REVIEW: Sightmark Wraith HD 2-16x28 Night Vision Optics

"Digital night vision is just a gimmick," is a phrase often heard and until a few years ago, we would have agreed. But technology advances, and so now digital night vision is already usable, albeit still with limitations. A very impressive representative of digital night vision is the Wraith HD 2-16×28 riflescope from Sightmark, which we have taken a closer look at.

However, the Wraith HD 2-16×28 scope is more than just a targeting optic. It is a night and day vision scope and also a video camera that records in HD 1080p. So, if you want, it's actually a scopecam. You can choose between photos and videos. The videos are recorded without sound.

Technical Data

Device Design

As listed, the Wraith 2-16×28 is powered by 4 AA batteries. These are stored on the left side. The cover with a sealing ring is screwed tightly to the housing. It holds tight.

Who wonders why in our video the battery indicator is permanently red, it was just below 0°C during the recordings. The batteries were full and freshly inserted, but due to the low temperature, the performance dropped significantly, which is normal. Back in the warm office, the indicator was green again, even our film phone gave up in the middle, but later had 80% battery charge again. Unfortunately, batteries and cold still don't get along.

The slot for the SD card and the micro USB port can be found on the right side. Both are hidden under a rubber cover.

On top, next to a short Picatinny rail, you will find the main control panel with lots of arrow keys and the On/Off switch in the middle.

The buttons can be operated well with gloves and have a good tactile feedback. The IR illuminator can be mounted on the rail, or a small red dot sight. More on the illuminator later.

At the front, there is a large focus ring to adjust the image sharpness. It turns relatively stiff, but it is not supposed to adjust itself due to recoil. Focusing is very precise.

On the back, in addition to the rubber eyecup to prevent stray light, you also have diopter adjustment on the Wraith 2-16x28.

In order to mount the Wraith 2-16x28 riflescope, a Picatinny mount is necessary. In this case, it is well executed. There is also an extra quick-release mount available.

The Wraith 2-16x28 comes with an IR LED illuminator including mounting. You need it to really see something at night. It offers three power levels and is powered by two CR123A batteries. The illuminator can be mounted directly on the small rail on the Wraith, or on the weapon, or simply held in hand. The latter point is probably the only allowed one in Germany, as the use of weapon lights is prohibited. The legal situation regarding weapon lights in hunting in Austria is not uniformly regulated in the federal states. Please inform yourself beforehand about which laws apply.

Reticle and Handling

What immediately stands out is that the field of view at 14 m at a distance of 100 m is relatively small. This is also the biggest disadvantage of the Wraith 2-16x28. The image itself is very clear at the lowest magnification of 2x, and everything is easily recognizable. The target is about 80m away and easily visible in the day mode of the Wraith 2-16x28.

Without magnification, only the white, square area is visible, but not much more. Now we want to show you what the view looks like on the display. We used the photo function for this.

We left the image in its original size, just click on it and you'll see everything in full size. The individual color areas on the target can be distinguished. All indicators are also documented. From left to right: weapon profile memory, current magnification (2x), date and time, battery level. The Sightmark logo is only displayed during video and photo recordings.

Now digitally zoomed in. The Wraith 2-16x28 has a fixed optical zoom factor of 2x and provides 8 additional levels of digital zoom. In the end, you have the following zoom levels available: 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 10x, 12x, 14x, and 16x. The downside of digital zoom is that the image becomes blurrier or more pixelated the more it is magnified. The image already has a 12x zoom, consisting of 2x optical and 6x digital, applied and while the image is recognizable, it is not razor-sharp.

Here, now at the maximum zoom level, 16x. Very pixelated but recognizable. The best results are achieved up to zoom level 10x, after which the pixels become predominant. Zooming is done using the up and down arrow keys on the control panel.

The operation of the Wraith 2-16x28 is simple and very intuitive. The menu structure is simple and easy to understand. Sightmark has a video demonstrating the menu operation in a very understandable way.

The great advantage of digital optics is the ability to display anything on the screen. Special attention is paid to the reticles. There are 10 different variants available. By the way, we chose Variant 9. You can display the reticle in nine different colors. So you have 90 options for the reticle. The agony of choice…

What surprised us very positively about the Wraith 2-16x28 was the speed of the image display. What does that mean? You may have noticed that some digital cameras have a small to large delay in displaying moving images. So something is still and starts to move, but you only see this movement in the viewfinder a few hundredths of a second later. This is not the case with the Wraith 2-16x28. As soon as something moves, you see it immediately in the viewfinder. This is a really important point if you want to use it for hunting.

Night Vision

But now to the most interesting point, how good is the night vision? We compared the Wraith 2-16×28 riflescope directly with a Gen2+ PVS-14. In the picture you can see our nighttime filming setup, in front of Castle Kreuzenstein, known to some from "The Witcher".

It was a full moon and the sky was clear with stars, making it bright as day for a residual light intensifier. However, the Wraith 2-16×28 is not a residual light intensifier but only detects light in the infrared spectrum at night without amplifying it.

That's why you also need the IR illuminator to see your target clearly. But with this, everything is easily recognizable. The IR illuminator can be focused so that it only illuminates the target. This is clearly recognizable through the PVS-14.

In the image above, you can see a small red spot in the middle, which is the IR illuminator directed towards us at a distance of 110m. The night vision performance of the Wraith 2-16×28 is comparable to a Gen1 night vision device, but without the strong distortion at the edges.

At 50m, as seen in the image, the target with the IR illuminator is clearly visible with 2x magnification

At 100m, it looks a bit worse. The target is visible, but details are no longer discernible. With a stronger IR illuminator, preferably an IR laser, the situation changes, as more light is directed towards your target.

Since moving images are much more suitable here, here is the video with the extensive night vision test. Overall, we were very impressed by the night vision performance of the Wraith 2-16×28. We knew that it wouldn't be able to compete with a current residual light intensifier, but thanks to the good IR illuminator, you can easily spot targets up to 80m without any problems. With a few upgrades in terms of IR light, more than 100m will no longer be a problem.

Wraith on the weapon

Unfortunately, due to the lockdown, we have not been able to visit a shooting range yet, but as soon as that is possible again, we will do so and report back in a follow-up article. We are confident that the Wraith will also perform very well here.

CONCLUSION: "Affordable night vision for everyone" could be the motto of the Sightmark Wraith 2-16×28 riflescope. The price-performance ratio of this device is very good. Thanks to the digital night vision, which you can actually safely activate during the day to search for IR indicators, and the lack of lag in the image display, it can be used as a hunting optic without any concerns. Only the relatively small field of view is a minor flaw, but the option for simultaneous image capture is a very big plus point.

The Sightmark Wraith 2-16×28 is available at Earms.at for 765 Euros.

SIGHTMARK on the Internet: sightmark.com