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Night Vision Scopes


philski1

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What is cheap?

< $2000?

for sure with out a doubt

the NGV i use at work is valued at 4.5k thats just a 1x head mounted unit where the NWS at 4x is worth over 8k

i cringe when i have to sign for the several sets every few months, every time i see the value next to each piece of kit it amazes me what the value on the outside would be

considering gen 1 is 1960s aka vietnam and gen is early 80s and gen 3 entered service around the 90s the US is using up to gen 6 at the mo within its mil we only use 3-4 in our service

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Just out of interest, what do you use them for, Matt?

duncs im navy and on patrol boats

without getting into to much detail with our operations, we use nvg for night time operations, team insertions and cover for our boarding times not to mention a night capability for jet boats and many more plus a good way to sneak up to someone who is a sleep on watch pr who has just woken up who hasnt got their night vision yet

but we use them every night for navigation lookouts and our night time bridge rifle , for us night vision is a frequently used piece of kit which we hold in high regard and along with our FLIR we have everything covered

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duncs im navy and on patrol boats

without getting into to much detail with our operations, we use nvg for night time operations, team insertions and cover for our boarding times not to mention a night capability for jet boats and many more plus a good way to sneak up to someone who is a sleep on watch pr who has just woken up who hasnt got their night vision yet

but we use them every night for navigation lookouts and our night time bridge rifle , for us night vision is a frequently used piece of kit which we hold in high regard and along with our FLIR we have everything covered

Cool. Very cool. Keep our shores and fish safe mate, good on ya!!

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duncs im navy and on patrol boats

without getting into to much detail with our operations, we use nvg for night time operations, team insertions and cover for our boarding times not to mention a night capability for jet boats and many more plus a good way to sneak up to someone who is a sleep on watch pr who has just woken up who hasnt got their night vision yet

but we use them every night for navigation lookouts and our night time bridge rifle , for us night vision is a frequently used piece of kit which we hold in high regard and along with our FLIR we have everything covered

What gen are you using

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What gen are you using

basically i cant discuss anything that isnt public or available on the internet for general access

ive been bitten on the ass before because of this, without going into detail its a minimum of gen 3

the stuff we use is general service issue, which is our head set (NVG) night weapon sight (NWS) night aiming device (NAD) and various IR markers

if you google project ninox there is some info on ADF night vision but the details are limited for reasons

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I know its not night vision but I'm watching the cricket and I've always been bloody impressed with the "hotspot" infrared camera and what it can detect!

So, Matt, do you use any IR stuff at work?

we have the mil version called FLIR- forward looking infra red but once again im under constraints on details

but the system we have is along the lines of this one http://www.gs.flir.com/products/maritime/

we can use this as a stand alone or slave into our main weapon system

its a great piece of kit, its just like the cricket version, we can see hot spots like where the engine room is, see people walking around on deck or under cover of tarps and thru rain and fog or haze were normal vision is impaired

plus the beauty of it like how they use it on tv, we can see our rounds inflight and or impact point

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Has anyone used the NV that attaches to your normal scope??????????

Im after NV for shots from 50m-100m on dogs and foxes any suggestions?

50 to 100m on dogs isn't unreasonable... You can do that with Gen1 with a good IR lamp. You can also buy Gen1 in from outside of Australia and it's not significantly affected by the US ITAR laws or Australian laws that support it.

If you're clever and know how to adapt a warsaw pact rail to your rifle, there are some very cheap 1PN34 russian scopes which are a three-stage cascade Gen1 scope. These perform about as well as Gen2 though have a slightly distorted image. These scopes are passive and will work with moonlight or just starlight even. They are old though, so the risk of getting a bad one is higher.

You can add-on a scope to your dayscope - this is kind of like the ford vs holden debate within the NV community... There are dedicated and add-on. I've tried with a Gen1 and it needs a LOT of infrared light to work acceptably, but it does work. The cheapest way to do this well is with a Gen2 monocular. You can buy one from the US ( no warranty due to ITAR ) for about $3K - and they make great head-mounted scopes as well. You may still need to buy an IR laser for those ranges if there's not enough moonlight however.

The PS-22 is a great solution, but costs a lot. All front-add-on devices cost a bit, so rear-add-on is cheaper. ( Aussie snipers use a HUGE front-mounted add-on that sits on top of the scope and uses a periscope to attach to the objective lens ). Rear add-on work OK and see through your dayscope

Dedicated scopes are your other option. These are available in Australia but Gen2 is harder to find and some retailers get all funny about selling to the public ( Most NV sellers in Australia are a little hazy on what the law actually is, though I've spoken to a few who understand the situation quite well... NV is legal in Australia for ALL types - if you can get it. )

A little bit about Australian NV.

Australian military use Gen2. That's both the Navy and Army. Typically, they use the XD4 and XR5 tubes ( it is public information - though I can understand someone in the forces probably isn't comfortable talking about it ). Officially, Australia calls these Gen2 since we've standardized with US,NZ,UK and Canada on terminology.

US Military use Gen3 - The main difference is that Gen3 use a GaAs photocathode which is more sensitive to starlight than the extended-red multi-alkali type used in Gen2. Russia and China and maybe Iran also use Gen3. Europe use Gen2.

No one uses Gen4, though they do exist. Gen4 is a GaAs tube with autogating and doesn't have the AlO ion barrier on the microchannel plate. They don't have the longevity to meet current military requirements. Gen5 and Gen6 ( mentioned earlier ) don't exist. The US hasn't written the specification for either of them and last I checked, all current Omnibus contracts were for Gen3.

There's not a lot of difference between the latest Gen2/3/4 tubes, so Australia using Gen2 tubes isn't really a significant impediment. Some Gen3 use occurs in aviation due to the requirements to use "approved" devices, most of which are of US manufacture. Australia is one of the few countries that the US will sell Gen3 to and you can buy it new here, but expect to pay around $10K.

And a couple of pics to add some colour ( green ) - All dedicated...

bin.jpg

Not a very good focus, but those cars are at about 120~140m away. This is through a scope I had just upgraded to a Gen3 with a Litton tube. It's not a very clean tube, but it works OK. Conditions are backlit by a streetlamp 50m away. It looks a lot blurrier than it does through the viewfinder, but it's a 3" eye relief scope, so is difficult to take pictures through. Scope zoom 2.5x...

van%20of%20stuff.jpg

Here's a picture I took on the farm when I was down there last. Conditions are a thin sliver of moon behind clouds, so it was too dark to see much with my eyes. Scope is a 4x AN/PVS-4 with the reticle crosshairs turned off.

street8.jpg

Same scope, wide area power blackout, no moon, some clouds obscuring the stars. Very dark... Couldn't see someone 5m in front of you on this night... It was very dark. Reticle turned on.

It's a bit blurry ( bad photo ) but you can see some cars about 80m down the road by starlight.

Note: The scope was not mounted on a rifle for any of these shots... I don't take pics through a mounted scope.

Anyway, happy to have a chat with anyone about NV... PM me and I'll send you my email address.. I don't sell NV and I'm not a dealer, nor do I have any connection to any dealers... Though I am opinionated ;)

David.

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Guest caveman

i have just purchase a arie 390 from nvt, now i want a bulb for my torch to enhace detection range, where can i get a bulb for my torch and what would i be looking for please

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