I went from considering a pulsar gen 1+, to considering the sionyx, to wanting the Wolf 14 gen 2+, to finally doing the smart thing, saving a little money, and buying a gen 3 PVS14. Your vids had quite an impact on this decision making, so thank you lol.
Yeah, I was considering a gen 1 a while back too. I ended up saying fuck it and going big to get a legit gen 3 pvs 14. Using that I realized that a gen 1 would've killed me or been worse. There's times where I legit flip up my nods cause it's easier to see and do things without them down, and that's with a gen 3. I can't imagine how shit gen 1 would be
Yeah man, honestly gen 1 has to be completely useless, based on what a gen 3 is capable of. Without IR, in true complete darkness it’s hard to see anything still. But with even the slightest ambient light it’s a whole world brighter. Regardless, I couldn’t be happier with my NV unit, I love it. $2200 well spent.
DUDE, your sionyx review was the best review i have EVER seen on any device/product. ESPECIALLY for this community. Totally comprenhensive and thouroughly/understandibly explained! WOW! EXCELLENT video Sir! BRAVO!!!
My measurements show the Pro (I have 2 of them) requires about a third as much 950 nm IR light as the Sport (I only have one of those) to get the same low-light image quality. But for visible, the Pro and Sport are much closer. Compared to my ATN PVS14-4 (gen 3 filmless autogated), the Pro requires about 15x as much light (at 7.5 frames/sec) as the ATN does, for the same low-light image quality at 400 nm - 850 nm wavelengths. However, at a pure 950 nm (requires a precision filter in front of a 940 nm IR LED), the ATN sensitivity has dropped to ~ 1/1000, while the Pro has about the same sensitivity as at 850 nm. As a result, with pure 950 nm illumination, the Pro at 7.5 FPS is ~ 70x as sensitive as the ATN. This could be an interesting niche for the Sionyx. I should also mention however, that all 3 of my Sionyx have crappy diopter adjustments that keep slipping out of infinity focus.
I know I’m way late on the comments but when you say a precision filter on a 940 nm light. Can you elaborate or point me in the correct direction? It’s hard finding any handheld lights about 940 nm that aren’t wildly expensive.
If I were to hazard a guess, any measurable improvement in image quality between the two models likely comes down to the binning quality of the digital sensors, just like you get with any other silicon die. "Pro" models will have been the slightly better ones coming out of the fab.
@@ItsEverythingElse It's highly likely that two different binnings of the same die get labelled as different dies by the company. Just like how two different binnings of the same CPU die becomes different CPUs.
Thank you, Hop. I was once again considering the possibility of doing a Syonix as a “better-than-nothing” night vision option. These videos tend to come out at just the right time to drag me, kicking and screaming, back to reality.
This video changed my life in soo many ways. I literally remember myself turning off all the lights in my room and putting on your channel and just laying on my bed watching it fullscreen with my KEF Q150s on full blast. I was going through a rough time in my 2020s trying to figure out who I was, and Hop gave me hope, gave me influence to just get up and do something, don't be afraid to be you and fulfill your own dreams. I wanted to meet this guy so bad, never have, but through his reviews and videos I feel like ive known him my whole life (both from the woods). Thank you Hop for your videos and everything you've done in your life, your a real treasure to me, and always have been since day 1. This review, Is the SiOnyx Aurora Pro Actually Better than the Aurora Sport?, will always be my absolute favorites. So much skill for one person to hold.
Excellent review even if its a negative revi. Low light action cameras is what these are good for it seems. Keep the pro. More quality nightvision b-roll would be awesome to see on this channel.
I'd like to see them post some choreographed drills with it; gives us that warwave *a* *e* *s* *t* *h* *e* *t* *i* *c* while looking cool, because looking cool is all that matters.
Seeing the improvement that the firmware update made, I'd bet any performance difference between the Sport and Pro, is programmed into the software rather than any mechanical difference.
I've noticed that noise on the Aurora (original non Pro, latest firmware) is lower in the EVF while recording video. It looks like while recording the Aurora applies some NR, or more NR, to the video stream. This kind of annoys me because I wish I could tell it to always apply that NR. And I wonder if perhaps that's what the Pro is doing for its small but noticeable performance gain. This wouldn't explain the color balance differences between the Pro and all the other models, but that could just be another firmware difference for the Pro. At any rate I think it's a neat device. But Hoplopfheil is spot on in his reviews. It's not gen 3, it's not gen 2, it's not even close. It's a nighttime GoPro, not a night vision monocular.
