Comment on Do the sub-$150 night vision binoculars actually work?
Death_Equity@lemmy.world 1 week ago
“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.
shalafi@lemmy.world 1 week ago
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.
Death_Equity@lemmy.world 1 week ago
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.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 1 week ago
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. tnvc.com/shop/l3harris-gpnvg-ruggedized-bridge/?s…
Death_Equity@lemmy.world 1 week ago
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.