Night Vision Sionyx Opsin

I’d love it if it was but the lack of a binocular option leads me to believe it’s not an equal system quite yet.

Some interesting discussion on possible digital progress in the podcast below:

So… looks interesting, so I ordered one. Supposedly the same sensor Sionyx uses in their DoD IVAS project.

Looks promising, and way more advanced than their Aurora cameras.

latency

I just got one but it's my first NV, so I have nothing to compare it too.

I live on the outskirts on my town so there is still ambient lightning here so it looks great here.

I drove out to the hills where there is only moonlight-starlight and it looked pretty good there but I could only see so far into the woods, like maybe 40-50 yds. Seemed like it should have been brighter maybe to my limited experience.

From my almost 3 weeks of research and checking out videos of Gen 3 stuff both green and white phosphorus, I'm not sure it's near as good.
I think on a cloud covered night it might suck without IR, but maybe this is the case with most NOD's? Don't know.

Take this post with a grain of salt of course due to my newbie experience.

Not sure what I'm going to do. Going to play around with it for a few more days. Looks like it's going to be a cloudy night here on Sun. night so I may head for the woods and try it again.

Got it at OP so they will take it back and I will get something in Gen 3 white phos if need be.

Really hoping Horta will have some news for us here when he gets his, and maybe it's good and I was just expecting too much of any NV is this price range?

gxer said:

latency

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30/60/90 Hz settings is great.

What do they cost?

ETA: $2600 puts it close to thin filmed systems. I’m cheering for this tech because I want CIVTAK

Looks interesting as an entry level product. Tagging to follow.

Tag for interest, especially since it looks like we might get a no-bullshit review

Took it down in my basement last night with almost no ambient light. Enough that I had to use the IR.

Depth perception was really good with this. I was able to hang down there for a while and put away some tools, and step over allot of shit on the floor without tripping on any of it.

Now the bad.

This thing has quite a bit of lag that I didn't notice the other night for some reason. Maybe because I was being more carful due to this being my first time with NV? I was moving much slower with it compared to normal movement.

The quicker you paned right to left, up and down, the more worse the lag got.

It does recover very quickly but it is kind of distracting.

I did mess with the diopter some more, and the focus, but it didn't make it any worse or better. I even played with the exposure to see it that would clear up the lag but to no avail there either.

I worked around the basement for about 20 minutes, and was able to work through the lag, but I'm not sure I want to deal with this in the long run.

I did some sprints in the back yard while stopping quick to see how my eyes would handle the lag coming back into focus. Like I said it does come back quick, and maybe I could get used to it, but do I want to?

I guess for me this is not as much a review as it is me just learning here, but I hope I can help in some small way if there are others thinking about purchasing one of these.

ETA: Being that this is my first NV experience I have to say even aside from some of the small disappointments I'm finding, this is really MOTHER EFFIN COOL!!!!!

I also have this posted on arf.com.
There are a couple of members over there too that are far more experienced then me who will be getting the Ospin to check it out, so waiting to see their reaction when they get theirs too.

Did you have it set on 30Hz refresh? The website says it has 60Hz and 90Hz modes too which should help the lag.

Looking forward to hearing more! From what you say it sounds like similar performance to a Photonis tube

rlsmith1 said:

Did you have it set on 30Hz refresh? The website says it has 60Hz and 90Hz modes too which should help the lag.

Looking forward to hearing more! From what you say it sounds like similar performance to a Photonis tube

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90 had the least amount of lag.

It's not that bad, and does recover quick, and as soon as you stop on something it refocuses. The more and more I play around with it the less distracting it seems, if this makes sense?

It really is nice to be able to use it during the day, especially to zero in an IR laser and not have to wait to get out to some place where you can shoot at night without having SWAT called on you Also for a newbie idiot like me there is lesser of a chance of degrading a tube due to newbie mistakes.

Under no ambient light or very little with this thing you will definitely need IR illum. I wonder if this is the case with Gen 3 also?

I mean when you have no or very minimal ambient light all you will see is just barely the outline of objects close to you but mostly static like a black and white TV set on no channel. Hope I am making sense here?

gbaby125 said:

90 had the least amount of lag.

It's not that bad, and does recover quick, and as soon as you stop on something it refocuses. The more and more I play around with it the less distracting it seems, if this makes sense?

It really is nice to be able to use it during the day, especially to zero in an IR laser and not have to wait to get out to some place where you can shoot at night without having SWAT called on you Also for a newbie idiot like me there is lesser of a chance of degrading a tube due to newbie mistakes.

Under no ambient light or very little with this thing you will definitely need IR illum. I wonder if this is the case with Gen 3 also?

I mean when you have no or very minimal ambient light all you will see is just barely the outline of objects close to you but mostly static like a black and white TV set on no channel. Hope I am making sense here?

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Interesting 90 still had lag but I guess gaming computers run upwards of 200fps and I'm sure there's a reason for that.

