Budget NV options, suggestions?

[JoshIronshaft]

Looks like this is a review that shows the image quality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDAF1y1_qg8

Looks like a $99 image.

[raxar]

OK. It's marked down to $50 now.

Would it be a complete waste of money?
Not for shooting. Just to look for wildlife and such at night.
Fun toy, or waste of fifty bucks?

For use in-town where there is ambient light it's probably a fun toy. Keep in mind you'd have a hard time getting 20 year old Russian gen-1 night vision for 50 bucks. If I had no other NV stuff I'd hop on it for that price, you never know when it might come in handy.

[JoshIronshaft]

As others have said, you get what you pay for. I run a bunch of night shoots, including the largest one there is, the East Coast Night Shoot. The events are a mix of guys running head mounted NV/thermal and guys running rifle mounted NV/thermal so I see a bit of both.

Positive target ID is everything.

Just recently there was a hunting incidence where a hunter using top of the line night vision AND thermal wounded a person, thinking it was a coyote. I think the range was under 150 yards. The person was walking beyond the crest of a hill and only their upper body was visible.

I encourage people to buy the best to decrease their likelihood of a bad target ID. Even with the best, what you see may still not be the whole story. You really have to be careful where and how you're hunting.

Also, I don't know how serious of an issue this actually presents, but people talk about how digital NV can have time delay in what you see since it is processing an image for you. Analog NV is instant (or a delay I can't perceive).

I don't have any NV for hunting, I just have the head mounted stuff, so I can't offer much more.

[Emptymag]

Thanks!
Will try watching vid review on my lunch.
Couldn't do any research while working

[Emptymag]

For use in-town where there is ambient light it's probably a fun toy. Keep in mind you'd have a hard time getting 20 year old Russian gen-1 night vision for 50 bucks. If I had no other NV stuff I'd hop on it for that price, you never know when it might come in handy.

Thinking about it, maybe there's TOO much light around home?
Street lights out front.
Neighbors have stupid solar lights all over their back yards.

Thought it would be cool to watch the deer eating their flowers at night, but not sure if those little lights would be an issue.

[Emptymag]

I'm buying them.
Will try them and if I'm not satisfied, return them.

Dilemma solved!

[wanneroo]

OK. It's marked down to $50 now.

Would it be a complete waste of money?
Not for shooting. Just to look for wildlife and such at night.
Fun toy, or waste of fifty bucks?

For someone that has never used night optics before it's a gimmicky thing for folks to go oh wow, I can kinda see in the dark. For $50 you can't really go wrong for a toy to play with. It's like a lot of early NV that needed IR light to work. Keep in mind with this thing turned on at night if you are doing some super spooky sneaky stuff, the bad guys if they have helmet mounted NV, they will see you like a lighthouse in the distance with that IR light on.

[Emptymag]

For someone that has never used night optics before it's a gimmicky thing for folks to go oh wow, I can kinda see in the dark. For $50 you can't really go wrong for a toy to play with. It's like a lot of early NV that needed IR light to work. Keep in mind with this thing turned on at night if you are doing some super spooky sneaky stuff, the bad guys if they have helmet mounted NV, they will see you like a lighthouse in the distance with that IR light on.

I like that description - and that was the vibe I got just looking over the packaging.
There's no way I would spend $200 on this - I didn't even buy it when it was $100.

Honestly, as someone who knows nothing about any of this, it's easy to confuse the TYPES of "night vision".
This isn't a thermal device that will show "hot spots", it's basically just like the IR camera in a trail cam, so you see everything - not just heat signatures".
I watched a few more videos on this exact unit and everyone seems to say "for the price, it's not bad" - and they are talking full price.

I'm not supposed to get my associate discount on clearance items, but I swipe my card anyway at the checkout "just in case", and lately it's been working nearly every time. I got it for $44.10 ($47.18 with tax), so YAY!

I haven't opened it yet. Started wondering if I could even use it being that I wear glasses, but it looks like the "shield" may be deep enough to use it while wearing glasses. Crossing fingers.

[arjohnson]

As others have said, you get what you pay for. I run a bunch of night shoots, including the largest one there is, the East Coast Night Shoot. The events are a mix of guys running head mounted NV/thermal and guys running rifle mounted NV/thermal so I see a bit of both.

Positive target ID is everything.

Just recently there was a hunting incidence where a hunter using top of the line night vision AND thermal wounded a person, thinking it was a coyote. I think the range was under 150 yards. The person was walking beyond the crest of a hill and only their upper body was visible.

I encourage people to buy the best to decrease their likelihood of a bad target ID. Even with the best, what you see may still not be the whole story. You really have to be careful where and how you're hunting.

Also, I don't know how serious of an issue this actually presents, but people talk about how digital NV can have time delay in what you see since it is processing an image for you. Analog NV is instant (or a delay I can't perceive).

I don't have any NV for hunting, I just have the head mounted stuff, so I can't offer much more.

My buddy has a IRAY thermal that he spent almost 4K on, that*s the only thermal I ever looked through. On the lowest zoom it*s pretty good and 200 yd ID was no problem and pretty good images. I was going to buy one but spending 4K on something that won*t get much use is why I didn*t buy one.

I*m going to wait and see how the new holosun night vision one is, that may be more useful for me and as they become more available I*ll be able to get one at dealer cost. I*d like to have something setup for night use, and if it*s good at 100 yds or so that will work for what I want.

[raxar]

I like that description - and that was the vibe I got just looking over the packaging.
There's no way I would spend $200 on this - I didn't even buy it when it was $100.

Honestly, as someone who knows nothing about any of this, it's easy to confuse the TYPES of "night vision".
This isn't a thermal device that will show "hot spots", it's basically just like the IR camera in a trail cam, so you see everything - not just heat signatures".
I watched a few more videos on this exact unit and everyone seems to say "for the price, it's not bad" - and they are talking full price.

I'm not supposed to get my associate discount on clearance items, but I swipe my card anyway at the checkout "just in case", and lately it's been working nearly every time. I got it for $44.10 ($47.18 with tax), so YAY!

I haven't opened it yet. Started wondering if I could even use it being that I wear glasses, but it looks like the "shield" may be deep enough to use it while wearing glasses. Crossing fingers.

The chinese stuff is basically just a digital camera that's set up for low-light conditions. I'm tempted by some of their head/helmet mounted stuff to see how it compares to what I've used, but I have a hard time spending $300+ on something that will probably not be as good.