When you want responsive customer service, the best competitive prices, and quality night vision scopes, Pulsar the brand that is often looked to first.
They try to give everything they have with every product they release to the market, and this point is made evident with their Digisight Ultra N455 night vision rifle scope.
It’s packed to the max with the latest digital features, so let’s go over as much of them as we can.
Update: The Pulsar Digisight Ultra N455 has been discontinued. For more great night vision scope reviews check out this article.
Quick Overview...
What We Like: Enhanced NV display
What We Don’t Like: Feature-packed
Best Uses: Night Shooting, Day Shooting, Tactical Use, Hunting, Scouting, Varmint Control, Digital NV
- Sensor: CMOS 1280x720 HD
- Magnification: 4.5-18x
- FOV: 10.9 x 8.2 (m@100m)
- Display Resolution: 1024x768
- Eye Relief: 50mm
- Color Modes: Black/White
- Battery: 4-8 hours
- Dimensions: 14.6 x 2.87 x 2.9”/1.82 lbs
Our Verdict: The Digisight Ultra has two specific lines – the Digisight Ultra and the Digisight Ultra LRF. If you want all the benefits of a digital rifle scope without the rangefinder, this is the scope for you. It’s priced affordably and compromises on nothing when it comes to performance.
Who is the Pulsar Digisight Ultra N455 Best Suited to?
The Digisight Ultra is the digital scope of choice if you want to keep your budget under $1000 for night vision. It has more features than the standard digital scope, so it’s a good option for those who want video recording, app compatibility, One Shot Zero, and more.
The Pulsar Digex N455 is another excellent digital scope from the brand. While the Digisight Ultra N455 has the body style of yester-year, the Digex has a streamlined, traditional-looking day scope build and an ingenious dual-power supply. For the small increase in price, we think it’s worth it!
How Does the Pulsar Digisight Ultra N455 Perform?
As a feature-packed device, the Digisight Ultra has a lot to offer. Fortunately, in Pulsar’s effort to provide a high-tech NV scope, they didn’t neglect what really matters – NV sensitivity and imaging quality.
The CMOS 1280x720 sensor and HD imaging display shows every detail with high contrast and clarity. It provides the type of imaging you need to passively see out to distances around 400-500 m.
With 4x zoom and PiP (Picture-in-Picture) mode, it can show you everything you want to see that thermal can’t especially when you incorporate use of the built-in IR illuminator that is also detachable.
While the button interface is old tech and has always been a concern for seamless operation in the dark, it’s a standard trait for most NV devices as it is with this model. However, the previously mentioned Digex N455 does away with buttons and moves forward with turret control instead.
Features & Benefits
Enhanced Night Vision Display
The Digisight Ultra has a high-resolution CMOS sensor and built-in invisible 940nm IR illuminator to achieve long-range 500m detection. That’s quite the distance when you’re shooting at night.
While Pulsar eludes to a high SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio), flawless passive operation, and highly sensitive sensor with HD resolution, you don’t need to know these specs to see if it’s true – the proof is in the pudding which will be seen through the display.
The black/white display provides excellent, crisp clarity that allows for highly-detailed seeing, and with the PiP mode, you have an even better view of the target without compromising your sights on the rest of the FOV.
The only downside to the display is that you will be limited to black/white during daylight shooting too.
Digital Features
It goes without saying that as a digital scope, it has a ton of digital perks. Take the Zoom Zeroing for example. You can perform One Shot Zero and Freeze procedures for fast and easy zeroing. You also have multiple reticle patterns that are scalable, so regardless of the magnification setting, your holdovers will always be accurate. You can also change the color and brightness of the reticles.
You have five user profiles which means you can save specific zeros and load information for up to five different weapons. Within each profile, you can save up to 10 zeros – this is a total of 50 zeros with one scope!
A built-in recorder captures videos and sound so that you can upload it to a device for sharing with friends and family. Since the Digisight is WiFi compatible, you can use the Stream Vision app for even more features and to download software updates.
You can also program the scope to automatically shut-down based on its position during breaks of operation. This same technology is also used to provide digitally-assisted accuracy for side incline and elevation angles when shooting.
DNV B-Pack Power Source
Digital scopes have no where near the impressive battery lives of IITs of NV scopes like the 50 hours of the AGM Wolverine-4 NL3. Digitals usually provide somewhere between 4-10 hours of operation and the Digisight Ultra falls within that range. It provides around 4-8 hours of use with the included DNV B-Pack that is rechargeable and removable.
It’s also worth noting that the Digisight can be used with an external 5V battery bank to get extra hours out in the field while charging the B-pack simultaneously.
Rugged Build
The Digisight Ultra is one tough cookie even though it’s a digital scope. It has an IPX7 waterproof rating, is submersion-proof to 1m for 30 minutes, it’s lightweight for a standalone scope, and it is recoil-proof.
The scope has been tested and rated to be recoil-resistant up to 6000 joules – that’s enough for any high-caliber rifle for hunting coyotes or hogs with a night vision scope. If you’re wielding a slug gun, it’s rated up to 12-gauge.
Limitations
Feature-Packed
This is not a flaw but it’s something to take note of. The more features you have, the steeper the learning curve, and the more you must do to execute a shot in the field. This could be too much for some shooters.
Some new releases to the market, like the ATN X-Sight LTV and Yukon Sightline N450S, are moving away from the bells and whistles and are providing streamlined, scaled-down options. They’ve called these extra features “non-essentials” which may be true for many a shooter and hunter.
But not all feel the same way. If you’re going to buy a digital scope, you may as well buy the extra perks that digital tech offers. This is an advantage of the Digisight Ultra.
Popular Questions
No, a quick detach mount is not a standard accessory for the Digisight Ultra N455. It comes with a Weaver mount with the necessary screws and hex-nut wrench for mounting to different weapon platforms. A QD mount is a separate purchase.
The Digisight Ultra only provides a Black/White display for enhanced night vision visibility with HD display quality. There are no other display palettes in this digital scope for night vision or daylight operation.
The Digisight Ultra is an excellent option for a coyote night vision scope, hog hunting, or any type of invasive pest or varmint control. It has long-range detection, is reasonably lightweight, and has decent battery life.
It can withstand the recoil from typical hunting calibers such as AR-15 (223), 308, 30-06, 12-gauge, and more. If you’re shooting with an AR, you may as well check out our lineup for AR-15 night vision scopes.
The Digisight Ultra N455 only has a stadiametric rangefinder. If you need full rangefinder performance for ultimate night vision advantages, you can check out the Pulsar Digisight Ultra LRF or the thermal Pulsar Trail 2 LRF XP50 that have integrated laser rangefinders.
The specific warranty for the Digisight Ultra N455 will be provided with the scope in the package. The general warranty coverage provided by Pulsar is a 3-year warranty with a 1-year warranty on the supplied batteries.
Conclusion
The Digisight Ultra is an affordable digital night vision scope with as many bells and whistles that can be offered in such a device at this price point.
This is the type of scope for the shooter who has the time and desire to play around with such features and incorporate them in the field. If you’re already familiar with Pulsar NVDs, the learning curve is practically done.
But if you want the features that some brands are starting to move away from in an effort to provide a simpler NV device, Pulsar is who you need to buy from at this point in time.
Update: The Pulsar Digisight Ultra N455 has been discontinued. For more great night vision scope reviews check out this article.
Further Reading