I've got some Elbit thin filmed tubes and the only time I need extra illumination is if I'm in a room with no windows and the door is shut. Even then the light leaking in under the door helps quite a bit. Now anything at distance (a couple hundred yards) is different when it is cloudy and no moon. An unfilmed system would undoubtably be better in the extra dark scenarios. There is a thread somewhere that compares the photonis tubes to an unfilmed and the photonis appear to be a darker image but still useable

FPS 30 in the dark still has the worst of lag. 90 is still the best setting all around in dark and light.

Forgot to add the there is no auto setting for NUC. Just on and off.

I got a couple of pics from my attic which is sealed tight as a drum so with the door shut there is no light coming from anywhere.

Here they are in order of----

1st pic = door closed all the way with brightness all the way up.

2nd pic = door opened just a crack about 3/4 or less. brightness all the way up

3rd pic = door opened about 5-6"

4th pic = door closed all the way with Inforce IR light on, and FPS setting at 30

5th pic = door closed all the way with IR on, and FPS setting at 90. IR light is pointed at the floor ( notice the faint dark lines are gone here)

6th pic = door closed all the way with IR on, and FPS setting at 90 IR is pointed straight ahead as if you had it mounted.

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Sounds like they are “good for walking around but not good enough for fighting” at this point when compared to real I2, but it’s still a huge step forward for digital NV.

Will be a boon for night / dark event photography, since it records without needing a separate camera.

It didn't dawn on me that these pics I'm posting aren't doing the Opsin justice. It doesn't take too great of a picture so the pics I'm posting are quite a bit worse than actually looking threw the Opsin.

I'm going to try and play with the settings in the future to see if I can get it to take better pics.

I have to find it again but I think I remember Sionyx saying these will not be taking great photos because they are geared more towards being night vision.

Looks like it's exceeding what I'd hoped for...

Looks pretty impressive. Tough to determine the degree of lag on the videos

I looked through one last night. Very disappointing. Sure it's better than the aurora, but not anywhere near the value of a pvs-14. Along with the crappy mount that it comes with, and the terrible placement of the external battery pack plug that blocks adjustment of the mount.
I was also surprised to see that it's about the size of a pvs-14. I was hoping that they could make it smaller/shorter with digital technology and not needing to bend light and all that. But it reminds me of one of those $100 amazon digital pvs14s that really suck

I might be interested if they were under a grand. But I don't see any reason to buy this over a pvs14,

Definitely interesting

I still need to make a post sometime about using my Aurora Sport BEHIND a day optic and using a Luna Elir3.

Nope, I don't have a $15k clip on....but damn for the money for hunting coyotes 4 months a year....can't be beat.

I tested for zero shift with just day optic and with Sionyx Aurora on....no shift at all.

I fully realize I can't even begin to compare any serious/legit clip on.

Let me put it this way, I had 100% PID on a whitetail deer at 400 yards while getting used to the setup. There was no confusing it vs a coyote or some other 4 legged animal.

If this tech keeps on going......who knows....maybe one day it will be great.

Another thing to note, analog NV always looks worse on video vs in person. This is due to some fancy technical camera stuff that I don't fully remember, but it has always been my experience as well. In contrast, digital NV will typically look better on video than in person, because it records directly from the sensor and is being displayed on your screen.

So take any youtube comparison video with a huge block of salt. As they cannot accurately make a comparison due to technical reasons. Every comparison will be heavily biased to the digital unit.

Any updates/reviews from those who grabbed one? @TheHorta

This popped into my email (found it when looking for something else in my spam email folder), and the images look unbelievable. Also looks very cheaply made, but if it delivers those images, who cares? Methinks it’s too good to be true at this price point…at least based on the video here: https://shop.tacticalshit.com/sionyx-opsin-ultra-low-light-color-monocular?utm_source=Mailer-TS-AMMO-AM&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:124389855&utm_campaign=bmz (Duplicate #6)

I have the Opsin, and if I could do it again ,for the price, I would save up a few more bucks and get a PVS-14.

I don't think it's worth the money that they are charging for it.


Don't get me wrong, it's definitely much better than the Aurora, and definitely better than GEN 1, and about even with some Gen 2s, not 2+ though.


Like one poster said above, where the battery plugs in to the unit, it blocks you from getting any more adjustments left or right from the mount. I bought a pretty decent Wilcox knockoff for it and I had to dremel a section out so I could move it more left to line up with my eye.


I also don't like that you are slaved to a battery tethered to the unit. At least with the PVS 14s you could remove it from your mount and use it as a monocular without having to unweave the battery pack and cord from your helmet.


I will say that it does work pretty awesome as long as there is some kind of ambient light around you, i.e. starlight, moonlight, light coming through the cracks in your house etc. because if it doesn't have that, you will definitely need IR lighting.


There is also a bit of lag when panning back and forth, even at 90 FPS. It gathers the most light at 30 FPS but the lag on that setting is kind of nauseating.


I will say one nice feature is that you don't have to worry about any tube degrading over time, and you can zero your IR laser during the day with it.


For the price of this thing though, you could buy a used GEN 3 or 3+. I think they only give you a one or two year warranty on the opsin-anyway.

Oh.... a kid at work keeps talking about these. (not in a good way)

He's been saying Sionyx, and I've been hearing / thinking Sionics (of suppressor fame).
Which has confused the shit out of me.
I guess that means I'm old now.