The Night Vision/Thermal Thread

[CJ]

True with clarity and distance system performance/price have to go up but 1000meters with clarity seems acceptable to me 8k investment and pop all the hogs you want.

I've used a few units. From elcan high dollar units, to cheaper hobby box Cadillac units and all of them have an advantage over night vision. However, unless you're spending 10k or more, they seem best utilized for observation. When I go hunting thermal finds heat, and then you use it together with night vision to track it down and shoot it. The lower price units will pick up a pig at 1000 yards but only as a white dot on a 320x240 screen, I could never make anything out. For me, personally, 8k on a weapons sight I can only have mounted to 1 weapon seems like too much. Id rather have a real high quality hand held unit for observation.

[chevyhater01]

I've used a few units. From elcan high dollar units, to cheaper hobby box Cadillac units and all of them have an advantage over night vision. However, unless you're spending 10k or more, they seem best utilized for observation. When I go hunting thermal finds heat, and then you use it together with night vision to track it down and shoot it. The lower price units will pick up a pig at 1000 yards but only as a white dot on a 320x240 screen, I could never make anything out. For me, personally, 8k on a weapons sight I can only have mounted to 1 weapon seems like too much. Is rather have a real high quality hand held unit for observation.

Yeah the old caddy systems were junk they never made a dime all were sold at a loss in hopes of volume but production never could yield the outputs needed.

I was just watching a video of a few guys using flir to walk the trail while shooters were using pvs-14's and even though the hog was directly in front they couldn't spot it with nv till distance closed.

What sucks is most of the commerical IR uncooled units out there are either such poor quality or so old tech that they just can't perform and to get there cost has to go up to the point the average joe shooter isnt gonna drop the cash on it. You got people that bitch about why they have to spend 1000+ on good glass and wonder why there BSA scope aint worth a flip its the same concept just higher scale.

I'm fortunate that I have access to an old SpectorIR unit which yeah its old tech but that thing is solid and rated for full auto fire I just can't stand mounting a black pringle can size optic on a rifle.

[CJ]

Yeah the old caddy systems were junk they never made a dime all were sold at a loss in hopes of volume but production never could yield the outputs needed.

I was just watching a video of a few guys using flir to walk the trail while shooters were using pvs-14's and even though the hog was directly in front they couldn't spot it with nv till distance closed.

What sucks is most of the commerical IR uncooled units out there are either such poor quality or so old tech that they just can't perform and to get there cost has to go up to the point the average joe shooter isnt gonna drop the cash on it. You got people that bitch about why they have to spend 1000+ on good glass and wonder why there BSA scope aint worth a flip its the same concept just higher scale.

I'm fortunate that I have access to an old SpectorIR unit which yeah its old tech but that thing is solid and rated for full auto fire I just can't stand mounting a black pringle can size optic on a rifle.

With night vision you really need movement to catch an animal, it also depends on what kind of IR illumination you're using, problem is it all originates from the same point of origin so seeing depth is nearly impossible. If you have IR illumination from another angle it's much easier. The old cadillac units you can find for $200 and build them yourself, or buy an assembled one for around $2k. For that kind of money it's a damn bargain, really useful to an average hunter and affordable. A few weeks ago I was looking through an Elcan handheld unit which was 5 figures, it was impressive for sure but nearly unobtainable for most people. For my use, personally, a $2k cadillac box would do just as good considering I'm going to be using a PVS-14 to shoot it anyway. And for the size, nothing beats a PVS-14, you can put it in your pocket and mount it to anything. I would love to see thermal units get that small and light for the money.

What kind of Thermal do you make exactly?

[chevyhater01]

What kind of Thermal do you make exactly?

I work for Elcan although we're now called EO innovations since we've been called back into Raytheon we used to be our own financial entity within Raytheon.

All those goodies are the stuff I play with for a 9-5.

[CJ]

I work for Elcan although we're now called EO innovations since we've been called back into Raytheon we used to be our own financial entity within Raytheon.

All those goodies are the stuff I play with for a 9-5.

I know a few guys up there, but they work with nightvision weapon optics. Pretty amazing stuff. Any new advancements that will make thermal cheaper anytime soon? I check every few years on whats going on, seems like costs remain practically the same.

[chevyhater01]

Really Elcan commerical lines are basically dead now every since our switch over to big R they are trying to kill off anything Elcan branded at least that's the appearance mgmt gives off. The only thing's that I know we still commercially sell to the public are old PhantomIR handhelds(goodluck affording one retail is like 18k+) and Digital hunters. We as company had the potential to really grow and expand into assembly of more products but we became too competitive to some of the more internal R groups which prompted them to start the merge to knock us back in line.

Digital hunters in the Day/Night configuration is kinda cool its shape and digital function seem to put a lot of folks off but the features are pretty slick and if you have some decent IR illuminators you can night shoot easily. My favorite feature is you can create any reticle you want in Mspaint and upload into the scope and bullet drop comp is built in and can upload different calibers.

[CJ]

Really Elcan commerical lines are basically dead now every since our switch over to big R they are trying to kill off anything Elcan branded at least that's the appearance mgmt gives off. The only thing's that I know we still commercially sell to the public are old PhantomIR handhelds(goodluck affording one retail is like 18k+) and Digital hunters. We as company had the potential to really grow and expand into assembly of more products but we became too competitive to some of the more internal R groups which prompted them to start the merge to knock us back in line.

Digital hunters in the Day/Night configuration is kinda cool its shape and digital function seem to put a lot of folks off but the features are pretty slick and if you have some decent IR illuminators you can night shoot easily. My favorite feature is you can create any reticle you want in Mspaint and upload into the scope and bullet drop comp is built in and can upload different calibers.

Yeah I know Buddy Walton who was one of the engineers on the digital hunter. I always liked the record feature. I had figured that was the case, so is the majority of your focus going to be on government contracts now?

[chevyhater01]

Yeah it was sad to see Buddy go but he had a great send off at least he went out on top before the bottom fell out.

Basically its back to defense to keep the lights on.

[CJ]

That's a shame. Well, it always works its way to the commercial market eventually.

[CJ]

What's the story on the Specter DR 1-4x 5.56 weapon sight, is that no longer in production?

[chevyhater01]

That's a shame. Well, it always works its way to the commercial market eventually.

Something to look forward too.

http://www.sensorsinc.com/whyswir.html

[CJ]

Something to look forward too.

http://www.sensorsinc.com/whyswir.html

that's awesome. Seems like a solution to a lot of the problems. One of the things I didn't care for on most of the thermal units I've used is the slow refresh rates.

[exlude]

Just man up and buy a PSQ-20.