Cool. Going to keep looking at their stuff, too.Originally Posted by Phillip Bromley
Citizen
Cool. Going to keep looking at their stuff, too.
Citizen
Night Vision Guys. Thoughts?
https://www.nightvisionguys.com/nvg-...sion-monocular
Citizen
Can't speak for them since I've never bought anything from them. But going by raw specs, 64lp/mm, a FOM of 1500, and SNR of ~25 is pretty okay for $3k. Make sure you ask them about water resistance, as their site doesn't say anything about it on there.
For $500 more you can get this unit with an L3 thin-filmed tube, though:
https://tnvc.com/shop/tnvpvs-14-l3-g...13415527343750
The thin-filmed tube will perform better in low light environments such as an overcast moonless night. Another $500 on top of that gets you the unfilmed L3 tube that I linked to earlier, which performs even better.
Citizen
Will do
Judge
Your looking at a complete package and the price looks to be right.
You prefer PVS14 vs PVS7? Why? Just curious.
Why do you want a helmet? Do you need a helmet? Might this suffice https://www.ebay.com/itm/NIGHT-VISIO...T/223083879595
I ... uh, good neighbor Bob, has one, it's early Norotos and prefers it over a vehicle crewman's helmet setup.
If you're set on purchasing that on your shopping list I don't believe you'll go wrong, particularly,
given that your buddy provided you the quote suggests good customer support.
Good neighbor Bob was on a tight budget so had to search for more affordable components.
Something to consider, hearing protection.
Electronic noise cancelling headset will protect your hearing and still provide the sound of a
gnat blinking it's eyes ... and fit under the early Norotos face mount but not the helmet.
Good neighbor Bob requires hearing protection and the amplified sound of breaking twigs, crumbling leaves E.G. at a distance.
O.W.
Citizen
Please thank Bob for the input!
Re: the PVS 14 vs PVS 7, from what I've read and been told, a monocle is preferred because you have NV but also if it's necessary to switch back to normal vision for whatever reason there is less adjustment. That said, I know ****-all about this stuff, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
Philip poked a few holes in the set-up that I listed, and I'm not considering it anymore.
Re: the helmet, I've heard pros and cons.. and since I've got no experience, I'm happy to hear what everyone hear has to say. Bump vs ballistic vs no helmet.. reminds me somewhat of the plate carrier vs just a chest rig, another subject in which I've got no practical experience..
At any rate, thanks for chiming in, OW
Judge
Every one has their reasons for doing what they do the way they do. Some is because they don't know any better.
Bob isn't an experienced 0311 /11B, he flew whirly birds under PVS5s and ANVIS6 so what he learned in this regard was from readying about and trial and error ... given the expense few can afford little "error".
Bob's first step in this direction was a seemingly sound purchase from ebay, a $200.00 pair of gen 1s ... bad, very bad.
Those were returned. Bob bit the bullet and paid $1600.00 for used gen3 PVS7s. Literally a difference of night and day.
Bob discovered the Norotos face mount and off he went to explore the night from the ground perspective.
PVS14s are of course the choice of current day (for the past two decades or so) ground fighter as there is some versatility.
Bob couldn't get his brain accustomed to processing the contrasting visual input from wearing 14s ... takes a bit of time to acclimate.
PVS7s by comparison are more limited ... but with the Norotos ability to flip up out of the way ....
Bob said he couldn't align with his barrel / optics wearing either 7s or 14s so a IR laser was needed ... Dbal3.
Bob said to offer a few suggestions.
7s or 14s, both use the same single tube, a matter of configuration / application as the 14 can also be weapon mounted but Bob doesn't. Either will require a laser pointer to place rounds on target beyond point blank, a quality IR is preferable but most any laser can be made undetectable to the naked human eye with numerous layers of automotive window tint. Ensure it's a quality laser and that it holds a zero to a minimum of 50 yards (yes, this is arbitrary).
All this of course leads us to the next logical step, NV optics.
It's been quite a while but I believe AWM has a thread on such in the Armory. I'd go look but this seems like an excellent opportunity for one to immerse themselves in another of the many treasures of The Tree ....
O.W.
Citizen
I'll make the case for the PVS-14 over the PVS-7. I consider it advantageous because I can have a night-adjusted eye which lets me see what my enemy sees. If I'm setting up an ambush, I can observe as I move into an area "if I hide here, I will be invisible to people without NVGs." If you have both eyes in a PVS-7 and flip it up, neither eye is night adjusted. The PVS-14 over only one eye also allows you to see and react more quickly in the event you get washed out by white light e.g. a vehicle with headlights turning around the corner, or a weapon/search light gets pointed at you.
Other advantages include that it is easier to aim through weapon mounted optics if the weapon is set up properly. LPVOs and anything with a restrictive eyebox is going to be a no-go. But reflex and holographic sights with generous ocular lenses are good to go such as the Trijicon RX-34 and EOTech sights. Note that a lot of cheap red dots aren't night vision capable because they don't have a low enough brightness setting to work right with NVGs.
You also don't get depth perception with a PVS7 anyhow, since it's still only single tube. Moreover, intensifier tubes have a very narrow depth of field, so it is far easier for me to focus on up-close things such as instruments/gauges on a dashboard of a vehicle, etc. with the other eye.
On helmets, I'll reiterate our discussion on Gab which was that the helmet doesn't matter as much as the pads and suspension system. The ACH is good, cheap, and I find it has enough weight to help balance out the weight of NVGs and dampen movement without being a neckbreaker. My buddy runs a Ops-Core bump helmet and doesn't complain about it, though. And on weight, the PVS-14 is half the weight of a PVS-7. That's a huge difference when hanging in front of your helmet.
I can definitely see how Bob might prefer the PVS-7 as a helicopter pilot though. I certainly can't speak from experience in that regard. This is just based on my experiences as a ground-pounder.
Another thing, if your wrenching your gut at the thought of spending all this money, you might look into the Steiner OTAL for your IR laser. It's only $500, but it's built to the same quality as their DBAL units. It's only cheaper because it's just an IR laser. No illuminator, no green/red vis laser, no white light. Just an IR laser. You can take that $500+ you save on the laser to put into a higher quality PVS-14 and helmet, and then upgrade the laser to a more sophisticated unit later on. The other thing I love about the OTAL is that it runs on a AA battery, so they're easy to find and share battery commonality with most PVS-14s.
Citizen
Thanks both OW and PB for your experience and opinions. Speaking of the OTAL, that monocle I posted earlier is available right now in a package with the OTAL:
https://www.nightvisionguys.com/nvg-...-sheet-package
Judge
So I guess I'm chopped liver?
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
“As a general rule, the earlier you recognize someone is trying to kill you, the better off you’ll be.”
"You think a wall as solid as the earth separates civilisation from barbarism. I tell you the division is a sheet of glass."
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