It's cool to see technology moving forward. Obviously digital isn't their yet, but I hope one day it can be. Working computer systems into our NVG systems will move NVG use forward and allow teams too use augmented reality features effectively. Obviously this a long way out.
For me, it was this or nothing. I plan on buying conventional night vision in probably a few years but it's not bad for messing around with. I understand the limitations and I don't regret my purchase.
Hop, I purchased the Pro 1.5 yrs ago, figured it out I have it mounted on a bump helmet and Wilcox mount. I've trained with it drove up to 70mph on country road in Northern Illinois with zero light pollution and got it down enough with repetitive training as I'm ex US Army and was in a SF unit as a parachute rigger but did a lot of support for our teams from 83-95. we had pvs 7 and ran them with ir illuminator on but the Aurora is a start, better than no nods. I've driven on our pitch black roads and it requires training. now they are blowing out the Aurora Black units for only $400 with 2 hard cases. 1 for the camera and the 2nd for the ir illuminator. I have a dual mount to my Wilcox mount on my bump helmet and there's no real difference in performance between both and for $400 it's a great start to nods.
I have the sport and I have compared it to a PVS-7 Omni III, an excellent Gen 3 F9800VG monocular and several Gen 3 high spec filmless tubes and there is simply no comparison in terms of very low light performance with The Sport being unsuitable for that application. That being said, in semi-urban or urban settings, it is a very handy device and for several reasons. First, you do get color and while it will be shifted in tone, it is color. Second, while the zoom is digital, you do get a zoom. Next, you can record what you see. Last but hugely important, is that you are not going to get something like screen burn and you don't have to worry about damage with bright points of light in the view. But yeah, if the goal is to see in very low light, I recommend a Gen 3 anything. That being said, the Sport does indeed have a place in my life.
I came here after watching your recent $100 night vision video because seeing the image the sionyx had in that video was mind blowing. But then i see this older video and its completely different
Been thinking of getting an aurora for while now. Every time I get the urge I just come back here and watch this to just remind me to just to save and get a pvs14.
I’ve take the sport on a short walk in a park that had what would’ve seemed to be adequate ambient light. The resolution sucked quite a bit more than I expected that I may have been better off just let my eyes get used to the dark which I’ve done quite a few times before on the same path. I did get some rather memorable night photos though but the video wasn’t great.
Hop, it would be cool if you could evaluate some thermal monoculars too. I was looking at the Leupold Tracker 2 HD. These aren't helmet mounted but I think they'd be useful for just keeping an eye on your surroundings at night.
The Sionyx pro is like $1000 on Amazon today, and Optics Planet has a Gen 2 PVS 7 for $1500. I have seen them as cheap as $1200. If you're going to cheap out, why not buy legit NVGs, even if they're obsolete? I'd rather drive a '89 Corolla than a 2021 Craftsman Lawnmower
Everything I’ve seen on these is that they work fantastic if you run an IR light with them. Now I get that you can’t run an IR light with or against other people that have night vision. But for running night vision by yourself or for hunting they would work great. I haven’t seen you run them with an Ir light at all. I saw a video where a guy attached an IR light to his pro and he turned it on and off. When it was off the image was just like your review. But when he turned it on it was crystal clear.
If you don't mind running hella supplemental IR then you might as well get a Gen 1 device. It'll be even cheaper than a base model Aurora, but it has higher resolution, better FOV, no lag, better battery life, and works better as a monocular.
@@Hoplopfheil I’d definitely disagree that gen 1 with an IR light is close to being as good. The aurora with a Ir light is like a gen 3 with no IR light. Again not to be used for legit night vision use. But if all you want is to use it for is hunting or fun thats not a terrible idea. A Pvs-14 is going to cost an additional $2000. In all seriousness I’ll probably end up buying a Pvs14 gen 3. But I also have hunting guns and fun guns so buying an aurora that’s only good for hunting and fun shouldn’t be a huge negative.
