up with guns and journalism, and has included both in his career. A life-long hunter, he has long-distant military experience and holds licence categories A, B and H. In the glory days of print media, he edited six national magazines in total, and has written about, photographed and filmed firearms and hunting for more than 15 years.

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