[pixelnomad]

I’m thinking about getting the Qinux BlackOptic mainly for watching bats fly around my yard at dusk. It’s not fully dark yet, just low light, so I’m wondering if the night vision mode works okay in that in-between time. I don’t need crazy detail, just enough to see them against the sky. Anyone tried it for something like that?

[northshore]

Mine’s been fine for that exact thing. The low light mode is actually where it does best, way better than when it’s pitch black. Bats show up clear enough against the sky once they’re within range.

[Mike in NYC]

Twilight is actually worse for mine, lots of grainy smear.

[Max Connor]

I only really use mine around 8 or 9pm when there’s still a bit of light left and it does fine for birds and stuff moving against the sky. Bats should show up okay, they’re just small so you mostly catch the shape flicking past. Mine’s the basic model though so the zoom helps more than anything.

[Cora Finch]

The grainy smear thing hasn’t been my experience at all. Mine is perfectly usable in that in-between light, and that’s actually when I take it out most. The bats against the sky show up as clear little silhouettes.

[Lily___]

I picked one up a few weeks ago and have used it a couple evenings for that same low light window. It does fine, not amazing, but the bats are visible against the sky. I mostly just watch, haven’t tried recording them yet.

[LauTop]

I’ve used mine a few times right as the sun was going down and bats were out. The screen gets a bit washed out until it’s darker, so I usually just wait another ten minutes. Once the light drops enough the IR kicks in and they show up fine.

[Sarah Kos]

I don’t own one yet, but I’ve been eyeing it for the same kind of thing. My worry would be whether the screen brightness is adjustable, since a bright display at dusk can make it harder to spot anything against the sky. Curious what you end up going with.

[Marcus Reed]

The dusk window is the tricky part for any of these. Mine does okay once the bats are silhouetted, but before that it struggles to lock onto anything moving fast. I end up just watching with my eyes until it gets darker.

[Alex_28]

If you’re mostly watching them against the sky, it should pick them up fine once they’re silhouetted. I wouldn’t buy it expecting to identify anything at that hour though.

[Emma Mirren]

I mostly use mine around the yard after sunset and the bats show up fine against the sky once it starts dimming. Not much detail on the bats themselves but you can definitely track them. The IR mode barely matters for that window honestly, it’s more the silhouettes.

[Emma Locke]

I ended up using mine way more for moths and other night bugs around my porch light than for bats, but that meant I got pretty familiar with how it handles that weird half dark time. First few evenings I took it out right when the light was fading and honestly the picture looked kind of flat and grainy, like the sensor was working too hard. I kept fiddling with it because I wanted to see the little brown bats that live under my neighbor’s eaves, since they zip around over the driveway around the same time every night.

What surprised me was that it got noticeably better once things got properly dark. Not pitch black, just that point where you can still see the outline of trees but not much else. The bats showed up as dark shapes against the sky and I could follow them for a few seconds before they disappeared behind the house. Not crisp or anything, more like watching shadows, but it was enough for me to figure out there were at least three of them and roughly where they were hunting. Before that darker window it was hit or miss, sometimes I’d catch one and sometimes the screen just looked like static with a tree in it.

So for me it worked, just not right at the start of dusk. I usually wait another fifteen minutes or so now and it’s a better experience. The battery has held up fine through a couple weeks of this too if that matters to you.

[Mike Steel]

I’d skip it for bats. Tried mine on a bat flyover once and it was mostly blurry specks, the IR seems to spook them off too. Fine for bugs and raccoons, not so much for fast stuff at dusk.

[Zoe Matthews]

Dusk is actually where these things are weakest, not strongest. Mine needed near-total darkness before the image cleaned up, so that in-between light gave me a grainy mess with bats. Not saying skip it, just don’t expect the dusk window to be the easy part.

[Jamie Kell]

The IR spooking them thing sounds off to me. Bats have been flying right past my porch while I had mine on and they didn’t seem bothered at all. The blurry part I believe, but I doubt the light is the issue.

[Emma Word]

Mine actually does best in that half-light, so I’d say the dusk thing is overblown. I keep it by the back door and use it most evenings while the dog is out, and that soft gray window before real dark is when the picture looks cleanest to me. Once it’s properly black the image gets that washed out IR look and everything up close blows out. Bats against a pale sky show up as quick dark shapes, which is all I ever wanted from it. I’ve had mine since spring and the battery still holds a few evenings of short use, though I top it up out of habit. I do wonder sometimes if mine just happens to run a little hot on the bright side, so your mileage could vary. Anyway, for standing in the yard at dusk it’s been fine for me.

[pixelnomad]

Mine worked fine at dusk, IR and all.

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