@@Hoplopfheil maybe you’re right. The other issue with investing in night vision is that I don’t know a single person that has any to try before buying. I have tons of friends that shoot. A bunch of us have nfa stuff , nfa machine guns. I even have friends with Class 2 sot’s. But no one has night vision. When it comes to Pvs-14’s you can spend $1000 all the way up to $5000. Gen 2, gen 3, green, wp, manual, autogate, thin film, unfilmed, 40 degree, 51 degree, deferent levels of tube quality(fom). So it’s like which one do you buy. It’s not like you can try them out before buying them. Then what’s better a high end Pvs-14 , low end dual tube or 2 low end PVs-14’s ( maybe buy one and then save up to buy a 2nd, or sell it and buy duals). So many options.
Yup you're not wrong at all, there is no comparison between gen 2 and the aurora let alone gen 3, you have to have some sort of illuminator to make it work. It works for what I got it for but I wouldn't want to be in a life or death situation where I needed to rely on it to preform. Great review 👍
Thank you for this review. So helpful (and funny). Question: if I were to set up an Aurora Pro with an IR light to film critters along a trail - do you think the performance and video quality is worth it? Trying to find something I can manage remotely w an app without building a Frankenstein monster out of other components. (I have analog night vision and I get this isn’t really “night vision”) Just want to set up something like this connected to a power pack and operate from inside nearby vehicle. Any info would be appreciated. Thx.
So what you're saying is...reality has an effect on the things we want to use. So using a true night vision device works much better than a fancy digital camera with the IR filter removed and some magic software. Hmmmm...I still find that hard to believe.
As far as the other reviewers not understanding how much light there actually is around an urban setting, that's more ignorance than stupidity. That's why people from the cities are so freaked out when they go out into the actual wilderness and experience what a difference there is in ambient light. I'm a LEO low-light tactics instructor, have been for about 20 years. For everybody else that doesn't know what Hop is talking about. There is a metric shit-ton of light being reflected around in the pollution and air particulate in urban settings. Even rural cities. The best way to see this is when driving into a city after you've been driving through the country at night. You can see the glow from a great distance. That glow is the reflected/refracted light from all of those artificial ambient light sources. There is WAY more light, even when you think it's pitch black, for light intensifiers and lenses to pick up and use in cities as compared with small towns and especially the wilderness. Now, you're no longer ignorant. If you ignore that information, then you'd be stupid.
Here's my two (probably useless) cents; 1. ITAR Being outside the US and a noob, the NVG market is difficult to navigate, and the Sionyx has a knowledge base and price that makes it available. 2. Area of use. I consider where I live, kinda off in the sticks, it still is difficult to find a truly dark area with little enough light pollution. Chances are, whoever is looking at a Sionyx, isn't going to be doorkicking DUMBs on the daily. This thing has limits, but from the perspective of a person with exactly zero experience with other devices, the Sionyx is pretty cool.
@@plmkoo6772 Norway. Which isn't in the EU, but in Europe. There may be places to buy from outside Norway, but to a newcomer, every single non-CONUS NODs dealer look shady. Which makes it even harder to justify dropping 3000-4000 on gear from companies you never heard of. It also doesn't help that whenever you look at a company that is the dealer for american products have no public-facing web store and refuse to answer emails that doesn't end in .gov
NVG market gets easy to navigate with time investment to know what you're looking at. That's true about any other hobby you want to get serious about; just be patient and do some research. The price doesn't warrant the low quality. It's better to be patient and save up your money for something else. That's always the thing about poors: they can't be bothered to save money, and then they try hard to justify the dumb purchases they make. With night vision you really do get what you pay for.
@@andreivaldez2929 The NVG market still doesn't have a "just buy a glock 19" tier solution, where you can buy something off the shelf simply and it will most likely be more than enough for most people. Especially when you go outside CONUS. I can't find customer reviews, I can't find anyone saying anything about any of the dealers beyond no-name people recommending them. From what I'm getting out of my Sionyx Pro now, it is impressing me. As someone with no previous experience regarding light amplification devices.
You can order gen2+ from falconclaw if you want a serious seller. Although VAT will make it quite expensive if you live in Norway. I've tried a Sionyx Pro against my GT-14 with an XD4 tube and it stood no chance.
So since you have a spare Sionyx Aurora, have you thought about doing the lens mod Carpe Nocturnum has done to use any C-mount lens with it? Looks like you could squeeze a bit more sensitivity out of it, or at least have some more options for cool filming filters. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N1uzYVeXktg.html
Picked up a high spec L3 PVS-14 and gear recently. I'm considering grabbing an Aurora Pro to video our night shoots. Wondering if the Pro is worth the extra cash over the Black for this purpose.
