Thermal Master DV2 Camera Available Again Worldwide While Stocks Last

I reviewed this budget thermal camera late last year.I liked it a lot. The entire stock promptly sold out in a few weeks! But the good news is that it is available again worldwide while stocks last.

I’ve been using the DV2 a lot this past month in China and am now even more impressed by how useful it is, and blown away at how effective it is in spotting animals from a distance even in the day time. It is a great piece of kit.

Thermal Master have another hundred or so and they are available for just $449 (using the mammalwatching 10% discount code MAMALCAM10) with free shipping from their online store. I think these must all already cleared customs (somehow) because I have not heard of anyone having problems with customs or import duty when they order them.

If you feel more comfortable using Amazon then the DV2 is also available through Amazon, but only in the USA, UK, France and Germany. Please use the links below and the same discount code MAMMALCAM10.

Keep reading to read my updated review below. But if you want to purchase it, get a discount and support this website then please use these links and the MAMMALCAM10 discount code which is supposed to work for all of them (though I have not been able to test it here in China – any problems let me know).

Worldwide from the Thermal Master Store https://tidd.ly/4fcDvF9

Amazon (USA): https://lvnta.com/lv_7p8DuMSH85xTQlkgxS

Amazon (UK): https://lvnta.com/lv_v6d7bZGu7xpibVTLUG

Amazon (Germany): https://lvnta.com/lv_Q8SHxZjXQODjyn6FWh

Amazon (France): https://lvnta.com/lv_0tHW4kg2ykiA7U8hkp

Use MAMMALCAM10 with all of these for 10% off.

Outrageously – in my view – these are being advertised in as cameras for birdwatching! Let the record state that mammalwatchers started using these first and those copycat birders followed suit. They do – unfortunately – also work for birds …  the amount of hours at night I have wasted looking at a mammal in a distant tree only to realize it’s a bird. Anyway, here’s a revised review.

Updated Review

I’ve been in China for almost a month and took both my fancy Zeiss DTI/6 scope and my Thermal Master DV2 Camera. The two have strengths and weaknesses, but here in the Chinese spring (Yunnan, Qinghai and the southeast) the DV2 has become my weapon of choice.

DV2 Advantages

First, the DV2 is far easier to use from a moving vehicle. You are looking at a screen not trying to hold a monocular to you eye as you bounce down the road.

Second, and this is a mystery to me, in these temperatures the DV2 is way better at picking up a heat signature from animals, especially a distant animal, than the Zeiss. For example, in Yunnan my DV2 clearly showed Shortridge’s Langurs at midday that were 200 meters away. They barely registered on the Zeiss. Once I knew where they were I was able just about to pick up a heat signature using the monocular but it was far from obvious.

Third, the DV2’s laser pointer is super helpful for pinpointing smaller stuff with a flashlight once you know there is something there. Admittedly the laser is pretty weak and it runs out of power after 20 meters or so away. Other Chinese scopes I have seen here have a much brighter laser beam which would be better. But the Zeiss doesn’t have a laser at all.

Zeiss Advantages

First, the image quality of the Zeiss is far clearer and so when it picks up an animal it is usually easier to work out where it is in real life by following the pattern of the trees or the mountains etc.

Second, in hot tropical forest – such as Sulawesi – the Zeiss is superb and I think beats the DV2 in its powers of detection.

Battery life is similar and generally long enough for a long spotting session (4 – 5 hours).

I see a lot of statistics used to quantify a thermal scope’s ability – refresh rates and all that stuff –  but I’m not sure what statistics to explain why some scopes work much better than others in particular temperature ranges.

I reckon the $450 you spend on the Thermal Master is well worth the number of additional mammal sightings you will get out of it on just one trip. And if you already have a monocular then it’s both a useful back up and better for spotting from a vehicle.

Here’s a pretty cool bat I found in SE China last night thanks to the DV2, one of many mammals the camera found for me this month.

Hairy-winged Bat (Harpiocephalus harpia)

Last Year’s Review

I reviewed two Thermal Master cameras before here. Their T2 Max and T2 Pro models are tiny cameras that attach to your phone. I was impressed by both of them because they offer great image quality and value for money. But I found it difficult to adapt to searching with an external screen instead of the monoculars I am used to. But I also know that that learning curve is probably more to do with me than the thermal device: if you saw me trying to play a new video game – as my kids will be all too happy to tell you – you would not be shocked at my lack of adaptive prowess.

But this new Thermal Master scope was much easier even for me to use straight away.

It looks like a compact video camera, and comes with a screen already attached so though it is not as small as their other models there is no problem with sometimes temperamental connections to your phone.

The screen flips down onto the handle when you pack the device.

And opens up like this when you are using it.

It is lightweight, simple use and because of the excellent image resolution and built in laser pointer, it is remarkably easy to locate in real life whatever heat you detect. In Florida we spotted a small heat blob on the ground (a deer mouse it turned out). Because of the laser pointer I was able to find it immediately with my flashlight … I am sure it would have taken me more time using my Zeiss monocular or any other piece of thermal gear I have used.

Another gripe I had with some of the phone attachment cameras was that the connections could be a little temperamental. This is obviously not an issue with this model.

You can take photos and shoot video. Thermal Master advertise this as “the first ever DV thermal camera”. I am not sure what this means or whether it is all that significant other than that it is something to do with the format of the image. But the quality is good.

There are all manner of adjustments on the menu to select different colour schemes and more. I am not convinced most of them make a great deal of difference. But I am convinced that in a side by side comparison with my Zeiss scope (which costs more than 6 times as much) this camera was performing about as well at detecting mammals … at least in the 20C temperatures of November in Florida.

We also tried pointing it out the car window while driving at 50 mph and the image processing didn’t struggle at all to keep up. The rechargeable battery, which can be removed, lasted for hours.

Thermal Master sell an optional laser range finder for an extra $200 (in the image below you can see it attached to the left hand side of the camera). This might be useful if you are trying to estimate the size of a distant heat blob but suspect it is designed more with hunters in mind.

In short I am very impressed, And so was my buddy Todd who was with me in Florida and is ordering one for himself.

I plan to take this on all of my trips from now on: this type of scope is easier to use than a monocular, at least some of the time: eg when searching from a moving car.