17 replies to this topic

[chownsy]

Just got an email from Aldi,

there thursdayspecial buys include this




Link

[Christina]

Just got an email from Aldi,

there thursdayspecial buys include this




Link

anyone know if these are any good, i heard they were selling them a while back ago as well?
Just so happens to be my bday thursday

[Rob15]

Shame its a Gen 1

With that big IR illuminator you'll be lit up like a christmas tree if anyone on the other team/s has NVG as well.

[xerxes]

Short of dropping a few thousand on a decent passive set, ye olde Mk.I Eyeball is still your best bet...

[chownsy]

anyone know if these are any good, i heard they were selling them a while back ago as well?
Just so happens to be my bday thursday

happy bday for thurs.



thought the iluminators can be turned off and just use the ambient light to feed the nvg

[Christina]

happy bday for thurs.



thought the iluminators can be turned off and just use the ambient light to feed the nvg

thanks for bday tidings .. im gonna be 25 ..christ how im starting to feel old!

There no way you can mod it then?
ah well I was planning on getting at least gen1 + my little boy wants the COD night vision, would i be right in thinking this would be no different i.e a gen 1?

Edited by Christina, 28 September 2009 - 06:16 PM.

[Danke]

I have one. It works OK on passive and is surpisingly great on batteries. If you check the NVG picutures thread you'll see it on a P90 (previous owner had a base installed on it. When you switch on the active you can see the big red light on the sharp end for quite a distance with the naked eye.

Terrible eye relief, can't use it with googles.

[johnc2k]

Sod that, Im liking the look of the Ladies’ Technical Thermal Underwear

[Stealthbomber]

ah well I was planning on getting at least gen1 + my little boy wants the COD night vision, would i be right in thinking this would be no different i.e a gen 1?

For the love of god, why won't people listen?

These are, at least, a proper NV device.

The "toy" goggles consist of an LCD eyepiece and a tiny camera lit by a ring of IR LEDs.
The work, sort of, but they're not proper NV.

Also, to anybody considering using these for airsofting purposes, bear in mind that they have 3x magnification which is going to make them a bit odd for anything other than as a rifle-scope.

[Christina]

Sod that, Im liking the look of the Ladies’ Technical Thermal Underwear

Me to actually ...but im almost certain for different reasons?!? lol!!

For the love of god, why won't people listen?

These are, at least, a proper NV device.

The "toy" goggles consist of an LCD eyepiece and a tiny camera lit by a ring of IR LEDs.
The work, sort of, but they're not proper NV.

Also, to anybody considering using these for airsofting purposes, bear in mind that they have 3x magnification which is going to make them a bit odd for anything other than as a rifle-scope.

Ah Ok, thanks, I havent looked into it much and tbh I would rather spend the money on getting him something half decent for xmas then the prestige edition with the plastic dummy head. The game will suffice

[Stag]

Yup, you don't need to use the illuminator. Granted you can't see as far as with it switched on, but it's still better than nothing when ambient light is very low, ie. anything other than a full moon.

[Gorf]

Can you vary the illuminator's power? A mate of mine has something similar, and due to the flaring it's useless for looking at anyone closer than 20 feet. On his, the illuminator is just on/off.

[greg]

Just got an email from Aldi,

there thursdayspecial buys include this

looks very similar (same spec) to a Yukon NVMT2, which normally retails around £190, so excellent VFM.

However, as with all Gen 1's this should be treated as a novelty item.

Not really that useful in a skirmish.


Greg.

[Danke]

On mine the only way to vary the illuminator is to to put a finger in front of it and choke off some IR light.

[dog green 1]

Wife pointed these out to me the other day. Not interested in using them for airsoft but i was worried how good they actually are. The Father-in-law has a big place in the French country side and always though it would be great fun to have a look about in the dark. Are these perfectly acceptable for spotting wildlife and things in the dead of night????

Makes me sound like some kind of nocturnal bird watcher Which I'm not

[ryn1523]

I have one with the headset and I have to admit that it works pretty well. I am old enough that I have used both Gen1 and Gen2 US military stuff and this works way better than those did. I am sure with modern electronics and better optics the Gen1 is alot more formidable. We have used this in several night games and it has performed well!

