AUNV-TEMPORARY-FORUM

OWS390 Thermal Riflescope - review. 

Claimed Specs:

320x256 thermal camera

9.7mm or 19mm objective lens. Select either or both.

800G Shock

50Hz

Detection Range – 1200M

Small Bird I:38 D:111

Large Bird I:56 D:228

Rabbit I:105 D:298

Dog I:180 D:560

Human I:380 D:1268

Measures characteristics.

FOV – Approx 10 degrees.

Screen 480x360, 2” (51mm 4:3 ratio) – Appears to be OLED.

Weight

Size/Dimensions 80mm above rail, 55mm wide (70 with mechanism), 71mm long (75 with mechanism)

Battery: 18350 Lithium Rechargeable, can be replaced / changed out.

Buttons:

• Power

• Menu/Crosshairs

• Up

• Down

• Mode

IP Rating: Estimated IP50, since little ingress for dust is possible, and the lens is sealed with an O-Ring, but the threads for the battery housing are not sealed. I would not recommend for use in wet environments unless covered or only briefly exposed.

Other Features: Coarse Elevation preset, two dimensional digital reticle with both windage and elevation.

Charger: USB-C

Additional: 18350 USB powered battery charger.

Screen Adjustment: 10 Brightness levels (backlight) and also image brightness for color, brightness (image), contrast and hue.

The OWS main display appears to be around 480x360 resolution. It's difficult to tell how many pixels reside in the thermal sensor, but 256x192 comes closer than 320x256 – For the moment, It's also possible it's smaller still but without other ways to recover the video to a higher resolution system, it's difficult to tell. If the seller didn't say it was 320x256 I'd naturally assume it to be 256x192 though. Still, there's nothing specific outside of image quality I can point to that confirms that so I'm happy to accept it's scaled from 320x256 to 480x360 but likewise it could also be 120x90 or 160x120 upscaled. If I can get some difference in the pixels with a good image, I can usually test that too, but the small size makes it difficult.

The startup time is pretty quick – it takes longer to turn the device on than it does to come up with a picture. In fact it takes 6 seconds to turn it on ( Hold in button for 4 seconds, release, wait 2 seconds ) than it does to produce an image (3 seconds) so from cold, you get to an image in just 9 seconds, which isn't bad. If they made the power switch better, that would be around 3 to 4 seconds.

This no-nonsense approach is reflected on the rest of the thermal with one exception. The manual says it has up to 4x zoom. Does it? Its difficult to tell, and difficult to use. You get it by double-clicking the color change button, which isn't easy and likely will just change the color palette. Does it need it? No. It's fine at 1x, even on the 9mm lens, and if they wanted to add digital zoom, putting it on the power button would make a lot more sense. The angular resolution is somewhere around 10 degrees, and I'd expect it to be around 5 degrees or so with the 19mm lens.

How about the functions? They are simple. One button changes the pallet, and the other turns the crosshairs on and off. THERE ARE NO OTHER FUNCTIONS. You can long press the crosshair button for a simple 3-item menu, and it has a better adjustment function for the crosshairs, which if my measurements are close enough, is pixel steps, so probably a quarter of a milliradian per adjustment – again, way more than you might expect and far exceeding the capabilities of this scope as it's built. I like simple, and I like these buttons, and the only complaint I have is that there are 15 color palettes – that is WAY to many... 4 is enough. 2 is too few. 8 is bordering on too many. 15 is out of the question. But 15 it is, so if you accidentally press it, you'll regret it, and you need to press it 14 more times to get back to your favorite – except you have NO NEED to touch this button ever, because this is a simple point-and-view thermal. The menu buttons do work when you're not using the menu, but all they do is brightness up and down through about 10 levels. Dim is dim and bright is bright.

The menu itself has just four options.

1 Display (Brightness, Color, Contrast, Backlight, etc though backlight can be changed externally)

2 Crosshairs (Adjust Mode)

3.Chinese/English

4. Exit

So it is equally brief and equally simple. The manual doesn't cover it, which is fine, because there's only so many words you can use to say “There's only two primary options, and one depth to the menu. If you can't figure out how to use it, you probably shouldn't play with firearms or other dangerous items”.

Focus is manual – you adjust a security-camera style lens, with a rubber boot around it, until you get focus. Don't expect much and you won't be disappointed. It's hard to turn, so you'll need to set it at a distance and use depth of field to cover the range you want, which isn't too bad. If you want it for electronics repairs or similar, it works fine and will screw in very close without to much distortion. It's not a true focus – it's just an adjustable focus on the main lens which screws in and out.

At around 12” eye relief, the scope is approximately 1:1 zoom. That's a little bit close to be comfortable, but it's not too bad. That means it's approximately right for use on a bow with the 19mm lens, but don't expect it to be good for scanning the surroundings. 3.5 degrees is OK for sighting, but not enough to view the horizon from side to side.

As for the build, it's solid enough looking to make a Russian happy, but that's just the housing. The lens mount looks a lot finer, and while they rate it for 800Gs, I'm torn between believing it and wondering if that's a bit too much. Well, the lens is light, and the mount is simple threaded so maybe it can handle that much afterall.

