Skinnygrey - with night vision you can purchase different qualities in tubes and you receive different performance levels. It is not just Generation 2 or Generation 3 - unfortunately there is alot of grey area people are unaware of. For instance if you wanted to tow a trail and looked to purchased a 150 horse power engine or a 450 horse power engine - one will tow better.
For generation 3 night vision and high specifications the result is you can have no moon, overcast and no street light nearby / city is off in a distant and you will not need an ir illuminator to navigate. Yes alot of people are fans of the illuminator because it is like having a flashlight for your night vision but you can get by with out it.
For tube comparisons:
Companies use the term "hand select" or "P+ systems" for higher end systems. Typically these are from ITT and are known as Pinnacle. L3 also has high end systems. When purchasing a PVS-14 you receive a data sheet and for "hand select" or "P+ systems" this means your signal to noise would be 25+ and they honestly should be in the 27 to 30 range. Signal to noise is how well your night vision will perform in low light conditions.
Resolution or Lp / mm should be 64 or 72. A measurement of 64 means in real world terms having 20/20 vision.
FOM (Figure of Merit)
Image Intensification tube specification designation, calculated on line pair per mm x signal to noise.
When comparing data sheets you want to look at resolution and signal to noise. Higher ratings will increase your FOM. Also you can have high ratings but have alot of spots or pepper specks in your system. A system that is "image clean" will not have pepper specks or spots.
The PVS-14 has a built in IR Illuminator which works great for around your feet.
Since 2006 there have been no real changes in night vision. Autogating was the last major break through. I hope that helped clarify. Might have been overkill.
