Night Vision A few PVS 14 questions

[Downtown]

Does a reflex sight such as a Aimpoint burn a dot on the tube quickly, even on NV settings? Does a holographic sight differ? Does a tube age, even with no use? If so, what's the shelf life? Thanks.

 

[WhereNow&How]

Yes, any light source point that stays constantly in one place on your PVS 14 while turned on long enough will likely burn a permanent black spot in your tube. You can get by using an reflex sight on its NV settings for very short periods of time if you are very careful, but that is risky business. You can also burn a tube when it is turned off if you leave it in an area where light is concentrated strong enough via a windshield or other situation that will concentrate light into a focused stronger energy. Kind of like taking a magnifying glass and burning ants. It is always best to keep the front lens cap on when not in use and take something like Velcro and cover over the Pin Hole in the lens cap. That ensures that no light can come in via the pin hole when not being used.

Tubes age when used, but if properly used and not over exposed to a lot of ambient light have a very long useful life of better than 10,000 hours. They do slightly degrade in performance over the time used but it is usually slow and not noticeable to the user.

Not 100% skilled enough in this statement, but their is probably some type of seals/bonding inside a tube that if improperly stored in excessively hot or cold environments may be be effected that may degrade the life of the tube.

All in all they are pretty tough units if used properly. Don't over expose to light sources, don't drop it, turn off when not in use, use good quality lithium batteries, and take the batteries out when not being used.

 

[Downtown]

Thank you. You've answered my questions perfectly. This will be my first NV, so I've a lot to learn. I hadn't thought of damage turned off, so that's a great tip.