Dumb question because I’m sure the answer is “hell nah”. But maybe someone knows more than I.
I’ve got a night vision monocular, and it’s pretty sweet for the price, much to recommend it. Problem is, the thing has such a small FOV that it’s no fun, and certainly not practical. You can observe something if you hold very still, and so does the target. I got some infrared strobes off eBay, the kind that clip directly on a 9V battery. Thought they would make cool trail markers for unfamiliar woods. Nope. Again, the FOV is so tight you have to point right at them, even though they’re intensely bright.
Another issue is that the screen brightness blinds your natural night vision. It has a lens cover with a pinhole in it that works well enough, but narrows the FOV even further.
Anyone tried the binocular version? I realize the range will be pretty short without carrying an infrared light that projects well. I can handle building that bit!
“Real” NVs cost a fair bit and still have a narrow FOV. There are infrared digital binoculars and monoculars that can achieve 40° FOV or greater, but they won’t be as good as a dual PVS on a head harness.
Like PVS-14s, the FOV is about 40 degrees for $5k per eye, giving 70° FOV for both eyes. For context, human FOV is 210-220 for both eyes on the horizontal plane.
There is a reason the top tier goggles, the GPNVG-18, uses 4 tubes to achieve 97° FOV at $50k for the set.
Your best cheap bet is a digital IR system that can be mounted on a head harness over one eye with a legit IR flashlight. That way your brain can merge the two visions and you don’t lose the situational perception that causes many inexperienced troops to trip and fall over terrain.
Thanks! Didn’t realize FOV was painful in even the best systems.
Maybe I’ll try this one when I have money again. Any thoughts on that? Never had thermal anything, but that would be neat.
I know nothing about those, but at that price point you should not expect anything worthwhile.
You can get decent IR only monocular for $300-500, they won’t hold a candle to a $3k NV monocular. You can get decent thermal only monocular for $300-500, it won’t be anywhere near as good as a $3k one. You can’t get a decent fusion monocular for $300-500, those cost $5k.
Nightvision and thermal optics are by once and cry once or get what you pay for.
I regret that I didn’t end up checking out a pair when I was working a contract for L3Harris. They had rooms set up throughout the Tempe location where they tested them on site. The clean rooms for creating them were all in site too. But those things were expensive from what I saw. Tried to look what their price range was online now and they are near 50k. https://tnvc.com/shop/l3harris-gpnvg-ruggedized-bridge/?srsltid=AfmBOor_mMYvqPDGk3xNayGGNG-6KAX-jX8rRXwr-pmLTaOdUX1Jmflt
Yeah, that is the top tier Gucci set. You can get a PVS series setup that is more than adequate for whatever reasonable lawful purpose for far less.
Honestly I don’t know what Id ever use them for. A guy set up a corn field/deer hunting spot on a spot behind my partners family with motion cameras and such. He had a drone that either he rigged up or bought with an IR camera on it. Dude would fly over the area and check how many deer and where they were before going hunting I guess. It’s not even “fair.”. You can spot the deer easily and they have no idea you were ever there. I remember seeing several photos/videos where he was tracking them. At a certain point you have to feel like it’s just overkill. Although if he was using as much of the meat as he could I guess it’s still better than what we do to cows and such
They are such a convenience in edge cases that 99% people don’t need them, but they can end up being one of those things where you find a lot of nails to hammer.
Give the poor girl her privacy, Tom.