[fal]

Nothing wrong with GEN 1. Price reflects obviously. You get what you pay for. GEN 2 and up is much nicer, but costs much more.
I bet most people bashing GEN 1 NVG never really had used it for extensive perod of time. Probably wear it once or few times then na, this ain't no good. We use GEN 3+ at work (military) and they are freaking awesome. But costs *suitcase* lot more.

Think about it. In military you get trained to navigate at night even in pitch black without any aid from sophisticated optics such as NVG. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty managable. Put even GEN 1 in this equation, it's freaking awesome.

GEN 1 NVGs are fine. They are good enough for average joe. And perfectly fine for airsoft. I use it for hunting and night navigation and they have done well for me.

It really depends on what you are after. Becaus they are cheap, I don't care I don't have to baby them and use it where I have to use it, rather than scared of damaging it.

If this is anythnig like Yukon one, do NOT get it. light amplication is fine, optics are not. Look into ATN GEN 1 variety. Much better.

If you are going to do any pro security work as a civvy then sure you want to best you can get. But for weekend blasting? na, GEN 1 is fine. It just takes learning curve.

Forgot to add, but GEN 1 is fine for CQB training also. (or skirmish if you like)

Edited by fal, 30 September 2009 - 11:07 AM.

[Jin15]

Quality looks questionable to me. No brand name listed, and with Gen. 1 you really gotta be careful about the manufacturer you buy from. Some will have excellent quality tubes and optics, others will be total rubbish and you'll be better off just using your eyes adjusted to the dark.

If the tube and optics turn out to be good quality than it's quite a good deal for casual fun night time observation, but if the tube is poor quality and/or the optics aren't well made it could be a waste of 99 quid. Either way there's no way to rail or helmet mount it unless you rig up some really clever mounting system so I'm not sure exactly how practical it would be for airsofting.

Personally, if you want NV for airsofting and are on budget that won't allow you to spend $/£1,000 I'd recommend a Yukon NVRS-F Internal Focus 2.5x50 Gen. 1 dedicated rifle scope. Great bit of kit for parking it in dark and watching for OpFor movement. Not so great on nights with very little moonlight or lots of cloud cover (unless you flip on the IR illuminator, which can give away your position due to the dark red glow from it), but with just a little bit of moonlight they perform plenty well at airsoft ranges without the need for active IR illumination.
The biggest reason I recommend the "NVRS-F" model over other Gen 1 NV scopes is because it has a front lens focus adjustment knob that lets you focus anywhere from 3 feet away to as far as the eye can see. I've never seen another Gen. 1 rifle scope that had this feature and it really lets you get a clear picture through the scope when the image would be blurred and distorted through other Gen. 1 devices.
Also comes with a 3 year warranty, is available in both the US and UK readily, has modern good quality tubes with no fish eye and high resolution, can be fitted with a thin sheet of ANSI Z.87 rated clear plastic inside the front lens cap to protect it from BB hits, and can be used during the daytime with the front lens cap down since the lens cap has a little pinhole in it to let just a tiny amount of light in. Although your point of aim might change by a few MOA during the daytime depending on the exact angle the light enters the pinhole in the lens cover.

But hey, that's just my recommendation. I've got Dipol Gen. 2 now and it does have much better gain but the resolution is actually not quite as good as the Gen. 1 NVRS-F. So I've still got a real soft spot for that NVRS-F scope


Anyway, for those wondering what to expect from quality (I repeat, quality) made Gen. 1 or Gen. 2 here's a little picture comparison made by cj7hawk on the night vision forums...




Edit : On a side note, I did want to mention that IMHO head mounting Gen. 1 is just too much of a pain in the buttocks to be useful. Due to the nature of Gen. 1 you have to refocus it when viewing things at different ranges, and trying to do that on the fly with the device head mounted is generally more trouble than it's worth. Head mounting is fine for Gen. 2 or 3, but for Gen. 1 I'd say go with a dedicated rifle scope and then just hunker down in one spot to observe and and aim when you want to use your NV. Keep a torch handy for navigation and use the NV for static position observation and shooting.

Edited by Jin15, 30 September 2009 - 08:14 PM.