Night Vision Advice Needed!

[Mike8472]

I fancy treating myself to a night vision monocular for xmas but I know nothing about them.
I would really like the advice of the knowlegeable members here.

One that has caught my eye is this one the Newton Hornet 5x42:-

http://www.heinnie.com/qzk8oy630027/Optics/Newton-Sports/c-1-100-516/

seen it on the Heinnie website and looked on internet and has favourable reviews.



what would you recomend?

cheers
Mike

 

[wingstoo]

That looks a very useul, and reasonably priced, piece of kit, like the idea of a video input lead

Also the AA battery capability is very handy, means that you can use re-chargables of a standard size.

I have one from either Aldi or Lidl (Never can remember which) and that is a great piece of kit for the £99.99 I paid for it a few years back.

Go for it, at that price I would be very tempted if I hadn't already got one.

Wingstoo

 

[Shewie]

Shop around first though Mick, you can probably save yourself £20.

Let us know how you get on if buy one, I've always fancied having a NV toy to play with.

A quick google suggests it a re-branded Yukon which have had fairly good reviews in the past.

 

[Globetrotter.uk]

Hi Mike
Have a look around it pays to spend time browsing before shedding out dosh. These guys have a reasonable selection.

http://www.uttings.com/?Sections/NightVision/

 

[Crafty]

Odd; I have been researching exactly the same thing for Christmas - I was thinking of a Yukon as they seem like the Maglite of NV.

 

[fred gordon]

Depending on the budget, these people supply some of the best.

www.alanaecology.com/acatalog

 

[1972]

I have the Newton optics monocular that was sold by Aldi a little while back which has a similar spec to the one you are looking at, I was watching a fox only tonight (fullish moon)out to 25m without the IR and you could see it very clearly. Its the first bit of NV kit I've bought and I think its great fun definitely worth getting one if you ask me.

Also Newton optics are owned by Yukton so quality shouldn't be an issue.

 

[mart]

How deep are your pockets mate, if i were a man of means I'd get these.

http://www.amerisurp.net/nv_pvs7d.htm

Mart.

 

[Neumo]

NV is fun but can be expensive. Monoculars go from about £100 (Gen-1) to to £6000+ (recent Gen4 military system with all the add ons). I have had several on rifles over the years & they are great but not everyone gets on with them (depends how much you use them in one night). Some people get sore eyes after looking through one for 30 mins plus, as your eye sort of has to train itseldf to get used to the green light. After several nights out with them your eyes get used to them though, if you stick with it.

I heard a story, down the pub..., about some local mountain bikers who would ride fast on tracks descending the South Downs in the pitch black, as they were all kitted out with good NV headsets. The trouble with NV though is that you can see what is down the track in front of you, but you cant always see what's in front of your boots as you walk.... I learned that one falling down a new ditch on a golf course one night....

 

[Peter_t]

imo its not worth it, unless youv got loads of money to waste you will be disapointed as i found out with a cheepish one (around £100)

i found i could actually see more without it after my eyes adjusted to the darkness

the novalty will wear off quickly and you'l wish you spent money on something more worth while


pete

 

[Rumcajs]

Hi Mike.
You may want to take a look at these, who knows maybe you'll find something you like.
http://www.rugift.com/photocameras/night-vision-optics.htm

 

[irishlostboy]

if you haven't used NV be warned, its pretty tricky. usually getting them correctly focused can be a problem, with a lot of people thinking they are broken if they dont realise they need focusing.
gen 1 will need IR illumination to see anything in a light level lower than what you can make out anyway with your eyeball. so either make sure it has built in IR torch (most do, but can be poor) or get an IR torch to extend oparatable range and field.
moving with a NV monocular is tricky i find cos of lack of depth perception.

fun toys, but you will probably not get a lot of use from. oh, and importing from the states usually saves a bomb on these.
http://www.opticsplanet.net/bushnell-night-vision.html
i got mine aboveages ago when a mate went to NY. cost less than half rrp over here.

 

[HillBill]

You need powerful IR with Gen1 optics. The inbuilt stuff is good enough for indoor use but is seriously poor outside. You wont see more than 10 yards realy with the torch on it. You may push 30 with a decent external IR illuminator but no more. Its Gen 1 after all and basically pants, Gen 2 is better but costs at least a grand and even those are not that good in the scheme of things. Do not expect much from any gen 1 stuff. I paid £500 for a gen 1 scope a few years back, wish i had never bothered.

 

[Oblio13]

I have a PVS-14, and it's been so much fun that two of my friends have bought them now. Expensive, but worth it. Anything less than generation 3 is "a quarter of the quality at half the price".

Also, thermal imaging is becoming increasingly compact and affordable. I tried a unit and was very impressed. Might be worth looking into.

 

[Mikey P]

Or ..... join the military and get issued a Gen 2/3 one! Hurrah!

 

[woodlanduk]

Testing Near Infrared lighting... i have been using NIR that is 750nM-1.2uM for video for a fair few years now and unless you want covert light amplified equipment this is the nearest to seeing in the dark as you will get on a budget even so it still took a while to build from the ground up based on an old Colour CCTV camera that was modified to see Band A IR of the EM spectrum the light uses 216 x 850 nanometer 5mm Ultra bright LEDs heres a Test clip Actual footage no Post edit trickery (WYSIWYG)
http://www.youtube.com/user/woodlanduk#p/u/3/-c_lPvTDKrE
OK ill grant you its not night vision but way better than that old Gen 1 unit from OWL systems
but not as expencive as the £5000:00 for the one to fit the Canon XL2s Camcorder let alone the new kit for the military or Long wave Infrared that India 99 uses

 

[TeeDee]

Testing Near Infrared lighting... i have been using NIR that is 750nM-1.2uM for video for a fair few years now and unless you want covert light amplified equipment this is the nearest to seeing in the dark as you will get on a budget even so it still took a while to build from the ground up based on an old Colour CCTV camera that was modified to see Band A IR of the EM spectrum the light uses 216 x 850 nanometer 5mm Ultra bright LEDs heres a Test clip Actual footage no Post edit trickery (WYSIWYG)
http://www.youtube.com/user/woodlanduk#p/u/3/-c_lPvTDKrE
OK ill grant you its not night vision but way better than that old Gen 1 unit from OWL systems
but not as expencive as the £5000:00 for the one to fit the Canon XL2s Camcorder let alone the new kit for the military or Long wave Infrared that India 99 uses

Just had a quick look at that so only scanned it, what was the build cost and size of that project? Looks goog enough for most use's.

Good project.

 

[woodlanduk]

Just had a quick look at that so only scanned it, what was the build cost and size of that project? Looks goog enough for most use's.

Good project.

Chears mate build cost to me was CCTV camera out of the skip at work £0:00
lighting about £48:00 for diodes and built the rest from the scraps bin in the workshop batteries 12v 7Ah lead acid gell and again referbs from old alarm systems from work or old 4Ah Ni-Cd from old emergency lights sound recorded on a Sony MZ-RH1 LPCM MD recorder with a home made mic video recorded to DVD on an old camcorder with AV inputs lots of wire but zero cost well sort of but unless you want to pay a shed load of cash on a Canon Prosumer HD Camcorder with XLR mics and an electrophysics gen4 light amplifier well i dont think ive done too bad as you cant buy it off the shelf in Jessops off the shelf IN JESSOPS>>>>>>>>>>>>