Pixfra Volans
The 4K digital day/night riflescope with a true circular display - one optic, two models, four ways to buy.
Day, night, dawn, dusk — the Volans doesn’t clock off.
Most riflescopes are built for one half of the day. A traditional scope is brilliant in good light and useless once the sun drops; a dedicated night unit works after dark but is no use for a daytime sight-in. The Volans ends that compromise — a genuine all-conditions optic.
In daylight it works like a normal scope, only smarter: a crisp, full-colour 4K image with digital zoom and onboard recording. When the light goes, switch to a low-light or night mode and the sensor draws a usable picture from whatever light remains — add the optional IR torch and it lights up the dark past 400 m. One optic, one rifle, one zero, from a midday sight-in to a moonless paddock at 2 a.m.
Compare the Pixfra Volans range
Side by side, nothing buried. With NETD, a lower number is better.
A true circular display — a sight picture that feels right.
Every shooter has spent a lifetime looking through round optics — binoculars, spotting scopes, traditional rifle scopes all present a circular sight picture. Your eye knows that circle and settles into it instantly.
The Volans uses a 1.25″ 800×800 panel to render a genuine, edge-to-edge circular image — a true 31 mm round view. Bring it up and it looks and feels exactly like a conventional rifle scope. Many competing digital optics instead show a rectangular, widescreen picture — you’re looking down a tube at a TV screen. It works, but the eye has to hunt the corners. The Volans is faster to get behind and easier to hold for long glassing sessions, because it works the way every other optic you own already does.
A genuine adjustable aperture — you decide how much light gets in.
Most digital optics are stuck with a fixed aperture — the same light in every condition, leaving the software to fight what it’s handed. The Volans gives you a real, manually adjustable mechanical iris, variable from F1.2 to F3.0, that sets exactly how much light reaches the 4K sensor.
In the dark, open it right up to F1.2 to gather every scrap of available light. In harsh daylight, wind it toward F3.0 to cut glare and sharpen depth and contrast. You’re not at the mercy of an algorithm — you’re tuning the optic to the light in front of you.
New to digital day/night optics? Here’s how the Volans works.
If digital day/night is new to you, this is the section to read.
A digital day/night riflescope is, in simple terms, a very capable camera and screen built into the body of a rifle scope. A high-resolution sensor captures the scene and you view it on the display inside the optic. Because it’s digital, the same scope works in bright daylight and in darkness — something no traditional glass scope can do.
By day, the Volans behaves like a normal scope — full colour, crisp detail, digital zoom and recording. By night it switches to its low-light and night modes, amplifying what little light is around. When there isn’t enough, you add an IR torch: an infrared illuminator that floods the scene with light your eyes can’t see but the sensor can. The torch comes in two wavelengths — 850 nm for the most range and brightness (with a faint red glow at the torch), or 940 nm for fully covert, no-glow operation at slightly less range.
It’s worth being clear on how this differs from thermal. A thermal scope detects heat, which makes it unbeatable for finding warm animals through grass and scrub in total dark. A digital day/night optic like the Volans works with light, not heat — so it gives you a natural, recognisable, full-detail image you can positively identify and aim with, and it doubles as your daytime scope. Different tools; we cover how to choose between the Volans and the thermal Cetus further down.
Serious hardware, honest price.
Full technical specifications — V850 & V850LRF
The two optics are identical — the V850LRF simply adds the integrated laser rangefinder. Shared values span the row.
Specifications are supplied by the manufacturer and may be revised without notice. Detection range is a daytime figure for a large target under good conditions; night-time range depends on ambient light and IR illumination. The V850 and V850LRF are the same optic — the LRF model adds an integrated laser rangefinder, which accounts for the small differences in height and weight.
The Volans against the HikMicro Alpex
The Volans’s most direct rival is the HikMicro Alpex 4K — the same 4K digital day/night category, the same 50 mm class. Here is how they line up, on the specs that matter and on price. Note the display: the Volans renders a true circular sight picture; the Alpex a rectangular one.
Competitor specifications and pricing are indicative Australian retail at the time of writing, drawn from publicly listed figures, and will vary between retailers and over time — confirm current detail with the relevant seller. Comparison is provided in good faith to illustrate value.
Where the Volans earns its keep
One optic that pulls its weight from a midday sight-in to a midnight stalk.
Digital day/night vs thermal — which Pixfra do you need?
They’re not rivals — they’re two different tools, and plenty of hunters run one of each.
The Volans is a digital day/night optic. It works with light, gives you a natural, full-colour picture by day and a detailed, identifiable image by night, and doubles as your everyday daytime scope. Choose it if you want one optic for everything, a recognisable image you can confidently identify and aim with, and the lowest cost of entry.
The Cetus is a thermal riflescope. It detects heat, which makes it unbeatable for finding warm game through grass, scrub and total darkness — but it doesn’t give you colour or fine daytime detail, and it’s a dedicated night and detection tool. Choose it when your priority is locating animals conventional optics simply cannot see.
Many serious hunters end up with both — thermal to find the animal, and a day/night optic to identify it and take the shot.
The Pixfra optics lineup
The Volans is part of the Pixfra optics range — thermal and digital day/night riflescopes, a thermal monocular and a multi-spectral binocular. Here is the rest of the lineup.
YOU ARE HEREPixfra Volans — common questions
One optic, day and night.
Genuine stock, backed by C.R. Kennedy — and if it ever needs attention, it’s serviced here in Australia, never sent overseas.