Night Vision Gear - Advice? Tips? Buying?

[workinwifdakids]

Night vision equipment. Not rifle scope. Must have.

Ready... GO.

edit: Is Gen 1 NV worth having, at any price?

[Mud_Dog]

Gen III isn't that expensive for what it's worth, so I would go with that. For the record, I used the AN/PVS 7 instead of the newer AN/PVS 14 system they have nowadays and only had a slightly harder time walking around in a pothole filled field in the middle of the night. I couldn't imagine using Gen I at this point.

[Joe ex PNG]

A former neighbor gave me a russian made gen 1 scope when he moved away, and it is... not all that good. Everything you see is an indistinct green blob.

[HTRN]

Gen III gear is obscenely expensive - the cheapest gen III weapon sight I know of is $2500, most are in the 4K range.

Keep in mind that quality is highly variable - alot of the really cheap stuff uses low grade(even by their standards) russian tubes. And don't discount lower generation gear - my first experience with NVG gear was in the 80s at a church function(of all places) when a parishioner there broke out his government issued NVG monocular for shits and giggles and the quality was outstanding - aside from the green tinge, it was like daylight. This was from a Gen I device, but a high quality(and therefore $$$ - I believe he said it cost 20 grand) American made one.


HTRN

[308Mike]

I picked up a monocular from the Famous Trails factory office when it was down here in San Diego, although I no longer see the model I purchased on their website. It was pretty expensive and I could see why there wasn't much of a market for it at that price and little capability (besides being able to see in very low light situations). You can't readily mount it to a scope or gun.

http://www.opticsplanet.net/nightvision.html is another place you might want to look. If you have the money, Litton makes VERY good stuff. Most of the Gen IV stuff I've seen lately is still over $5,000.

[Highspeed]

Gen 1 is an amusing toy.

Gen 2 you won't really come across in the US, except the AN\PVS-5 dual tube goggle system ( or the AN\PVS-4, but that's a weaponsight )
The PVS-5 goggles aren't too bad, but heavy and quite clumsy to wear. The face mask system can be very uncomfortable in warm weather.

Gen 2+ is the new generation of European manufactured tubes. In my opinion they very nearly approach the quality of US manufactured Gen 3 - and surpass it in some areas. Except light gain ( which is why you buy NV in the first place )

Gen 3 is where it's at

Remember than NV kills your own inbuilt night vision. After removing goggles you'll be impaired in both eyes until they adjust. With a monocular like the '14 you preserve dark adaptation in one eye.

[HTRN]

Anybody seen the NV illuminator modules that mount on a picatinny rail in front of a Electronic Dot sight? Strikes me as the best method for most weapon sights, as it's easily removed, but leaves the scope on the gun.


HTRN

[308Mike]

Of course, the problem with illuminators is they can be seen by anyone else using NV devices.

[SeekHer]

I made a new thread called Night Vision Makers & Dealers

from what I have--I know that I'm missing a lot of makers and just about any optics/optiks dealer carries some form of NV gear so that list would be humongous so I just stuck to ones I've heard or read about that give good service or are very heavily involved in NV/Thermal/Laser equipment...

Hope it helps...