Night Vision - Gen 1 worth it or not?

[Lasbrisas17]

i have never seen gen 3 (decent spec) tubes struggle in an urban environment however seen almost all struggle in deep dark woodland at night where there is next to 0 ambient light. You can get tubes that can handle this but they will be at least £6000 for the tubes not including the housing etc.

Urban sure, gen2 and gen3 will be fine but this isn't what I was saying. I'm telling you if you go into a room with no windows and no light you won't see anything without IR, I challenge you to show me a video of someone doing just this. Night vision isn't magic, it works by amplifying available light ofc.

 

[GREG_BURTON]

Urban sure, gen2 and gen3 will be fine but this isn't what I was saying. I'm telling you if you go into a room with no windows and no light you won't see anything without IR.

Sorry my mistake. Were you saying all NV needs some form of light? I have never been airsofting and encountered a room so dark NV didn't work in it, but i have never been airsofting underground like a bunker or something.

 

[BibbsOnTour]

Me crouching in a bush through NV with the COTI turned off then on. Can't hide from thermal.

View attachment 49303View attachment 49304

That's crazy... is that on a unit that's mounted to your lid or a handheld device?

 

[GREG_BURTON]

That's crazy... is that on a unit that's mounted to your lid or a handheld device?

Mounted on my lid. That is what the COTI looks like mounted on a PVS-14. It just projects a thermal image to overlap the image you would normally see.

 

 

[jcheeseright]

There's bits of the old nuclear bunker complex that F&O do games in where I've completely blacked out my NODs and had to use IR, a couple of times in super dense woodland on a dark night I've used a bit of illumination to make the floor a bit clearer too.  

Couple of guys I know hired some ACT Gen2 PVS14-alikes at a CAG milsim game and none of us were particularly impressed by the performance, moving through buildings they were having to use IR quite a lot. 

 

[Monkman]

I have a Gen2+ and it's much better than my Mk1 Eyeball..   I currently use it in Drakelow tunnels, it does not make me invincible or anything, but does help quite a bit. (Using IR illumination)  One problem is establishing friend or Foe.

I'd like to try it outside in a game, and I was going to play at Midlands Airsoft night game last Thursday, but due to bad traffic on M5/M6 in the afternoon I got stuck and just came home.  I'm on the fence about milsim as my mates are all skirmishers and not interested in it. (Trying to get them to skirmish is a challenge in itself sometimes..if it's raining, it's game over for them..pussies!) 

I can see the obvious benefits of Gen3's and a few guys let me try them out, Autogating, wider field of view and much better image quality etc...but the cost is just a bit too much.  I'm well happy with my Gen2+...

 

[GREG_BURTON]

I have a Gen2+ and it's much better than my Mk1 Eyeball..   I currently use it in Drakelow tunnels, it does not make me invincible or anything, but does help quite a bit. (Using IR illumination)  One problem is establishing friend or Foe.

I'd like to try it outside in a game, and I was going to play at Midlands Airsoft night game last Thursday, but due to bad traffic on M5/M6 in the afternoon I got stuck and just came home.  I'm on the fence about milsim as my mates are all skirmishers and not interested in it. (Trying to get them to skirmish is a challenge in itself sometimes..if it's raining, it's game over for them..pussies!) 

I can see the obvious benefits of Gen3's and a few guys let me try them out, Autogating, wider field of view and much better image quality etc...but the cost is just a bit too much.  I'm well happy with my Gen2+...

Yeah NV is alot like cars in that you will pay alot more price for not alot more performance. You can buy a device for double the price but only get a 40% increase in performance, that is a massive generalisation and obviously depends on the devices in question but just wanted to get my point across.

 

[Rogerborg]

£1300 of 10W rechargeable work lights.

Distribute among your team, make the darkness your bitch.

View attachment 49362

 

[Adolf Hamster]

^not as dumb as it sounds, popping torches in trees to cover areas is a pretty good tactic, even funnier when they get hit with tracers followed by screams of "take your hits" as you lie safely in the darkness.

of course you'll want a tough torch- the enemy team are not going to be fond of it.

i did buy a bunch of IR glowsticks and some day i plan on trying to get them nicely distributed amongst the enemy team so they'll be lit up like beacons to nv users

 

[Guyver1]

posted in wrong section . Sorry . Mods please feel free to delete

 

[GREG_BURTON]

£1300 of 10W rechargeable work lights.

Distribute among your team, make the darkness your bitch.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000084050449.html 

These look really good, going to get a few of them for when you come up against other NV users at milsims. Just handy for lighting up an area temporarily and forcing NV users to look away for a while.

 

[BibbsOnTour]

Mounted on my lid. That is what the COTI looks like mounted on a PVS-14. It just projects a thermal image to overlap the image you would normally see.

 

Dare I ask how much that whole set up would set me back?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000084050449.html 

These look really good, going to get a few of them for when you come up against other NV users at milsims. Just handy for lighting up an area temporarily and forcing NV users to look away for a while.

I saw a video of one of them, they look pretty cool provided they actually work like the one in the video!

 

[Rogerborg]

not as dumb as it sounds, popping torches in trees to cover areas is a pretty good tactic,

I carry spare torches for doing exactly that in the dark places of the Depot, so it wasn't a completely flippant suggestion.

 

[Adolf Hamster]

I carry spare torches for doing exactly that in the dark places of the Depot, so it wasn't a completely flippant suggestion.

yeah, 'twas just a lighter hearted opening to go with the lighter hearted suggestion of £1300's worth of worklights

 

[Musica]

I carry spare torches for doing exactly that in the dark places of the Depot, so it wasn't a completely flippant suggestion.

I'd imagine marshalls would tell you to turn it off seen them do that alot if someone is keeping their weapon light on.

 

[jcheeseright]

Dare I ask how much that whole set up would set me back?

US prices... About $7-8k depending upon the spec of the PVS14.  UK/EU prices, probably closer to £10k, unless you can snag a mega bargain somewhere.  The AN/PAS29 is the expensive part, you can get a reasonable PVS14 these days for £2-3k 

 

[Adolf Hamster]

I'd imagine marshalls would tell you to turn it off seen them do that alot if someone is keeping their weapon light on.

Are we talking about proper night shoots or dark cqb? Because there's a pretty big safety argument for keeping torches on for the former especially outdoors, hell last shoot i was at nearly busted my knee on a rock (hence the bit in my original post about it ruining natural night vision)

 

[Musica]

Are we talking about proper night shoots or dark cqb? Because there's a pretty big safety argument for keeping torches on for the former especially outdoors, hell last shoot i was at nearly busted my knee on a rock (hence the bit in my original post about it ruining natural night vision)

dark cqb. sometimes pitch black

 

[Rogerborg]

I'd imagine marshalls would tell you to turn it off seen them do that alot if someone is keeping their weapon light on.

Huh, I've never had that happen.  Oftentimes I'll just turn the torch on, hold the mag, and stick the gun out of cover to light up / troll folk.

 

[Musica]

Huh, I've never had that happen.  Oftentimes I'll just turn the torch on, hold the mag, and stick the gun out of cover to light up / troll folk.

I blind fire my torch to give others the vision without risking my own skin as the source of light too.  I have been told and seen marshals tell people to turn them off (after being on for long enough to see what they are lighting up) regardless of how the torch was held etc.