Given the small size, you probably won't be using this past 30yds, though if you install an extended lens at the back to make it more scope-like, then it probably will be good out to 100yds for most targets you're going to shoot at to 100yds. Camera Loupes seem suitable so I'll locate one for a similar size and modify it so I can clip it to the back of the scope to allow me to look through a lens at a scope closer than 12” away. At around 4”, the eye relief should be suitable, and a zoom of around 3x to maybe 4x is more than adequate.

The battery is rechargable via a USB-C port, and the seller provided an external USB battery charger. It's a small CR-123 sized Lithium cell – And you can change it from either side, though on once side there's a PCB, so try the other. It's easier to open, and you don't need to tighten it up too far.

Which brings up waterproofing. There's no seals on the battery housing and I don't think the screen, housing or buttons are sealed either, so don't get it wet. It has a rubber boot on the USB, but think of that as a dust cover.

But the manufacturer doesn't pretend it's waterproof, so I won't blame them for that. It should be sealed well enough to keep dust out, but don't go using it in the rain unless you stick a plastic bag over it like an oversized condom.

Size is a little large, compared to reflex sights, but it's small enough for a rifle optic – maybe not enough for a pistol. The screen is 2”, so I guess that's what makes the rest the size it is, and the button placement is excellent at night and given the brightness is the only thing you're likely to change, you won't have any problems finding it in the dark. Again, why I love simple button systems.

It looks like it will run off of lithium or disposable batteries, and the mount doesn't look super strong, but then it's not that large to begin with. I have my doubts it won't shift, but it probably won't shift far enough to put it outside of it's useful range to begin with and you can screw it down solid before use.

There's an extended elevation adjustment, which lets you compensate for distance, it it has a WIDE angle of adjustment outside of the crosshairs, which mechanically tilt the scope forwards.

First Operation:

I really have to stress that the 3 second push they recommend to turn it on isn't long enough. Aim for 4 or even five, before you remove your finger trusting that the screen will turn red as the unit powers on. Once the display comes up, the thermal images follows with a brief NUC freeze before normal operation starts.

Familiarise yourself with the buttons, make sure you're on the furthest zoom, Play around with the palettes once to choose one you like, and set the brightness.

Having such a large screen is Ok, though makes the unit a lot larger than it should be. A smaller unit with an ocular and a lot lighter would make a great monocular/scope and they really should have thought to go this way, but I guess there's a small market for reflex sights that has emerged in recent years.

It's not a reflex sight – it just looks like one – which is a shame, because had they included a small screen – say 0.5” and a reflex system with thermal look-through, it would be a fantastic scope. I don't think there's much in the way of visible/non-electronic thermal fusion systems at the moment, but they will come. Then again, neither the manufacturer or seller either sell or market it as a reflex sight – it's just a simple thermal camera with a crosshair and they don't overstate the capabilities of the crosshair or rail mount either. It is simply what it claims to be. Perhaps the only claim they make is that it will withstand 800g

The battery has zero markings, but appears to be a 18350 as they told me, though of very low capacity and it doesn't last very long. They supply it with an external USB charger too, which is useful, because you can't charge it in the unit when it's flat – so being able to remove the battery is important, and equally it's useful to be able to charge it.

Make sure the ball bearing is there, retract it all the way ( once the flip hinge is closed, no need to further extract the screw that adjusts the long-range elevation ) and screw it down and take it outsied to adjust the focus. Pick something at least 50 yards away and adjust the focus until it appears sharp in the display.

Use:

Buttons:

Buttons are nicely tactile and make a click when pressed, so you know you've pressed them. The power button is only for power, but must be held in for around 4 seconds to change state.

The Menu button is also the reticle on/off button on short-press and menu selection button.

The Mode button is double-click for zoom and single click to cycle through the palette.

Crosshairs:

The scope comes with adjustable electronic crosshairs, and a coarse adjustable elevation that can be mechanically adjusted.

There are five graduations, with half-graduations visible, left and right and four with half up and down. They are unobtrusive and useful and serve the purpose, and occupy a single pixel. You can't adjust the image, so the crosshairs move across the screen, and you can move 40 pixels left or right without losing a graduation and 20 up or down. Then you can continue until the center is nearly at the border in every direction, or at least within a few pixels.

You can also change the color, black, white, red, green or blue. Of note, it's got horizontally placed pixels, so if you needed a little more granularity in the scope, you could use the red, green and blue to adjust position within a third of the size of white or black, but that's splitting hairs and probably won't be useful.

All colors are bright and easily seem, as are graduations, and it doesn't matter that they are thin – you can choose a color that doesn't conflict with your chosen palette and then there's no problem with the options available.

You switch selection in the aiming menu via the menu button, and a “zero” reset option is available. Long press exits.

Once set, the crosshair position is remembered even after power off and changing the battery won't reset it either, so it is suitable as a reticle for shooting purposes. Being able to quickly turn the reticle on or off with a single press is simple and easy to figure out when you're fumbling for buttons in the dark. None of the buttons are illuminated, so don't expect to see them against the black anodized aluminium in the dark.

