Review: HOLOSUN DRS-NV

Capabilites

The red dot and secondary NV optic are independent of one another, so during the day you can leave the secondary optic disabled to conserve battery life. The unit is powered by two 18350 rechargeable lithium batteries, which can be charged directly inside the DRS optic via a built-in USB port on the right side of the housing. The DRS-NV features digital zoom (up to 8x), which is nice. Even at 4x the image becomes uncomfortably grainy but managable if there is enough light but at 8x, the picture becomes barely discernible. However the whole thing does exceptional well with magnifiers, since the image remains clear on 1x zoom.

Performance

Initial performance impressions were good. The picture on NV was clear at about 100m on 1x zoom (picture below), and with enough ligh you can even see details on 4x digital zoom, but the image gets grainy. The DRS NV can capture photos and videos and store them right on the device (you have 32GB to fill). But after reviewing the photos i took, they were really grainy and barely recognizable. So the whole thing is better disabled and you get some more battery life and i like that trade-off.

Size and night vision

It’s not uncomfortably large, but it is bigger than other optics, since it has two optical systems. The red dot occupies more than half of its body, but the night vision device is what makes the DRS-NV stand out. As far as the NV sights go, they are not the best thing while on the move compared to NV googles. But come in really hand for stationary observation. Here as said before range becomes dependant on how much light you have. In total darkness range is about 50-100m, but with the moon, IR light or even search lights you can improve the range on DRS-NV greatly.

Conclusion

A device that would give you this level of performance for such a price (just under 1k) is a really good deal. Usually if you wanted NV optics or even googles you had to spent a few thousand € or $ and not many could afford that. So the aim of the holosun is that such optic could be affordable to more people. All and all the Holosun Digital Reflex Night Vision sight is definitely worth a try.