Thanks for dropping knowledge on a newbie this is exactly what I needed to hear 10k+ isn’t something I would like to learn the hard way love your videos 🇺🇸🤙
A tube is an analog device and *it will wear out* and the more photons they are exposed to, the shorter their life will be. If you use your NV device on dark nights with no bright lights in the scene, it will last between 10,000 and 15,000 hours. If you use them in surban levels of light, it might last half of that. Tube life is measured by the brightness it can produce and when the brightness falls to 50% of what it was when new, the tube is considered worn out. Now you might not know it unless you compared the view to a new tube, but _every time you use your tube, it wears a tiny bit_ , and the brighter the light is for each use, the faster it will wear out. I highly recommend that you never point your device at bright light sources for any period of time unless there is some compelling reason for you to do so. While autogating does help, the bright light of an image wears the phosphor screen more than the image from a dim scene. It is a tiny amount of wear, but it is cumulative.
Awesome video dude! I thought I lost my PVS-14s when I panned across some IR lights from a security cam and got some streaks that didn't immediately go away. It eventually did go away, but man, I thought I lost a tube. Now I know what happened.
So lights is fine you just want to minimize direct light to the lens itself, and in the sunlight since its already bright you want to reduce the amount of light i.e close your tarsier/scopecap and hope you have “the standard laser” in dark places and not a civi peq
Awesome video Jon! Good info for me while waiting on my NV. I’d love to see you do a video on 31’s one day if you could get ahold of a set. I’m fascinated by their light weight
Bruh I love your videos. I had one of those Johnny Cage squiggly ghost streaks across both tubes first time I took my RNVGs out coyote hunting on a clear night/full moon, had them on and flipped up pointing at the moon for a minute before I realized like OH SHIT. Luckily the squiggly healed itself for the most part I can’t notice it anymore.
Thanks for this video. I just got a couple of DTNVS L3 Unfilmed units and tried them out the other night. I ran my view across a streetlight that was about 30yrds away and it left what looks like a squiggly line "burn in" in one of the optics. It's freaking me out and I'm trying to find answers. Is this repairable? It's not terrible, but it's also not cool due to the crazy price of these things and it's LITTERALY brand new. Help me my man, Jon! Love your series of videos btw. Keep up the great work. You've taught me SO MUCH about night vision!
From everything I've read, using tubes in high light environments will decrease the overall tube life. Would be interested to know how dramatic an affect it would be, say between one consistently used in an urban environment and one used in a rural environment.
Thnaks for the information, when Driving with night vision do other cars headlights coming head on present a danger to perminatly damage your tubes? im running PVS-31a
So basically you cause nods to go blind with a strong blast of white light? You would think for how much they cost they could borrow some self darkening technology from welding hoods or something. NV is cool and all but I think ill stick to quality white light for now until NV becomes a little more reasonable in price.
Night vision loses its strengths in urban environments or very close encounters with an opposition force. If the opfor has NODs, or flashlights, or torches, it evens things out. Night vision is best for maneuvering with stealth or trying to maintain stealth. What I’ve noticed is that often, the natural night vision of your eyes will adjust and let’s say something moved across your field of vision in non-pitch-black conditions, you’d notice after sitting in the dark for 15-30 minutes. What night vision does is it applies detail and the ability to see infrared light and infrared light sources. Objects are more well defined and identifiable. I like the rating scale of thermal devices, I can’t remember the actual terms but it’s basically an observation range where you can surely tell something is in your view, then recognition range where you can tell generally what it is (human, animal, vehicle, tumbleweed, and finally and identification range at which you can positively identify what you’re seeing, if it’s human you might be able to identify if it’s friendly etc. It is a tech with its limitations but in time it will continue to evolve. There’s lots happening, but it’s just a weird time in its history and I think some of it has to due with panic, the economy and world events…Not to mention that it feels like tech like this is going to soon become a point of conflict in politics at some point. They already took smokes and flash bangs…I’d be surprised if this weren’t on someone’s docket.
@@KineticConsulting Is there anything they're really good or bad at? I was thinking of getting them since I'm in Canada and the only tubes I could find so far are Photonis, Harder and whatever Alpha Optics uses.
@@SkintSNIPER262 from an internet stranger's limited experience with them: They're pretty good if you've got ambient light. If you're in light rich areas, the photonis tubes perform as good as or better against bloom from light sources due to gen 2 being less sensitive to light. If it's dark with little to no ambient lights, they don't perform as well as gen 3s. That's just my experience. There are a few good videos on RU-vid showing the difference but I'd try in person if I could. You don't get the whole picture from videos vs in person.
