N to the 'ight vision, yo!

[Combat-wombat]

Hello all, I know nothing about night vision, and I'm wondering- Gen 2 and 3 devices are most certainly out of my budget, but what about Generation 1? How bad is the image quality? Are they tacticool enough? How far can I expect to see in the night with one (combined with IR illumination)? Does brand name make a difference? If so, what's a good model under $300? What about those new digital ones that claim Gen 2 or 3 performance?

I'm just considering that if the quality isn't way too crappy with Gen 1s, I might be inclined to get one. Thanks!

 

[V-fib]

I have a Gen 1 Russian made 3x monocular which I picked up for $89 at Harbour Freight. These usually sell in their catalog for about $120 so when I saw the price I snapped it up. It uses a regular 9 volt battery and has an infrared light for moonless/starless nights. I once had a Gen 2 scope which cost me about $1700. Had it for a week and while the view is better than Gen 1 I just couldn’t justify spending that much so I returned it. With my Gen 1 scope I can see out to 100 yards. If there is anything out there (man or beast) you will easily see it. I frequently use it to watch deer in my food plot at night and scan the woods before I leave my deer blind so not to spook any deer. On nights with heavy stars and/or moonlight It works really well. I could easily see anyone outside. Also works great in a dark house (remember silence of the lambs?). The new Digital night vision cameras that are out now supposedly work as good or better than Gen 2 or 3 scopes. I’ve seen those in the $200 range.

 

[strambo]

I'm spoiled...been using state of the art NVDs since I was 18 courtesy of Uncle Sugar (and all of you tax payers!), so I wouldn't be happy without at least Gen2, but you don't have this problem so get a Gen 1 and try it out. It will probably be OK with the IR on out to a couple hundred yards.

The performance of Gen 2, 3 and 4 is worth the price...however, it causes most folks to do a serious need/want evaluation and they (me included) can't justify the cost for a tacticool toy. If you ever have a professional use for NVDs (law enforcement, stalking-kidding ) then definitely get Gen 2 or better.

V-fib, I appreciate your report and would like to hear other Gen 1 experience...The worst I've looked through is old, almost burnt out tube, Gen 2 PVS 4s. Those really sucked. Hopefully, a new Gen 1 is better than an old Gen 2?

Gen 3+ units rock. They blow Gen 2 out of the water and can be had for 2.5-3.5K just in case anyone with serious disposable $$ is reading. PVS-14s are awesome and available to civilians.http://www.morovision.com/nightquestPVS14.htm

 

[DougCxx]

I have bought a couple gen-1's, seen a few other gen-1's , and a couple gen-2's and a '3--and if you want to see in the dark without being seen, save up $1400 or so for a head-mounted gen-2 1X monocular.
It will work the way you expect.
None of the gen-1's will work any better than a half-decent pair of 7x50 unpowered binoculars will at night.
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Gen-1's can work, they can be of entertaining and of some use as long as it's not tactical. The best way to use gen-1's is to get a 1X head-mounted unit (lower magnifications give clearer images), disable or turn off the scope-mounted illuminator (which is usually an easily-visible red LED) and spend a couple bucks and convert a 2-cell mag-light into an IR-LED flashlight. With this you can sneak around in the dark unseen, and still see usefully out to 50 yards perhaps.
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The main drawback to gen-1's is that they need illumination--and if you want to play "invisible man", you need to use IR light, and there is no cheap and easy way to make anything that will put out lots of focusable IR light. That's why you need a mag-light or similar: the flashlight reflector can focus the IR light WAY farther than it would normally go. So you use the "spotlight" setting for "distant" things, and the flood for up-close objects--where the spotlight would be too bright.
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Also: I would differ in opinion of the night-digital cameras--from what I have seen and heard, they only really work about as well as a gen-1. Their main advantage is that they are less-bulky than a videocamera with NV-attached but you [or police, as is usually the case] can still feed their image directly into a video recorder.
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[atek3]

combat-wombat, take the money you would have spent on NVD's and put it in an account earning compound interest, then use it during college. Trust me on this one. It's a much better investment.

atek3

 

[DougCxx]

combat-wombat, take the money you would have spent on NVD's and put it in an account earning compound interest, then use it during college. Trust me on this one. It's a much better investment.

-Well, this depends on the college degree you're getting and where you're located. From where I'm sitting, an IT degree is pretty useless these days.
....
-But I agree in that I hardly ever use the ones I have, and them being "only" gen-1's has not much to do with it. I mostly live in an area that has too much light for NV. If you live in a rural area or have wooded/dark property, it might make more sense--but in a typical urban or suburban setting, there's way to much streetlights to justify an NV scope. Regular binoculars would work just as well.
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- Also--I found that even when I used the red-LED on the head-mounted NV scope, I tended to get lots of very-bright relflections off things. And often it seemed like the reflection you see with your own eyes while using a regular flashlight was no big deal, but the reflection you get with an IR light into an NV scope is blazing bright, nearly shutting the scope down. With the scope-mounted illuminator for example, it is nearly impossible to see through a regular window at all. So while you could change out the red LED to IR, you might still have reflection problems. Using a hand-held IR flashlight pretty much cures this problem entirely.
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