Night vision units

[Peddler]

I don't know a whole lot about these. I have a, I believe first generation, handheld unit that's not much to speak of. I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone has experience with the newest models.

I have a client that's interested in the goggle type. Lets just say, "he doesn't mind paying for quality items." I'm imagining the handheld units don't have all that much going for them that would sway him to purchase a HH instead of the goggle type.

I know he wants to be able to see long distances as clearly as possible. Are there any pro's or con's he should look out for? I also wanted to ask about a rifle, scope type night vision unit. Do you think something like that would have advantages over a hand held unit if he decided a HH was sufficient?

Links would be great and all suggestions are appreciated.

[forceinPA]

if his pockets are deep and he wants high quality; and is looking for the fartherest possible distance then the answer is simple GEN III NV. He has to decide what he will be using it for. Hunting either a pvs14 or raptor scope. If he just want to walk around then the goggles will be fine

[Peddler]

Well, he's wanting them for security. You'd have to see the security he already has in place, but it's mostly house perimeter. I talked to his security guy about night vision cameras able to zoom. They're expensive but could record to his existing system. I believe he thought it a bit to much for the number of cameras he'd need to cover large areas, and would prefer the mobility over stationary cameras.

He has a double gated property with cameras at the gates, but he has a large, treeless stretches of land all around the rest of the house. I'm sure with the size of his home, he'd like the mobility of a unit to look down long interior lengths of hallways, etc.

He's big on security and has already spent a lot of money on cameras and equipment to record. I get the impression he wants a unit that will be able to see long distances clearly, possibly with a zoom feature. I just don't know that much about them without spending lots of time reading what may not be accurate, or hype.

[Tomcat088]

You have to keep in mind that "long distances" is a relative term, clarification of that term might be a bit more helpful. Night vision can only see so far, otherwise he may need some IR illuminators if that's what he is set on. There are other options for seeing objects in the dark as well, like thermal. It has it's own set of drawbacks, but for distances, it sometimes works better than NV.

[Peddler]

Thanks folks, I've searched and found NV has come a long way since Gen1. Based on his needs, he'll have to decide. Prices are steep for the higher end options.

I'll tell him to look at this site. It about covers anything he'd ever need. http://www.atncorp.com/

I thought I'd ask though. It seems that quite a few things these days, although they look good and have good reviews, can end up expensive pieces of something you'd wish you never bought. Heck, I wish I had 10 or $20,000 to play around with.

[Guns4Fun]

Deal with these guys. http://www.tacticalnightvision.com/

They have absolutely the best customer service. If you call them, they will walk you through everything you want to know about night vision.

Make sure that you buy a gen 2+ at a minimum.

[animalmother85]

I've worked with AN/PVS-14's for the past few years and had the distinct pleasure of looking through some of the older archaic gen 1 goggle types. The PVS-14's are pretty decent, you can mount them on a rifle, you can mount them on a helmet, and i think they even have a head-harness type mount. The clarity is pretty decent and it does have a small IR light for identifying friendlies. You have to find the sweet spot when focusing it, usually about 5 to 10 meters and out your good for distances as far as you can see. Depth perception is something you'll lack as well and if you crank up the brightness, the eye your not using can kinda mess ya up a bit when you don't use the night vision.