You mention at 3:00 that turning NVGs on outside during daytime is very damaging to them. I've heard folks talk about tubes turning themselves off if they're receiving too much light over a given time period. Is that the case, or will they just stay on constantly and cause some sort of damage to them?
This is what it says on the PVS-14... Auto-Gated Image Intensifier Tubes, the PVS-14 features variable gain control and bright light automatic shut off. (hard to understand exactly what they mean, but you're probably right.
@@patindaytona oh gotcha. So auto gating is way that the tube protects its self from over exposure to light (obviously there's a limit). Variable gain is the images brightness to your light.
Thanks, I have been wondering about this. My question has to do with distant light sources not lining up with my unaided eye on my agm pvs14. Does this mean there is some kind of misalignment? The only way I can get the "2" images to "stitch" together in my brain is if I unmount the pvs-14 from my helmet and rotate it so that the j arm bayonet points to the ground. Then it lines up perfectly. I feel like this is the image I should have no matter how it is clocked.
Perfect alignment is usually going to be impossible due to our stereoscopic vision, but if I understand your issue from what you said it's probably because it's made by amg. They don't usually make high quality equipment
I think it comes down to the angle it's mounted at usually being directly forward. With normal vision, you have your two lines of sight cross at a single focal point. When using a monocular, you essentially have one eye pointed straight forward at a focal point of infinity.
@@wesbennett5760 depends on what you have but gain and gating are 2 different features. Gain is brightness adjustment Gating put simply put a way the nvg unit protects and limits light being used.
I have seen some studies on the longevity of the photonis tubes, that they do degrade faster than the American companies. No, shooting without a can doesn't hurt night vision.
Thank you for your friendly answer, it assists a lot. Planning to buy NVG, but the selection is limited and the prices are higher in Europe for a private person, at least here in Finland. Nvg made in USA or Israel would be Top option. So probably I will go with the new Photonis single tube. It is very helpful at work and I'm gonna train to shoot AR-15 too. I like your channel very much 🇺🇸🇫🇮
I know this is an old video, and a great video.. but I was wondering if you personally run with Light Interference Filters? Do you think its a good idea or bad? It seems to make me want to run my gain higher because it will lower the brightness, but I was just wondering what your take on LIF for Gen 3 NODS is. Thanks for the great content!
Lif lenses are nice but in dark environments I wouldn't waste my time with them. I have a few types that I have played with over the years and I just end up leaving them off.
@@KineticConsulting yeah I was honestly pretty turned off as soon as I installed them. I could see the use for them with GP tubes but not WP. Thanks for the info.
They all have to have at least a little hole to allow the minimal amount out light so you can check functionality. Larger holes help allow more light and give you an "infinite" focus but limits a lot of light.
They will still have BSP, that will protect them from limited exposure. They'll lose more resolution than gated units. Just be smart with them, don't used them in high light areas.
Hey man, Great video! I've got a PVS14 with OMNI VII but I do not believe it is autogated. Is there a way to tell? What and how should I handle that? Headed to a MILSIM soon and don't want to get them damaged.
@@KineticConsulting similarly, what if the NODs are turned off, but the caps are not on? Will they only get damaged while the unit is turned on? (Lasers aside)
@@RazgrizXVI it shouldn't hurt them to be off and you doing normal stuff as long as you don't set them down staring at the sun or a bright light source for a long time.
@Stephen fucking cry more. No one cares about your brother. It was a joke. He's probably the way he is cause of people like you who feed on unwarranted drama.
+Kinetic Consulting hey bro, can the beam of a visible laser damage the lenses? lets say i switch laser modes or someone else beside me have a visible laser activated?
@@KineticConsulting I think the key is whether or not its shined directly into the unit. A vis laser being shined down range from you by a buddy id imagine would be okay. One being shined at you.... Potentially not so much.
is there anyway to prevent laser blems? I want to force on force but I cant afford to destroy my nods. I dont know how people are wearing 16k nods knowing if they get blemmed oh well guess ill just buy new ones.
You're mixing up terms. Blems are imperfections in the manufacturing process. Laser burn is when the image intensifiers take direct laser shined into them. No such thing as laser Blems. To prevent it, you don't shine lasers into dudes nods. Fof with NVGs is a careful game for professional users. You aim low on each other or don't have the opfor have lasers and NVGs because they usually don't in real life.