Putting it on the bow:

I always wanted to try using this to make a night vision bow – Ever since I saw The Osterman Weekend trailer as a kid, I figured being able to use a bow at night would be cool, and I recently wanted to try the new dual-use bows that can throw arrows and .50 cal steel bearings.

Australia has some strange laws regarding most things that are fun, but bows are fine so I obtained one and 3D printed up a quick adapter to mount the scope.

I tried sticking it out front at first, then realized I could mount it internally, keeping what was originally a very compact bow even more compact.

At first I had some mounting challenges – and the thermal scope itself uses a thin grabber designed to catch the edge of a picatinny rail rather than the sides, so I wasn't expecting much in the way of quality grab from the rail.

And I was still disappointed. On first mounting the box couldn't keep zero within a few degrees. This turned out to be due to loose screws in the mount, but it would still be better if I removed the rail grabber and just fixed the scope directly to the bow.

It's here that the approximate 10 seconds turn-on time becomes a problem. It works pretty well for zoom – coming it at an estimated 0.8x when used by eye in operational configuration.

After that, it takes a little while and quite a few ballbearings to fully sight it in, but once that is done it works pretty well.

I tried aiming at some trees at about 20m ( close enough to 20 yds ) and learned that I can hit an approximately 12” target with regular shots, but placement isn't great. I'd blame the bow or the thermal scope for that, but this is apparently about right for first-time bow users, so I can't say I expected that.

Trees show up well, but I noted problems if shooting on any angle close to the sun, as the screen simply isn't bright enough, but if you're shooting to the side or away from the sun, it's just fine.

As a bowscope, this cheap thermal works pretty well. The thermal detail of the screen doesn't help much once it's around 50cm from your eye, but it's good enough to see what you're aiming at in most instances. Add some heat, and it's fine.

The zeroing process is pretty easy and doesn't require too many keypresses which improves things.

In it's intended use, I found the thermal quite good.,

Accuracy:

You're not going to get riflescope accuracy from the mount. Simply put, it's not suitable. There are no edged rails on the underside of the scope itself, so at best, you can use the two small screw holes to mount it to something better.

At this point, it's a fail, because if it's not great out of the box, then it's only suited for some applications. For the Bow? It was fine and seemed more accurate than I was. Strangely, I got a good 6” group at 10yds, but if I pretend it was 2 groups, then I had 2 x 3” groups at the same range. This is unexpected, because it was completely random as to whether a ball would go through the left group or the right group. I don't know if this was a problem with the bow, the scope or something else, but this happened regularly and is something I'll be looking out for in the future. It could be that the board inside the scope isn't mounted solidly and it's sliding from side to side, but honestly I don't know. Vertical accuracy was pretty good, with most shots at that range within an inch or two regardless of whether they fell in the left or right group. Horizontal accuracy is definitely the weak point of the scope mount though, so I expect this isn't going to get much better.

Adding a rear focus lens:

The final test was adding a read focus lens to use the scope as a normal rifle-mounted scope. In this instance, it's actually not too bad, and good detail is available from the screen, though is a little grainy.

A cheap loupe was enough to do the trick, and let me get my eye about where I'd expect it ot be on a rifle given where it would mount to the rails.

This isn't relevant to the general off-the-shelf scope though, so it more an afterthought for anyone thinking of modifying one as a cheap riflescope with a ocular viewer.

I will note though that the image was reaonably good for the price of the scope when viewed this way, although the rear buttons will make loupe mounting difficult.

Final throughts.

My unit came missing screws, which is a disappointment since I did let the seller know I would be reviewing it in fairness so they could supply the product properly with what it should come with. I paid for it myself, full price without any discount, so that's pretty reasonable to expect.

When I contacted the seller – Owlshine Outdoor Store on Aliexpress, they told me to just replace the screws – which would be fine if they told me what type, category, thread, length etc I needed. But they seemed to not want to replace the screws, so I'd recommend avoiding their store if possible. They did ship, and reasonably quickly, but they told me I could use the USB cable to access the internal memory, which doesn't exist, so I'm not sure whether they make this product, or just resell it.

This is a fair weather scope, which is fine as long as you're fully aware of that when you go out. It doesn't come with a cover or anything like that, which is very disappointing given the cost. It's cheap for a thermal, but it's definitely in the higher range of costs for something you order from China. Is a simple cover to protect it if it is damper weather that expensive? Maybe that just doesn't exist? I wasn't able to find one, so might have to 3D print one.

It would be OK on an air rifle, or for pest control out to 10m but you're going to need to add some lenses to make it useful for anything small, like rats or mice, or maybe rabbits.

Not recommended for most uses. Does focus well up close though if you need something as a quick viewer.

Difficult to turn on and off though, which is perhaps the biggest negative about it.

It's clearly a riflescope that isn't sold as a riflescope, but isn't really suitable for anything else. The seller didn't claim it's a riflescope, so I won't criticise them any further for that.

As a riflescope? I'd give it a 3 out of 10... It functions, but not well and don't expect it to work as a riflescope. It will, but not with any real quality.

But as a BOW scope? Once I fixed it up a bit, I'd give it a 7.... It was a lot more fun this way.

Verdict: Save your money.