GEN III night vision questions?

[futant]

from what i have gathered before it pretty much hints at the above.
Nothing is available below 1500.
AT 1500-2000 - it's widely variable the quality or lifespan.
above 2000 right now seems to be the sweet spot for any kind of guarantee of both

me I'm seriously just waiting for prices to HYPOthetically come down. May never happen.

Here's a link to a guy who might have a quality unit for 1500.
PVS7 though

http://www.texas4x4.org/showthread.php?t=38212&highlight=night+vision

personally I wanted something I can walk in , and view. then use a NV red dot compat sight with (obviously with a high styled mount, and probably fwd or mid mounted on rifle)

[CJ]

Long story short I was over at a friends house last night looking at all his toys and he bust out a gen III night vision monocular that is rifle mountable. He uses it with his NV compatible eotech. The quality of this unit was far above and beyond other optics of this type I have had the chance to look through. He turned me on to the guy selling them and I talked price with them. He told me that the tubes were damaged military units and that he fixes them. So some of these have small blemishes (black spots or areas) when looking through them and depending on how clear they are the price goes up. The one I am looking at buying has just one tiny spot and its on the far side so it really affects nothing.

What should something like this go for?

This is the best way to get Gen3/4 for the money. If they are PVS-14 tubes you should expect to spend between 1,500-2,000 depending on the unit and condition of the tube. There is no problem buying PVS-14 tubes with dead pixels, that's the only way to get one for an affordable price. Combine a decent PVS-14 tube with a great illuminator and you should have a great hunting weapons mount. gat0r on the board is who you should speak to, he knows all about these.

[gat0r]

unless the person knows what they are doing, be wary. its not just throw all the parts together for install.
its a lot of change to throw down & not be backed up by some sort of warranty.

there are home brew installers selling pvs14 & mums.
*[not all tubes are equal] some homebrewers sell pvs14's w/ low grade tubes, if you dont research it you wont know.

if you are looking @ buying used... you need to do a lot of research, so you dont get taken advantage of.

as mentioned in above posts, there really isnt any fixing available for tubes...unless its burning out an emission point w/ a laser, which creates a large black spot


if by chance it wasnt demilled, expect a knock from from suits


whats the model #?
are there any prefixes?


essentially, civilian versions did not meet mil spec for all categories of performance -signal to noise ratio, screen quality and line pairs of resolution. basically meeting one or two of these, but not all three.
without getting too deep...the tubes are of differing quality...mil spec has better power supply(autogated) & more sensitive photocathodes.

mil specs are avail new to us civilians, but usually when there is a contract overrun

you need to think about your budget & intended purpose for these.
accessories also get expensive.

gen3 is the way to go.
really you want to look @ pvs14 or mum's for gen 3 monoculars.
each has their own advantages & disadvantages.

expect to pay $1600 for well used (if someone is trying to move it for $$$) to $2500
& upwards of $3000-4000 for new
=if you want to buy new, check w/ Victor @ TNVC

gen2 also gets the job done, just not as well. there are monoculars & scopes avail.

the more used &/or lesser quality it is, the more blemishes that you will see when viewing. (pin prick black spots)
tubes have a finite lifespan, you need to know how many hours it has been used. can you trust the seller?

[inline 6]

I am still kicking the tires on this. I will try to get some of this info. I did ask him previously and he said that they are retired units. He lives right around the corner from me and come to find out he has sold several of these to people I know. I am pretty sure he knows wtf he is doing but I could be wrong. You sure get the impression he does with all the crap he has. Without going into much detail I got to look at a night vision telescope and play with some bad ass thermal imaging equipment. He also had a handfull of gen III optics with magnification and red dots for rifles. No clue what any of the brands are on this stuff except that the stuff I am looking at is in fact pvs-14