I know the hate is great, but with supplemental IR it works darn well... I've used gen3 stuff and no it isn't as good... But to say it's useless ( with ir help ) is far from accurate. No you won't be a door kicking commando, but you can most assuredly take out varmints on the farm or pull security against 90%+ of bad actors at your home...
The best test of a platform is widespread acceptance. Question: If these are so wonderful then why don't we see alot of impressive videos of these in practical use instead of dozens of test videos?
I was thinking about buying one of these cameras for my boat for use around the docks at night. Fixed mounted on the back of the boat and YiFi two one my Garmin screens. What do you think a waste of money? I have Flir that covers a little more than half the front of the boat. Thanks for your time.
These are best for nautical applications where you have moonlight and ambient lights from shore and such. Running on a tablet on the dash they are good for that. I cant imagine it being useful at all in a tactical application. Good video shows how poor they are for that
Thirty seconds into the video and my brain is telling me not to buy either one no matter how cheap, not even for fun; just save up and buy a white phos PVS-14. Great video!!!
Very cool, I have lived here most of my life. I saw Mt. Hood in your video and got all excited. I recently got an ATN thermal scope and it's been fun to play with.
So what I'm getting is that you might as well drop a couple hundred on a decent weapon light over this? Unless you have some weird hobby of filming in the dark. I'm still planning on saving up for a pvs14. It's just gonna take longer to aquire.
You really need both. Get a good weapon light, then start looking at NV. One doesn’t replace the other and for defensive use, a light is more valuable than NV. Budget AT LEAST $2k towards a PVS14 and get as close to $4k as you can. It matters a lot in terms of image quality.
This video slaps! I find this very useful while thinking of buying one for videogpraphic purposes. After watching this I came to conclusion that there is no need to buy the more expensive Pro model because the differences are so small (expect the price, lol).
I think it's pretty telling that the SiOnyx website has very little footage or photos on their website. There are a few comparison pictures where they put it up against a fucking go pro. Beating a gopro in low light is a pretty low bar lol.
Are you sure you actually know what an NVD is? Calling it a camera doesn't make it not a Night Vision Device. for the people that didn't pay attention in school. Night vision is the ability to see in low-light conditions, either naturally with the naked eye or through a night-vision device. there are different types of night vision technologies that have different uses and capabilities. Under the umbrella term “night vision,” experts usually differentiate between three main types: image intensifier night vision, digital night vision devices, and thermal imagers. That's right. technically thermal is a Night Vision Device. A device is a thing made or adapted for a particular purpose, especially a piece of mechanical or electronic equipment. A night-vision device (NVD), also known as night optical/observation device (NOD) and night-vision goggles (NVG) is an optoelectronic device that allows images to be produced in levels of light approaching total darkness. The image may be a conversion to visible light of both visible light and near-infrared, while by convention detection of thermal infrared is referred to as thermal imaging. So not only is the Sionyx an NVD but its also a NOD, night optical/observation device. Optical Observation Optical instruments are based on optics. They use mirrors and lenses to reflect and refract light and form images. The light microscope and telescope use convex lenses and mirrors to make enlarged images of very tiny or distant objects. A camera uses a convex lens to make a reduced image of an object cameras are used to observe and monitor. so a Camera is an optical/observation device. and a camera with NV capability is a night optical/observation device. A security camera is a NOD and falls under NVDs. anyways Good job with the quality videos and reviews. I really hope you get rid of both those models and pickup the new Opsin. I don't want to watch it first reviewed by somebody else lol plus if your going to own one it may as well be the newest one.
Can get a Gen 3+ for about double the cost of the Pro that looks just like daylight (without color) and has a wide field of view and no lag instead of a laggy digital noise acid trip through a straw.
why would you use this as a night observation tool when 500 dollar thermals exist (right now tm 160 and hik lc06), i only think this good for taking videos,
So it's not as good as something that costs double or quadruple the amount. I would never have guessed that lol. But what is close to it's price point, at it's pricepoint or under it that is better? Not seen that option offered up at all.
The fact that people claim that this is better than a gen 2 night vision device, just shows you how much people are dumb. I think that a real gen 1 tube (not the fake gen 1 Pulsar stuff) could be worse, but it's hard to compare since genuine gen 1 tubes are really hard to find that still perform well.
