Questions To Ask When Buying Night Vision Equipment By C. Macrae At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Many recreational users of night vision equipment, don't know the first thing about the technology itself. They end up purchasing night vision equipment that is substandard and not what they expect to get. I put this article together to help steer them in the right direction.

Questions to ask when buying night vision?

1. Who/what company made the night vision tube in the (goggle, monocular, scope – whatever it is that you’re buying)?

2. Was the night vision tube manufactured in the United States?

3. What generation is the tube? (I suggest purchasing generation 3 device)

4. Is there a warranty on the tube?

5. Is there a warranty on the system?

Points to remember:

Don’t be swayed by the exterior housing or overall look of the night vision device. Many night vision system housings look the same. A knock-off ATN housing may look exactly the same as an ITT housing. For good reason, the housings look the same, sometimes with small variations, to enable the device to reach it’s intended end user. For example, ITT makes the monocular (the PVS-14) that most of our military uses as a compliment to the day sight on it’s weapons. ATN, and many other night vision companies, make a similar one in the hope that they can sell their version to the military as well.

The problem ends up in the performance of the night vision tube inside the housing. ATN typically uses a lower cost Russian image tube in most of it’s night vision systems, and in turn offers their equipment at a lower price. Let’s face it. Night vision is expensive. Lower costs are appealing. But when lives are on the line, or decisions need to be made in a critical situation, you want the best equipment available. Russian and other European tubes just don’t match up to the U.S. made night vision tubes. There’s a reason why the U.S. military purchases almost all of it’s night vision equipment from ITT. That includes the aviator’s goggles, which are typically even more expensive (sophisticated) than the ground-based systems.

Consumer apathy:

I’ve heard that some night vision companies bank (or do business) counting on the fact that consumers will buy a piece of night vision for $300.00, use it once, only to find out that it doesn’t work that good, put it in their chest of drawers, and never bother to return it to get their money back. That consumer will never realize the full potential night vision technology has to offer. A pretty good business model for an uninformed consumer market.

My suggestion would be to do your research and buy a U.S. manufactured generation 3 image tube night vision device. And, if you can’t afford one, then save your money.

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