Did you know you can buy great quality Night Vision goggles for about the same price as ordinary field binoculars? And I’m talking everything you will ever need – plus some!
I believe Night Vision technology is pointless unless it can be simplified and understood. And before you buy Night Vision Goggles you should know your options and how to make them work for you.
What Is Night Vision?
If you’ve ever searched the internet for Night Vision, you usually find a great deal of information explaining light and photons and energy. What? Do you care about all that? I don’t.
All you really need to know about how any of this effects Night Vision devices is that light can come at you in 2 different ways…
- Light can be Emitted – DIRECTLY. Given off from something that’s heated.
- Light can be Reflected – INDIRECTLY. Bounced off surfaces.
You need to know this because Night Vision devices are categorized into 2 groups depending on which light they utilize to operate…direct or indirect.
Thermal and Enhanced.
Group #1: Thermal Devices – This is equipment that utilizes heat related emitted light. This light comes directly from the object you are observing.
To describe them another way, these devices see temperature…more specifically temperature differences…very precise temperature differences!
If you’ve ever had a mold-inspection performed at your house, you most likely witnessed a professional wander throughout your house with a Thermal device. He uses Thermal technology to see the moisture inside of walls relative to the warmer temperature of the wall. Notice it does NOT depend on darkness to work. Airport security scanners are Thermal devices.
This group of Night Vision device is really fantastic with many benefits. But it is also very expensive and entirely out of most people’s budget costing thousands of dollars.
Group #2: Enhancement Devices – Any device that utilizes reflected light from a source other than what you are observing is an Enhancement Device.
You can appreciate that in order to work in really dark settings, these devices gather what little light there may be, and then multiply (enhance!) it.
Have you ever heard of a ‘Starlight Scope’? This describes equipment which is capable of using the tiny amount of light from the stars that is found indirectly reflected off walls, the ground and other surfaces. Well, ALL Enhancement Devices are ‘Starlight Scopes’!
The Enhancement group of Night Vision devices is where you find goggles and equipment for a wide range of budgets. And there are 2 types of equipment to consider in this group…
Optical and Digital.
Type #1: Optical Devices – All the ‘Generations’ of Night Vision devices that you may have heard about fall into this group. If its Generation 1,2,3 or 4…its an Optical Night Vision device.
The original concept of Night Vision was to rely on lenses (optics!) to collect as much of the small amount of reflected light as possible and then enhance this light in an intensifier-tube with light sensitive materials.
With each new ‘Generation’ of devices came improvements in intensifier-tubes and materials.
Notably, the most impressive development throughout all the ‘Generations’ came long ago when Generation 2 implemented an additional glass plate inside of the intensifier-tube to better direct the light and achieve more powerful light enhancement.
If you’re planning to spend less that $1,000 don’t go looking for affordable Generation 2 Night Vision goggles because you won’t find any! And Generations 3 and 4 are far more expensive! For that price you are limited to Generation 1.
Did you know ALL Generation 1 devices have the same intensifier-tube made by the same company? And Generation 1+ is only a later production of the same tube!
Type #2: Digital Devices – Light processing electronics and LCDs similar to that found in digital cameras have replaced intensifier-tubes and sensitive materials.
Although a relatively new type of enhancement device, digital computer electronics have made impressive advancements in this field. Undoubtedly this is the area where future developments will be made as there seems to be no limits to smaller, faster or better breakthroughs.
Thankfully the lower cost of manufacturing the modern components of these scopes is mirrored in the purchase price. Excellent performing Digital Night Vision scopes are available for a few hundred dollars.
Cheap Night Vision – Generation 1 and Digital.
Clearly your budget will play a big part in the choice of device you consider to buy. So far we have eliminated all those which cost over $1,000. I wouldn’t pay half that much! Would you? And naturally you don’t want to compromise quality for price.
Let’s take a close look at our choices…
Summing Up Generation 1:
- Is an enhancement device that gathers any small amount of reflected light available at night.
- Is an optical device that relies on an intensifier-tube and light sensitive materials.
Pros:
- Comes with a built-in Infrared Illuminator (an invisible light,) to really light things up in the dark. You can’t see this light, but your night vision glasses will love it!
- Can be incorporated with other accessories such as neck or head straps.
Cons:
- Light sensitive materials makes them very sensitive to bright lights! In fact you should keep the larger objective lens covered at all times during the day with a lens cap, and not direct it towards very bright lights at night. This will seriously affect the life of the unit.
- The picture you view through the eyepiece is green and notoriously blurred around the edges due to unavoidable characteristics of the intensifier-tube and lens.
- Limited user adjustments are possible.
- Usually power hungry and can consume batteries quickly.
- Takes time to warm up and power down as some of those sensitive materials need to be heated before becoming effective.
- Can have considerable weight due to the many components required for construction.
- Is delicate and vulnerable to hard bumps and falls due to the fragile nature of the components.
Cost:
- Made in the US, the entry level Night Owl Lightweight X2 Night Vision Monocular costs around $150
- For less than $200, you can buy the better quality X5 Night Vision Monocular which 85% of people who reviewed it on Amazon rated 4 or 5 stars. See my personal Night Owl 5x NOXM50 Night Vision Monocular Review.
Summing Up Digital:
- Is an enhancement device that gathers any small amount of reflected light available at night.
- Uses digital computer electronics similar to digital cameras.
Pros:
- Usually have a video-out signal for connection to a recording device, and some models even record directly to an on-board SD memory card.
- Have many useful user adjustments for fine tuning performance and picture quality.
- Eyepiece is a small LCD similar to cameras which is usually adjustable in brightness and made to display in different colors.
- Sharp picture over the entire LCD display.
- Power efficient computer components extend battery life.
- Can be used during the day. Bright light does not damage any components.
- Comes with a built-in Infrared Illuminator (an invisible light,) to really light things up in the dark.
- Can be incorporated with other accessories such as a tripod stand and neck strap.
- Is lightweight and durable due to the lack of fragile components.
Cons:
- I’ll let you know when I find one!
Cost:
- Very cheap. An entry level Digital Night Vision scope starts well under $100. Although advertised as a fun toy for kids, the Eyeclops 2.0 Night Vision Binocular has many versatile features normally found with more expensive models. Amazon has had more than 100 people review this binocular and 90% of them rated it 4 or 5 stars.
- The best Digital Night Vision scope which boasts superior performance to Generation 2 Optical Devices costs a little more than $400. The Night Owl iGEN 20/20 is made in the US and has tons of useful features. This is my personal favorite. See my review of the Night Owl iGEN Monocular.
Unfortunately this industry has many confusing names and descriptions that can really cloud what is relevant or not. When you filter a lot of the hype as I like to do, you begin to see clearly…especially at night!