What OMNI contract are they? From sources I've read autogating came around OMNI VI. Before that they likely are not. Not a huge deal just don't use them around higher light levels. I have OMNI IV ANVIS I've been using for years and never got any burn in because I take care of them. Non-gated tube still have BSP (Bright Source Protection), which will protect them from limited exposure.
@@poolee77 I'm pretty sure they're OMNI IV or V. They actually have Autogating (at least I think so, the image got darker when looking at a bright light source, tho I don't know the exact difference between BSP and Autogating). 6 months ago I knew so much less about tubes and NV than I do now. I have actually sold that monocular and upgraded to a PS31 Binocular a few days ago.
@@Superiority.mindset if it's OMNI IV or V it's not autogated. The primary reason for autogating is to maintain image resolution when exposed to high levels of light. A Gen 3 tube gated or not still has Bright Source Protection and Automatic Brightness Control protect against some brief light exposure.
@@Superiority.mindset "Both gating and BSP affect voltage at the photocathode. Gating is constantly operating while BSP functions when needed. ABC affects MCP voltage by reducing it and functions when needed. Gated tubes have all three of these functions. Non-gated tubes only employ BSP and ABC. Gating is often visually confused with BSP and ABC, however gating limits the reduction in resolution caused by BSP."
Not covering the other Gens because “Don’t buy those” is a cop out. If you’re a freedom loving American 🇺🇸 but whatever you want and whatever you can reasonably afford given your needs. Luckily Falcon Claw has a nice video where he destroys a Gen 2 system using varying techniques and found the older systems are pretty tough. The video is called “We Pointed a Laser Into Night Vision”.
Yeah. Gen 1 and even gen 0 can still be a ton of fun but isn't gucci enough for a lot of the guntubers on this platform.... God forbid I don't have to take out a mortgage to larp
For real use anything below gen 3 really isn't worth it for cost benefit if you're worried about cost a good white light with your favorite switches is a better investment
@@Low_Speed_High_Drag_718 Comments like these are unfortunately typical of every US buyer, who ignorantly fail to see that ITAR greatly increases the cost of nice tubes outside of the US. Not everyone can afford to drop used car money on tactical equipment.
Hello Jon, some question: I would like to use IR Pass filters to protect the NVD from any vis light sources like lasers, or urban white light. From that moment on I have to deploy IR light alot more, but have better protection. Now: I dont see a way to protect the tubes from IR Lasers, but this is the most biggest threat to my device after vis light polution. Do you have any recommendations how to mitgate this problem - exp. when using Full Power for CQB Force on Force? Reflection of IR Lasers, peoples idiocy to still aim for the head, all this happens with every single Training a dozen times. At the moment I just use Photonis ECHO 2000FOM tubes and they dont suffer that issue too much, but for every User of a Filmless tube out there, this question becomes quite important? Thanks ahead
Filters only capture one section of the spectrum, so if dudes have all green, you're not protected from red. For force on force against lasers its not only NVGs you need to worry about but people eyes. I don't recommend allowing lasers for fof. If you're training for the opposition that has lasers you want to shoot passive anyways. Another way is to use low powers and aim for chests and lower to since the risk isn't worth the training rep. I'm sure there are other ways and opinions out there.
@Kinetic Consulting Thanks for your quick response. But have you read what I am writing? I want to use IR PASS Filters - not Green or Red Filters! This is a whole different world as you know so I would appreciate if you reply to that matter? Your recommendation for passive aiming when opposed against a threat with NODs is know to me and the method I apply, anyways, its not realistic to encounter only passive method using folks as most of these events are not dedicated for active/passive aiming, but just for use of Optronic, therefor I am not in charge of the rules. People use lasers, and even full power lasers, and people fail to look out for photonic awareness.. That is why I am looking for some technical solution to protect the devices. For my eyes I can use IR lenses: You can see less without NOD than, but its okay for me to deploy 100% NODs even in mixed light scenarios. What I considered already in the past, was to only use thermals against Laser/NOD enemys. By this the devices wouldt bother the IR light, and my eyes again can be protected with IR lenses. But it would be a clear disadvantage to only ID but not recognize targets, and I would need to have Bino-Thermals if I want to use some passive aiming, some thermal sight for the rifle, or I would need some Thermal Laser (I am aware of SWIR lasers but not of thermal lasers in the 1500nm range)... but this is some weird workaround. At the moment I just do not attend these FoF events anymore, but I miss to use that opportuinty for my personal gain in training, so I am looking for a solution that is not risking my health or equipment?
