ACTinBlack Wangle – Panning Night Vision Binocular – DTNVS V2 Pano

This article was sponsored by ACTinBlack.

The DTNVS V2 Pano, also known as the Wangle, is a slightly updated version of the DTNVS. With this binocular NVG, you can rotate the tubes 15° outward to achieve a wider field of view. While the two images are almost completely overlapping in the traditional configuration, this setup provides a noticeably wider field of view, even with 40° lenses. If you were to use 50° lenses, you could achieve a horizontal field of view of 65°. Here you can see the underside of the device with the tubes adjusted for the maximum field of view.

The device can also be used in the traditional configuration with the tubes aligned in parallel.

A dovetail interface is attached to the top.

The rotary knob is used to switch the device on and manually adjust the gain. The knob can also be pressed.

At the front, you can clearly see the plus symbol on the battery compartment.

There is also a small built-in IR illuminator hidden here, in case it gets too dark.
 

Here you can see the attachment point for a retention lanyard or elastic bands. Next to it is the precisely machined hinge in its parallel configuration.

Here, the hinge is adjusted and locked into the maximum field-of-view position. To return it to the parallel configuration, you first need to release the locking mechanism.
 

When you rotate the tubes all the way upward, the housing and hinge limit how far they can rotate. I used a Cadex mount here.

Looking Through the Device

At first, your brain needs a little time to process the “rings” around the individual images. After a few minutes, you get used to it and simply perceive the wider image formed by the two overlapping circles. Here, I took a screenshot from a video in which I combined two images recorded simultaneously using two separate GREC cameras. This only gives a rough impression of what you actually see.

Comparison with the DTNVS

Here is the Wangle (left) directly next to the DTNVS (right). The similarity is very obvious. Different PVS-14 lenses are installed on these devices.
 

Let’s take a closer look at the DTNVS hinge.  As you can see, it is made of polymer.

The Wangle, on the other hand, features a metal hinge that also allows the tubes to pan outward by 7.5° each. It almost seems as if this hinge is the main difference between the two devices 🙂 

On both devices, you can simply rotate the tubes upward, for example to look through a thermal device or to sit in a vehicle with the NVG flipped up. On the Wangle (top), the tubes cannot rotate as far upward as on the DTNVS (bottom).

Including the battery, the Wangle weighs approximately 70g more than the DTNVS. Of course, the exact weight also depends on the lenses being used.

Conclusion

I only wore the Wangle for several hours during a single night. Therefore, my experience with the device is still quite limited. I’ll update this article once I’ve had more time to use it.

However, even during that one night, I was really impressed by the wider field of view and kept the device in the panned-out configuration the entire time. The activity involved rappelling with a rescue stretcher on a tower 🙂 

At close distances, depth perception felt similar to that of a regular binocular NVG.

Switching the device on and off using the manual gain knob takes a little getting used to.

Of course, I also made a short video about the device: