July 2026 - Written by the HeatSight Optics Team
HeatSight TPM A7-384 35mm Review - The TPM A7-384 35mm takes our budget platform and adds reach: the 35 mm objective pushes human-sized detection past 1,600 meters while keeping the package at 570 grams and $699. Same light-recoil mission as its 25 mm sibling - more legs.
The A7 is our lightest-duty, lowest-cost scope platform: 570 g without bracket, a 35 mm F1.0 manual-focus objective, an amorphous-silicon 384×288 core at 12 μm, and a 1024×768 OLED eyepiece. Recoil rating is 600G - which is the honest headline spec of this platform, and we'll come back to it.
At this price the A7 keeps the features that matter: 1-8x electronic zoom, six palettes, picture-in-picture, hotspot tracking, onboard photo/video to 16 GB, and USB-C charge/export. The trades are equally clear: an amorphous-silicon detector with <50 mK NETD (fine contrast in normal conditions, softer than VOx cores in thermally flat scenes), an 18500 battery (2,000 mAh, ~4 hours - the shortest runtime in our catalog), English/Chinese menus only, and that 600G recoil rating.
About 600G: this platform is rated for lower-recoil hosts - rimfire, .223-class ARs, air rifles, crossbow scanning duty - not magnum centerfire. Mounting an A7 on a .300 Win Mag is how warranties die. Match the scope to the rifle and it will serve for years.
On an AR host the 35mm version of the A7 stretches the same lightweight package to honest coyote distances. Detection on dog-size heat comes far enough out that the limiting factor is my judgment, not the sensor, and the scope adds so little weight that the rifle still swings like a rifle. Battery behavior matches the spec sheet: plan around four hours and pack spares. For a first thermal on a working gun, this is the one I point people at.
The lowest-cost path to a real thermal scope in our catalog: 12 μm pitch and a full feature set at a fraction of C-series money.
Light and compact: 570 g disappears on a rimfire or lightweight AR.
USB-C: Charge from the same cable as everything else you own.
At the current sale price it's the same money as the 25 mm version, which makes the choice simple: pick this one unless your work is strictly close-cover and you want the wider view. Same 600G host discipline applies. 2-Year Limited Warranty.
Specifications: 384×288 a-Si, 12μm, NETD <50mK | 35mm F1.0, 10.7° × 8.0° | 1-8x e-zoom | OLED 1024×768 | 50Hz | 6 palettes, PiP, hot tracking | 16GB, JPG/MP4, USB-C | 18500 2,000mAh, ≤4h | -20°C~+60°C | 600G | IP66 | 200×68.9×62mm | 570g
The HeatSight Optics TPM A7-384 35mm is available at heatsightoptics.com for $699 (regularly $959). It's in stock and ships from our Michigan facility. Questions about which HeatSight scope fits your hunting or property-security setup? Call us at (313) 338-8168 - you'll talk to the people who actually build and flash these units, not a call center.
This review was written by the HeatSight Optics team based on our own design, bench, and field testing of production units. We build these scopes, so consider the source - and consider that we also publish the cons, because we'd rather you buy the right scope than return the wrong one.