How To Purchase the Night -Part 1
I
used night vision while I was in the military, and about ten years
ago began dipping my toes into the civilian night vision world. In
that time both night vision and thermal have become much more common.
Ten years ago, while I wrote about being a citizen soldier, I
considered it a luxury. Now it has become a near necessity. It is
easy to get lost in looking at this stuff, and can be cost
prohibitive. If I could I would spend $15,000 on night vision and
thermal equipment. But with about three grand you can start taking
back the night.
Generations
There are many aspects to this. I am going to break this information down in to three parts. The starting point IMO is getting a NOD. Many hunters today use thermal, and if you know where you are going to hunt from, stay in a relatively fixed position, and aren't worried about someone hunting you, a thermal weapon sight only is fine. If you want to own the night you should start with a head mounted NOD. The second part will cover setting up your NOD on a helmet, other accessories and training. The third part will cover thermal imaging.
Terminology: A NOD, or Night Observation Device, is device that allows us to see better at night. The NODs we are discussing can be referred to by many acronyms. NVG stands for Night Vision Goggles. NVIS simply means Night VISion. We will use the term NOD to refer to all devices that use and image intensifying tube to amplify visible light. We will use the term “active” to refer to using IR illumination versus “passive” for not using illumination. You also see the term IR or “near IR” thrown around. This refers to a spectrum of light, not normally visible to humans, that the NOD amplifies and converts in to the “green” light that night vision is famous for. “Auto-Gated” refers to NODs that are able to shut themselves off to prevent damage when exposed to to much light.
When Night Vision comes up for discussion you hear the term “generation” thrown around. There are two important measurements to think of when it comes to thinking about NOD generations. Gain is roughly how much it will amplify available light. Another thing is tube life, or how long the image intensifying tube will last. We will refer to generations as GEN1, GEN2 and GEN3. Generation refers to the image intensification TUBE, not the unit. The optics and housing of the unit also come in to play when considering its over all usefulness.
First Generation: These are the cheapest and most commonly seen civilian NODs. They might run under $200, for the most part they are tactically useless in a passive mode except in conditions so bright that the adapted human eye is just as good. Active mode is generally bad as it is basically shining a flashlight that bad-guys with NODs can see. These GEN1 might be useful for testing gear to see how visible it is in the IR spectrum. It can also be used in a hand held mode if you think people are looking for you with IR illumination (turn your disadvantage in to an advantage.) GEN1 can also spot people using poor light discipline further than you would be able to see with the unaided eye.
Second Generation: GEN2 units are about 100 times as useful as the best GEN1. Military examples that might show up on the surplus market are the PVS-5 (multiple version PVS5 A-D) a set of night vision goggles and the PVS-4, a dedicated weapons sight. Military grade units used to be more common on the surplus market, but it is not very common now.
Third Generation: GEN3 units are all that is used by military and police now, and almost all that is used among high end civilian users. The prevalence has led to the fact that most people don't talk about anything else. Our short answer when thinking about NODs is “don't think about anything but GEN3.” But GEN3 has been around for over 30 years and there is a lot of variety within it, so much so that the term GEN3 is almost useless as a description. GEN3 is considered a national secret, and they are illegal for export. However, several European manufacturers make very high end tubes that out perform lower end GEN3 tubes. See “tube specs” below.
Other considerations when shopping for NODs
Mono vs Dual: I am referring here to the housing that holds the tube. A monocular means you are looking through one tube (with one eye) and duals/binos means you are looking through two tubes. In our opinion duals are better than a mono in in almost all situations. However, they are not necessarily “twice as good” which is how much they cost. Binos give advantages in depth perception, field of view, and eye strain. In some situations monos might even offer a slight advantage, for example, imagine a situation with a lot of ambient light or where people might use poor (white light) discipline. Keeping one eye in the real world might be an advantage here. (Note, with many duals you CAN flip up one side.) Another advantage for monos is you can upgrade to bridging another mono or a thermal unit.
In short, duals are better but don't think you have to have duals to be in the night vision game. Think of it this way... if having no night vision is the equivalent of having a sharp stick then having a mono NOD would be having an SKS, and having dual NODs would be having an AR15. I've seen people with an SKS beat people with ARs in shooting competitions because of skill gained through training and practice. People with monos can be just as good or even better than people with duals if the use their head and practice.
The standard monocular is the PVS14, which was the basic military unit for a couple of decades. There are now commercial copies of the PVS14 housing which in many ways are better than the original. Many commercial products and upgrades are available for the PVS14 or are designed around its tube size and lenses.
At some point in this article I need to mention the PVS7. The PVS7 was the first GEN3 unit that was commonly used. It is a monocular that splits the image in to two images. It doesn't give the advantages that duals do, in fact I frequently say “it has all the disadvantages of the monocular and none of the advantages of a dual.” However, it is a GEN3 unit and I have seen them going in the used market for around $1500, which is probably less money than you are going to find a used PVS14 for. If you are really low budget and are lucky enough to find a deal, it is not a bad option. (see the section on used vs new below)
So if you want to go with duals, what is out there? There are several companies that produce dual tube NOD housings and allow you to mix and match tubes and lenses in what is basically a custom build. I don't have the knowledge to describe all of these, but things to look at are; PVS15, PVS31, RNVG (AB Night Vision) BNVD1431 (Argus Inc), Katana (Nocturn Ind). Each of these have their own advantages and disadvantages and can vary in price from $6-12K. If you're going to go this route I suggest a lot of research.
Used vs New It is possible to get used GEN3 devices for good prices. However, there are dangers to buying items sight unseen. First, without looking though the device first hand it is very difficult to know how well it performs. Second, many stolen military units have ended up being sold in places like EBAY, and the new owners were tracked down. If buying used try to get a look at the unit first hand. If that is not possible, only deal with people that have a good reputation on internet forums etc. Think of what piece of mind from a reputable company and a warranty are worth. Even as I say this I have a unit I got used and several of our friends do as well.
Tube Specifications If you are getting a new tube it should include a “spec sheet” this is a report of how well the tube performs. It includes measurements like Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and Resolution and Figure of Merit (FOM), a combination of resolution and SNR. It also includes Luminance gain, which is basically how much it magnifies light. All of these are important, people will debate which are more important and hearing people talk about spec sheets can be confusing. You also see the term “OMNI” or OMNI Spec” in discussions of night vision, this simply refers to the spec levels required for certain military contracts and it has been improving steadily over the years. I have always trusted my own eyes when looking through the NODs, if it works for you it works for you. But if you are technically inclined the spec sheet will be important.
Stay tuned for Part 2 where I will discuss setting up a helmet, other accessories and training
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