Night vision monocular device

[MrToad]

Hi,

Is there anybody out there who has used or own a night vision monocular device?

I have just bought one, mainly for viewing wildlife, but I am struggling to get to grips with it.

I am having great difficulty getting it to focus.

It has Infra Red and it does make it lighter but it doesn't make what you are viewing clear especially if it is any more than 5 metres away. It is OK if the animal stands still, you can JUST make out what it is, but unfortunately wild animals DON'T stand still for long.

any advice would be appreciated.

Mr Toad.

[Dan Salter]

was it £89 from Aldi by any chance?

See the other night vision thread recently...

Im afraid (and im presuming you havent) that if you dont spend hundreds/thousands the quality and distance etc is pretty dire...see 'eeyore's technical reply.

Night Vision Monocular at Aldi.

[Kayleigh]

I have just ordered this from maplin

Bushnell Night Vision Monocular

* Waterproof Bushnell monocular
* 2.5x42mm magnification
* In-built infrared illuminator

Only £199.99
Order Code: L73BN In Stock
Home more information

It should be with me next week I will keep you posted on how I get on with it.
Was going to go to Aldi but couldn't find one. So ended up at Maplin.

[Rob_D]

Mr T - does it have adjustments on both the eye piece and the objective (the other end)? You have to turn both of these to get things in focus.

I have the (old version) Bresser one that I bought in Lidl for around £100. It is better than nothing, and will certainly help in some situations - watching badger just after twilight. The optics could be better and you certainly don't get much magnification - close objects appear distant, so don't think of it like binoculars! With the LED illuminator actually works quite well and reasonable range, so it maybe worth trying with a much more powerful IR illuminator?

I get the feeling most/all 1st generation devices (ie pretty much anything <£1000) are going to be fairly disappointing in terms of night vision performance, though some will have better magnification and better optics. Wikipedia suggests light amplification of about 1000 times.

2nd gen devices are surely much better (20000 times amplification), but still very expensive.

In any case, you can't work miracles and you'll always need some background illumination from moon, stars, streetlights or an IR lamp/LED. The more the better.

When far-IR sensors (ie sensing heat, not reflected near-IR light) become cheap enough, that'll really be something very useful. Anyone seen anything on the market?

[derelict]

Originally Posted by Rob_D

does it have adjustments on both the eye piece and the objective (the other end)? You have to turn both of these to get things in focus.

I have the (old version) Bresser one that I bought in Lidl for around £100. It is better than nothing, and will certainly help in some situations - watching badger just after twilight. The optics could be better and you certainly don't get much magnification - close objects appear distant, so don't think of it like binoculars! With the LED illuminator actually works quite well and reasonable range, so it maybe worth trying with a much more powerful IR illuminator?

I have a yukon high-mag Generation1 which I've heard a rumour is either made under license by Bushnell or licensed out by them, can't recall which. It seems to be delivering much as yours is. I just hope the British troops don't have one like it because they'd be dead before they got the focus right. It certainly takes some getting used to. You can inadvertently focus on vegetation 5 yards away when you're trying to look at something 100 yards away. And vice versa. They are verrrry sensitive - despite the impressive rubber casing mine has never been the same since it fell out of my pocket onto long grass - the sharpness of the image went. I had hoped to take photos through it but had no joy with my early attempts and there's no chance of that now!

It's very good for spotting things at night by looking for eyes reflecting - badgers foraging at twilight as you say - but with owls if you keep it on I'm sure it looks to them like a torchbeam does to us and tawnies seem to quietly melt away after a minute or so. You can't easily pick out antler shapes or coat markings on deer so it's not much use for id'ing individual animals. I always carry it for night outings but normally it doesn't come out of the bag except on really overcast nights in woodland. I've only had to recharge the battery a couple of times. When you switch it on it takes a few seconds to build a picture - though it seems like forever - it isn't instant response like binoculars.

A possible problem with IR is that it is down at the heat end of the spectrum and animals are pretty good at insulating themselves (those winter coats) so they don't give off a lot of heat into the surroundings hence you don't get a nice clear outline or strong silhouette... trees on the other hand seem to reflect IR like nobody's business


N.B. I don't believe the images I've seen on the internet claiming to be shot with n/v !! Just greened-up normal video IMHO

[stripee]

I have one of these 1 Gen cheaper range monoculars. TCM but is made by Bushnell. Agree with other people's comments, it can be annoying to focus and easily slips out of focus if you are carrying it and then has to be re-focused. The red beam - ir. is highly visible to any creature its focused on. Most don't seem to like it much, so I use it sparingly on and off to locate wildlife, it can also be seen at distance by anything if you are trying to be low profile. And does not magnify subject so have to be relatively close.
The lid on mine is small, and would be impossible to find if dropped on the ground, so I leave it at home.
But it has enormously enhanced night watching. The eyes of small mice can be picked up, and sneaking stray cats.

[snake]

I have been using various night vision units for many years. The first unit I had was a Russian generation 1, this was not really up to much, ok for the back garden but of no use out in the field. I then purchased a generation 2+ unit from America, the cost of this unit was way more than a generation 1 but the difference was amazing, you could see clearly for 300m given at least a quarter a moon and a lot further on a full moon. I had this for a few years then one day it fell from the seat of my vehicle and broke. I returned it to the manufacturers but it could not be repaired.
I now have one of the modern digital units, it collects the light through the objective lens and displays a picture onto a screen much like a digital camera.
It is ok for up to 50 or 60m but not a patch on the generation 2+.
If anybody is serious about night vision don't waste your money on any of the cheaper models,you will probably be dissapointed, bite the bullet and go for at least gen 2, or better still gen 3.
Like most things, you get what you pay for.

[Dan Salter]

I agree with much of the recent replies on here which pretty much re instate my previous advice...and another good point raised is that i am very sceptical and never believe the so called 'image' used in the advert to sell these things....i very much doubt the beautiful clear green night vision pic of a stag was taken with the under 100 pound unit being sold....Its about as believable as the gleaming white teeth shown in teeth whitening paste ads...or miracle muscle growing powders and hair re growth serums!

[Rob_D]

Interesting to hear your experience with Gen2 device snake, sorry that it got broken. I hope they get alot cheaper soon cos it sounds like they'd be useful.

Alot of CCD sensors for digital cameras are able to detect near-IR pretty well, but cameras optics are designed to focus visible light, and many have IR filters too. They're also not designed for very low intensities either, so I guess that usually makes them perform badly, but maybe some (even cheap ones) are better than others.