Night vision

[Andy Mabbett]

Lucky me; I've been asked to choose a generously- priced Christmas present.

I'm considering a night- sight/ night vision scope, or whatever you might call such a thing, for wildlife watching.

Can anyone comment on the available types? Is there a FAQ?

Which models have IR illumination, and is that a requirement?

What's the battery life like, and can they use rechargeables?

Do they have a long life expectancy, or do they wear out? Are they robust, and shower/ water proof?

How usable are they, by spectacle wearers?

How does one go about using them with a digital camera (Nikon 995, in my case), if that's possible?

I see that Millets have one, on offer; reduced from 1999 to 175 GBP. IS tat an "entry- level" price?

This one looks intriguing, too:

and they "supply to retailing outlats throut UK" ;-)

(cross- posted)

[Lee Blaver]

Check out these as well, seem to have a few items:

Haven't used them myself, but I've bought stuff from their parent company before.

Lee

[nightjar" my surname here>.uk.com]

When I had a catalogue of night vision gear, there was quite a wide choice. You needed to decide whether you wanted monocular or binocular vision and what sort of magnification you wanted. One of the binocular types had a hands-free headband. My recolllection is that the effective range was not too impressive, perhaps 30m on the longest range types.

The ones you can buy easily are probably ex-Russian first generation equipment. SFAIK, that does need IR illumination to work, hence, I suspect, the restricted range. If you get a chance to look through a current military version, which are entirely passive, you will probably be amazed at the difference.

Colin Bignell

[Andy Dingley]

200 quid, common as muck.

For a start on a buyer's guide, treat them as binoculars. Many of the optical issues about field of view etc. are still similar.

There are some that take camera lenses (of various mounts). Can be worthwhile if you already have a good investment in optics.

Focussing of IR may be near-impossible with some mirror lenses though (because they're not all mirrors, but partially refractive too)

All of 'em. Anything that doesn't is 2 grand and upwards, and still rare as hen's teeth.

Look at IR rabbit lamping sets, if you want a bigger illuminator. Anchor in Ripley used to have the IR searchlights off Chieftains at one time - about 2' across !

On a decent one, it should be enormous.

Modern stuff should be robust. Old ones didn't like daylight or damp.

They're all monoculars, so it's no big deal. Binoculars are still a gimmick. At this level of resolution, and with this sort of line-of-sight illumination, then you have no usable stero imagery anyway.

Find one with a suitable mount at the back end, and a suitable camera. Still rare, although they are around.

[stefek.zaba]

Yup. Worst when it comes from Down Under. That damn woman, adding her .WAVs to each bit of spam. You know, whats-her-name... oh, that's it, Waltzung Bruenhilde. Waltzung Bruenhilde, Waltzung Bruenhilde, who'll come a-Waltzung Bruenhilde mit mir...

[tarquinlinbin]

Just something else to consider,,i have a sony camcorder which has three or four degrees of night vision with IR illumination and is very effective so view and film as necessary,,nature at its best !

joe

[Andy R]

AIUI as a private individual you cannot legally own 3rd(?) generation night vision equipment in the UK, the sort the police use. The greatest you can get is 2nd gen 'Enhanced'. These are ferociously expensive though.

Take a look at

Rgds

Andy R

[Andy Dingley]

Why not ?

Blunkett hasn't started identity cards for telescopes _just_ yet !

[Gareth]

I haven't heard of that law, and know people with the current US military sets (PVS-12 I think, the older ones are the PVS-7).

What *is* required is an export licence if you want to export from the US, although I don't think you would have a problem getting one for shipping to the UK.

Gareth

[in2minds]

"Find one with a suitable mount at the back end, and a suitable camera. Still rare, although they are around." [..]

Sony sell a digital camera (Cybershot F717) with IR and semi IR capability. in IR mode it takes pics in IR resolution, in semi IR you look at the subject in IR but take pictures in normal resolution with the flash. I'll take some pics tonight and post them.

Les

[Chris Street]

Rubbish, you most certainly can own it! It may be illegal to export from the USA under ITAR or the munitions regulations but there's nowt wrong with importing it. Besides which the French will sell very good tubes to almost anyone!

[Huge]

[34 lines snipped]

Really? Why?

[Rick Hughes]

Decide whether you want IR detection optics or light amplifiction i.e. nightsight type.

The Nightsights are better and 3rd generation optics are good - but very expensive. On all light intensifictaion scopes work by amplification of existing light ... starscope, nightsite etc. .... green inmages full of sparklies, but OK for fun. But they do not work in real darkness as there is nothing to amplify ... and as it gets darker the level of sparklies (noise) increases.

Sudden bright light cause a white out and optics take a while to recover.

IR devices work by heatdifferences, the better ones use liquid gas (helium or simialr) to super coll the detector - often a very high speed revolving mirror (several thousand rpm) Image is very good, but high battery drain. But they will work in total darkness.

Rick

[Scott]

[Andy Mabbett]

In message <6xxZFBQ7lFl$ [e-mail]>, Andy Mabbett [e-mail]> writes

Should be "from 199 to 175"!

[Andy Mabbett]

In message [e-mail], tarquinlinbin [e-mail] writes

What model is that, and how old is it, please?

[tarquinlinbin]

Without looking i think the model no is sony trv110e. It is a digital

8 camcorder and was a new model perhaps 3 or 4 years ago so should be available used at a good price now.

joe

[RJ Webb]

Why thank you....

Now please leave this group to us prats and pollute somewhere else. I'm off hunting/shooting/fishing/deep ocean puffin molesting.

Richard Webb