| Name: |
noagenda
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| Subject: |
night vision
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Date:
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6/13/2009 2:39:14 PM
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Anyone use night vision binoculars? Do they work?
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| Name: |
Talullahhound
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| Subject: |
night vision
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Date:
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6/13/2009 3:47:08 PM
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Night vision is awesome. Just make sure that you get at least 2nd generation technology or 3rd generation. Also know that you will not be able to take these out of the country without an export license from the USG -- even if you are taking them on a vacation.
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| Name: |
Summer Lover
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| Subject: |
night vision
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Date:
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6/14/2009 11:16:05 AM
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Agree with hound - stay away from Gen 1 unless you are using it at less than 50 yards, very grainy even at short distances and using IR illuminator. Would recommend at least Gen 2, but you will be far more impressed with Gen 3, and for most useful – go with a set of 1x goggles. Binos are good for intermittent use at longer range, but you will find yourself using the goggles far more frequently.
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| Name: |
Talullahhound
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| Subject: |
night vision
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Date:
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6/14/2009 12:52:18 PM
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Actually, the thing that would blow you away is a thermal imager. Different technology and definitely more expensive.
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| Name: |
Summer Lover
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| Subject: |
night vision
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Date:
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6/14/2009 8:53:07 PM
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FLIR is generally hand held (or mounted), but yes is impressive. Have had the chance to try Gen 3 goggles at about 420 yards and can see leaves blowing...
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| Name: |
Webmaster
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| Subject: |
night vision
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Date:
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6/15/2009 2:28:41 AM
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I never knew that there was such an interest in night vision. People on this forum surprise me in their technical intellectualism.
It depends on how much money you want to spend but Generation 2 is the biggest bang for the buck. Twice as good as Gen 1 for a few hundred dollars more. Generation 3 is marginally better than Generation 2 at a couple of thousand dollars more. I've never used Generation 4 but have talked to a military helicopter pilot who says Gen 4 is the bomb.
If you are using them for boating, I'd recommend the model PVS-7 (Gen 2 or Gen 3) with head mountable harness for hands-free operation. It's a military version and has waterproof specifications. They can be submerge them to a certain extent, so boating in the rain is no problem.
Prices vary greatly but there are a couple of things to be aware of. First, each amplification tube is rated in resolution and this usually ranges from 24 to 64 line-pairs per millimeter. The higher the resolution, the greater the cost, but greater the detail of course. Second, you can save money if you buy one sold with a blimished tube. It may have a permanent dark spot on it in one place, but if you can live with that, you can save $1,000 or so buying one of those.
Read the operators manual before use because you can damage your tube in bright light and lessen its useful life.
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| Name: |
Webmaster
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| Subject: |
night vision
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Date:
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6/15/2009 3:15:10 AM
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Just realized the original question was for binoculars, not goggles. PVS-7s are 1x magnification. I know very little about binoculars but I'd think the pricipals are the same. My interest has been in military models.
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| Name: |
Talullahhound
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| Subject: |
night vision
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Date:
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6/15/2009 8:25:58 AM
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You are right. I wasn't thinking about binoculars, just the technology.
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Bruce, what did they do to get to the Gen 4? Night Vision was a particular area of interest of mine when I was still working.
I was led to believe by my NV engineers that there would only be minimal improvements after Gen 3. I'm assuming that production improvements allowed them to continue to reduce clutter? There was some talk at that time about creating a device that would contain both thermal and NV technology but I don't know if that ever took off. As you probably know, the military is moving to thermals, which is a totally different technology.
I'm jonesing for NV. I think it would be awesome to be able to see all the critters that wander around here at night.
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| Name: |
Summer Lover
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| Subject: |
night vision
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Date:
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6/15/2009 8:56:08 AM
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Thermal is awesome, back in the early '90's a friend had the uh..... chance to compare a Gen 3 weapon sight to thermal. He said that while the NV flaired when viewing over a campfire, the thermal allowed you to read insignia on the .... viewed person.
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| Name: |
Webmaster
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| Subject: |
Gen 4?
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Date:
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6/15/2009 10:20:51 AM
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You are asking the wrong person about Generation 4 because my interest was put on hold years ago and I did no further research. The pilot I talked to described limited (4) color capability. However I just read and see that Generation 4 is available to civilians now and I see no such mention of color capability. Actually it appears to be as you said... Marginal improvements in resolution and improved light utilization to minimize grain. Prices are not much more then Generation 3.
So what happened to the color? Perhaps there were were some tests going on with different specs. I think Gen 4 was in development at the time. Was that around 2000?
I can see why they are going thermal. Night vision is simply light intensification. Thermal can see through moisture (fog, clouds) which would be of benefit in some daytime conditions.
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| Name: |
Talullahhound
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| Subject: |
night vision
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Date:
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6/15/2009 3:04:15 PM
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Fire Fighters love the thermal. It was a real fight because the military (Special OPs) didn't want to export the handheld thermals because of potential use in urban warfare; and the companies wanted to sell millions of them all over the world to firefighters. Also for manufacturing. And then of course, the car applications. I wish that had become affordable, because I am so night blind.
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