Hello military, night-game paintball fanatics and paranormal investigators and any "outdoorzy" person,

I'm sure many of you guys know about ( NVD ) Night Vision Devices, but for those who don't, maybe this will be useful before you shell out some big bucks, ranging in cost from $200 - $7,000.


Your NVD needs:Are you looking for a device for to be used once every 2-3 months or regularly? Once you have identified your personal demands, then you can get started in exploring the various product offerings.

NVDs are categorized by generations. Each generation of NV contains different grades of quality, but there is no standard naming convention; which can make it confusing for potential buyers.

Manufacturers/distributors often sell the same "internals", but with different housings. Distributor "A" may market it's unit as the "X-1 Dynamo" while Distributor "B" markets a device with the same internals, the "X-1 Super Gen.". Since this will muddy the waters when you are choosing your device, you will need to be armed with basic information.

How it Works:The General principle behind a night vision device is that the front lens gathers existing ambient light, such as moonlight, starlight, and even the lower part of the IR spectrum. The photons that make up this light pass in to a " photocathode tube" that has a high-energy charge fro the power supply and the photons into electrons.
The electrons are then amplified through an electrical and chemical process. The amplified electrons are then changed back into visible light producing a clear, green hued image in the eyepiece. The phosphor screens used in NVD's are intentionally colored green because the human eye can differentiate more shades of green than other phosphor colors. This process takes place within the light intensifier tube, which is the component that distinguishes one generation from another.

The different generations of Night Vision:

First Generation (Gen 2) NVDs :
Can be useful in most nighttime situations, and generally provide a bright and fairly sharp image at low cost, making it a popular choice for convention use. Though these devices usually offer considerable resolution towards the center of the image tubes, the edges of the image may be typically blurred.
All NVDs require some light to amplify in order to provide an image for the user. Gen 1 devices do have limited amplification capabilities, the unit utilizes an infared illuminator (IR). A beam of IR, invisible to the naked eyed is projected and the NVD uses the beam as a flashlight. IR devices are rated eye safe, and can only shine in one narrow beam, which reduces images to only 40-60 percent of scope’s viewing area.

Second Generation (Gen 2) NVDs:
These NVDs incorporate the use of a phosphorus tube and a micro-channel plate ( MCP) that consists of millions of parallel glass tubes. The MCP dramatically enhances the amount of electrons released, thereby requiring much less ambient light, while producing a much greater and brighter image than a Gen 1 device.
. Gen 2 technology is the most commonly used night vision among law enforcement agencies.For urban settings, Gen 2 is the way to go. Though Gen 2 devices do not provide the same brightness and clarity as a Gen 3 scopes, however Gen 2 NVDs also do not prouce a "halo effect" unlike their Gen 3 counterparts.

Third Generation (Gen 3) NVDs:
This is the most sophisticated night vision technology in the world. It is unlawful to export Gen 3 NVDs without an export license from the US Department of State, Office of Defense Trade Controls.
Well, simply put, it's as good as it gets. There is no government or official classification higher than Gen 3 night vision, which are generally categorized as follows:

• Select Alpha - The highest quality, but some marketers incorrectly refer to “Select Alpha” NVDs as Gen 4 technology, so don’t believe their BS! Hehe

• Standard - Sometimes referred to as Grade A; the second highest in quality.

• Grade B - Third highest quality.

Gen 3 NVDs are best used for non-urban settings with minimal ambient light. The units can be used in extremely low levels of ambient light, yet provide clearest, sharpest image by far. So…. If you plan to buy a Gen 1, then do not look through a Gen 3, or else you might end up changing your mind. Like a Porsche against a freakin’ Buick.

But if you require something more, and think you need to be unique and different, you can always pull out $13,000 if you got the pocket change for a thermal imaging scope.

…-

The curiosity is killing me what can $13,000 get you?

Lasers, the limited edition Hello Kitty NVD Set, what?

$13K, for thermal imaging... sheesh, I better be able to hunt women with it....and instruction on how to do moose calls for women. haha

oh I get it basically your getting ripped off for something a cheaper brand can give.

Well, for that much money, I would give up my left arm, er, since i'm right handed.....aw...good times. LOL

If I ever start getting bad cateracts, I'll keep this thread in mind

Anyways, thanks for the info..... I like NV stuff

Not that it has too much to do with NVD's, but something that I thought when I read this post;

In the fire department we use Thermal Imaging Cameras all of the time(Tics), they are great in that we can find hot spots inside walls where there is suspected fire, we can also search a smoke filled room for a victim...there are a million uses.

It can be used a lot of different ways, but one of the things we have begun using it for is to find people that are ejected from vehicle crashes at night where we cannot find the person...It has happened a couple of times now where a rollover accident will occur and there will be no one nearby that we can find. By using the tic we can search in the area and quickly find the heat signature of their body...even if they are hidden in bushes or under debris there are still easy to find...

The more info the better.


Much respect to anyone involve in search and rescue and in saving lives.


It blows away NVDs, but wayyyyyyyyyyyy too exspensive for my paintball shannagans. I would be able to spot anyone, or any movement in the dark. If I would have had that during the Texas Throwdown tournament, I'm pretty sure that I would have been able to prevent being sniped in pitch blackness, and would not have this big a** scab on my throat. it was a one shot one kill deal. Some only fired one shot at me, and judging by sound, 30 yards away with a paintball is mighty impressive. happend right before I shined the Q-beam, as I was planning to stun their NVD momentarily with a flood lite.

This is the unit we use: (MSA 4000)


This is what an image looks like:


Although this is from a different camera, it will give you an idea of how sensitive the images are. The handprint will stay there for quite a while after the hand is removed:


They are great tools, just last week we had a housefire where a wood burning stove got too hot and set the wall behind it on fire. In previous times we would have to pull the entire wall apart and wet all of the studs down causing thousands of dollars of damage that can be avoided now. We used the TIC to scan the wall and found the exact spot where it was hot and only had to remove a couple square feet of wallboard to make sure the fire was out.

We got the TIC for free because of the Department of Homeland Security grants after 9/11.

At least something helpful came out of it...

Wow, that would be awesome to get one of those for my scenario games like Black Hawk Down. How much would something like that cost me?

Well, they are pretty pricey, I think the model we have starts out at about $9000.00

I don't think it would be too appropriate for paintball

Hey, that's not that bad in price, considering a few want to chip in.