Teledyne FLIR Breach PTQ136 — 320×256 thermal handheld monocular

How far you can see a person

29 m make out detail47 m tell what it is190 m spot it

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Calculated from the sensor's pixel pitch and the lens focal length, for clear air.

Teledyne FLIRHandheld monocular · 320-class

Teledyne FLIR Breach PTQ136

Approx. price: ~$1,995
Sensor: 320×256 · 12 µm
Lens: 9.1 mm · 1×
Weight: 7.4 oz

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Best for

Walk-and-scan glassing from a jacket pocket

01Specifications

As published by Teledyne FLIR. Sources: flir.com, FLIR PTQ136 datasheet (sale $1,995; MSRP $2,899), tnvc.com (12 um pitch; tnvc lists $2,899 backorder).

Sensor: 320×256
Pixel pitch: 12 µm
Refresh rate: 60 Hz
Lens: 9.1 mm
Base magnification: 1×
Digital zoom: up to 4×
Field of view: 24° horizontal
Display: 1280x960 LCOS
Run time: 1.5 h
Battery type: CR123
Weight: 7.4 oz
Length: 5.5″
Laser rangefinder: No
Ballistic calculator: No
Records video: Yes
Wi-Fi: No
Warranty: 10 years (detector)
Country of origin: USA
Approx. price: ~$1,995

02Pros and cons

From the published specs. What owners report is in the next section.

For it

Smooth 60 Hz picture on a running animal
Takes CR123 batteries you can swap in the field
Light at 7.4 oz, 6th-lightest of the 112 handhelds here
Warranty: 10 years (detector)
Wide 24° view for scanning a field

Against it

Sensitivity (NETD) not published
Only 1.5 h of battery
No rangefinder, so you judge distance by eye
Entry-level 320×256 sensor, with less detail than a 640
No waterproof rating published
Zoom past 1× is digital and gets blurry

03What owners say

owner discussions, 2023–2026

Summarised from 16 public owner discussions between 2023 and 2026. Owner experience, not a measurement.

The Breach shows up in owner discussions almost entirely as the thermal half of a helmet bridge beside a PVS-14, and almost always as the cheap way in. New units were around $2,000 to $2,500 in 2023; used ones have drifted from about $1,700 in 2024 to $1,500 or less in 2025, and a dealer listed one for $1,000 in 2026. A lot of the threads are owners selling or trading it to move up to an RH25, a Sidekick 640 or a dual-tube goggle.

Owners who keep theirs are content within its limits. A three-year owner who also runs dual tubes calls it great for walking at night, spotting animals inside about 100 yards and even finding leaks around the house, and a K9 handler uses his on missing-person tracks. The harsher verdict, mostly from people who have used newer monoculars, is that the 320 sensor is too coarse for identification past roughly 75 yards and too soft to fuse with a tube, and that the $700 to a Sidekick 640 was the better spend.

What owners like

Cheap entry into a PVS-14 bridge: purpose-built bridges such as the Rayvn rail were designed around it, and owners describe the two overlapping nicely once set up.
Good for close work: owners use it for night walks, spotting animals inside about 100 yards, urban use and tracking, and one has run it for three years without a problem alongside a set of dual tubes.
Has an image-offset menu that one reviewer notes the iRay MH25 lacks, which helps line the thermal image up with the tube for hybrid viewing.
Holds some resale value and moves easily as a trade toward a better thermal or a dual-tube goggle.

Common complaints

Resolution limits identification: people who have used it say anything past roughly 75 to 100 yards becomes a blob, and one owner says it cannot pick out steel plates at 100 yards.
Battery life on CR123s is short; one owner gets about an hour, another says it lasts a tenth as long as his tube, and the standard fix is an external battery pack.
The image is soft enough that one owner could never fuse it with his night vision, even though its wide field of view should help.
Right after sunset everything is still warm and the scene washes out; one owner waits until late at night to use it.
Several people who compared footage say the Sidekick 640 and MH25 are clearly better, and that the extra $700 or so for a Sidekick was the better buy.
FLIR's support for discontinued products worries buyers: owners of other FLIR thermals report being told out-of-warranty units could not be repaired and no batteries or parts were available.

Is the Breach still worth buying used?

At the right price, for close-range spotting beside a PVS-14. Used prices have fallen from around $1,700 in 2024 to $1,500 or less, with a dealer listing at $1,000 in 2026. People who have moved on say that if you can stretch to a Sidekick 640 or an RH25 you will see far more, and one owner of a 320 Pulsar who watched Breach footage still was not impressed.

How long do the batteries last?

Not long. One owner who runs it bridged says CR123s last about an hour, and another says it gets about a tenth of the run time of his tube. Owners recommend running it from an external battery pack on the helmet.

Can you use it with a PVS-14 at the same time?

Many owners mount both on a bridge, but most use them one at a time: they find animals on the Breach, then push it aside and move with the tube. One owner says the image quality was too poor to ever achieve fusion, even with its wider field of view.