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Night Vision advice


Dentonboy
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Hi all, 

 

Am interested in this as a cheap intro into NV use:

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F282605309134

 

But what would I need to attach it to an Emerson Fast Helmet please? 

 

Ta all. 

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If it seems too good to be true.

 

I genuinely can't imagine what the end result will end be for £126, even gen 1 costs a lot more than that new retail and Gen 1 isn't much better than carrots.  I'm not saying go spend thousands on NVGs, but have you found any reviews/user footage of whatever this is?

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What is not to trust?! I have no idea what to expect, not bought anything, but want something mountable. Will mainly use NVs for wildlife watching at night in my everyday life tbh. 

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I would advise against buying these. The price is way too cheap for decent NV. 

 

A decent set that you would actually want to use will cost you a couple grand at least.

 

The problem with budget NV is it's all bit crap. Gen 3 is where it starts to get good. 

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I've had a look through one of these... they're garbage. Even for static observation they're poor but mounting it on your head is basically a no-go.  Magnified 2x so depth perception is utterly impossible and there's a delay on the picture so when you turn your head the 'goggle' takes a little while to catch up.  

 

If you want even a halfway decent night vision experience you're going to need to triple that budget for gen1 + a decent illuminator (this will still be quite disappointing, gen1 does not provide a good image).  Gen2 isn't worth the cost, so gen3 like Gepard said is where it gets useful, though a start price is £2k+ realistically. 

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On 12/9/2017 at 9:50 AM, Samurai said:

Keep an eye out for FLIR technology. It's getting cheaper and cheaper and it looks like something we could use for airsoft.

 

A guy at a recent milsim had one the size of an RMR at a guess something like 3cm squared which cost him about £800 and was pretty bloody good. 

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On 9 December 2017 at 9:50 AM, Samurai said:

Keep an eye out for FLIR technology. It's getting cheaper and cheaper and it looks like something we could use for airsoft.

Took a quick look at the FLIR sights, looks like you would need a role change to PREDATOR, COOL:rolleyes:

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You could do something affordable if you found a way to mount a phone to a RIS with a FLIR One. Get a good case for it though to protect it 

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You can make a night vision set up for less than £40 if your not wanting a helmet mounted set up. Won’t be milspec, but you’ll see 30-40m. Can post some info if anyone’s interested.

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1 hour ago, Dentonboy said:

Not dogging. 

Until you said it...

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Hey, what ever floats your boat!

 

Well firstly, you have to understand how NVG works. It just sees IR light that the naked eye cannot see.

 

So the first thing you need is a screen(shall post some links at the bottom of items I used) I used a little 5inch reversing camera from China, think it cost £10, with RCA connectors.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F222636355313

 

Secondly you need a camera that sees below 0.5lux light, luckily reversing cameras for cars see 0.1lux light so these are perfect! And they come with RCA connectors and the connection lead to connect them all together. Think this cost £5? If you look around you’ll probably find it cheaper.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F263155092961

 

Thirdly, you need a power supply, there are two ways of doing this, if your using for wildlife outside your window you can use a 12v transformer 3 pin plug and splice the cables and cut off the RCA connectors and solder/heat shrink the wires together. Or if you are wanting to use for Airsoft grab a 12v portable battery back with a recharging cable. Like this:https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F282385151018

 

Now to be able to see a good range you’ll need 2 other items. 1 is an IR torch which I would connect to your gun and the other is a 12mm lens for the camera to get you a clearer image.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F263257819252

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F172304372876

 

Then it’s just connecting the wires together. I snapped my wires the other week so I can’t show you it working (haven’t had time to repair) but with the torch you can see 30-40m all right.

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Great stuff. Will be incredible to see all the sights whilst dog... Walking. 

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Your right of course jcheeseright, I only thought about this because we were doing a nighttime woodland game and I kept tripping over fallen logs. So I decided I wanted something cheap that wasn’t as visible as a torch. Hence how I decided and ended up with this set up, I am trying to improve it, going to get a pressure pad for the torch so that it’s only used occasionally, going to try and attatch the camera to a scope to get more distance etc etc. Just a work in progress.

 

 

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I think for skirmishes it's a solid idea, very unlikely to be other players with night vision.  Big weekenders at night... yeah probably be spotted, but I've always been of the attitude I'd much rather 'lose' the game than smash my jaw falling over a log or tripping up stairs.

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If you can find one; the Elf-1 night vision monocular works well for about £100/$100. It does have a small switchable IR torch built in which is good for seeing in pitchblack but doesn't reach out very far (fine for indoors/small spaces). A proper IR torch would be better outside. A bright night doesn't need any IR switched on.

 

LOL... a bright night doesn't need night vision switched on. :)

 

They're quite old so maybe harder to find now...

 

I have one but I'll admit I've never used it for airsoft. I don't see why it wouldn't work though.

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