Night Vision Digital - The Future of NV?
- Thread starter BootyLord
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For Zero magnification of a projected image comparison, Digital might be slowly catching . But when magnifying the viewed projected image ( for example a Clip-on ) when you magnify your image viewed, 2X, 4X, 6x, to get a shot on extended range with smaller target . When will Digital ever look as good as a Analog screen image ???
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Let me just start by saying I don’t know shit about night vision. You make an interesting point though. Would a digital clip on even be functional? I imagine it would be a lot like filming a video on your phone and then placing your scope behind the phone and zooming in, it just wouldn’t work right?
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Digital pixel would have to be pretty small. 'to even start' to compete with analog when you trying to magnify the image .
( I only owned 2 NV clip-on ) . no Therm. clip-on . but Thermal is digital on it's projection of viewed image . What I been told and read is that you can not even come close to competing with NV clip-on with Therm. clip-on when magnifying it's image .
a Therm. Clip-on unit and digital display just gets really grainy with even little magnification like even bumping up to 4x and 6x . NV you can bump magnification 8X 12x and higher with your scope looking at it .
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That video was a great post. I,m thinking that digital has a major resolution advantage and its a matter of using image chips that are materially larger than intesifier tubes and then some more image processing. I'd like to learn more about the power requirements of the two approaches as the video clearly indicates that analog uses way less powet.
Hear and read more !!!
The UTCx uses tiny screen trick. Your screen is not filled until you crank 4x on your day scope.
When you crank 2x on a thermal clipon that fills your screen on 1x (like the olde Apollo I used to have) then yes, you lose half your resolution on both verticle and horizonal axis. That is 75% of your pixels/resolution. Going to 4x is another 75% or net 94%. And that's about the limit of usable ... 4x for a 640.
BUT, when using the tiny screen trick, you don't loose the 75% (on the utcx which fills screen at 4x) until you get to 8x and you don't get to 94% until 16x ... so 4x on most low end thermal clipons is equivalent to 16x on the utCx.
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Here is another attempt.
In this pic, we have an IR-PATROL being used as a clipon. To replicate the "tiny screen" trick, we demagnify on the back with a USGI 3x magnifier. On the front we magnify with a 3x germanium magnifier. The display does not fill screen until 3x and so is usable up to 12x. (6x is 75% loss 12x is 94% loss).
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Thermal is digital, so it is relevant.
And I would say for my purposes, no NV clipon I've tried can come close to competing with thermal clipon ... for seeing critters and seeing a long way ... and I've had ATN PS-22, Armsight CO-LR, two of the refurb PVS-30 (fom 1609 and fom 1804) and tried a friends PVS-22 and now have a SIMRAD 253.
Cattle on top of the ridge are over 3,000yds ... right around 3,300 yds ... I have not seen any NV that could show those cows and this was in overcast, light mist conditions ... and of course thru the lens pics suck .. especially with my phone cam and me shooting it ...
One night, in the rain, at 500yds, with the UTC, I could see one of my cows ears while she munched on a bale, the ear was flopping around .. this was in the rain thru a tree line. NV could not see thru the tree line.
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Now all that said, none of the cheap, sub $1000 digital NVs I've looked thru could compete with "real" NV ... mostly due to extreme need for illumination. The images are reasonably clear. I have a couple of bushy equinox and with a T-20 illuminator, I can easily see deer at 200yds on very dark night and at 500yds on moon night.
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Digital night vision is here, it is just not in the private sector. The F-35 is using it in its helmets, as are some NATO countries for specific applications. A company called Intevac in California owns the technology and has been developing it for years. Lack of US government funding and typical military development delays are the reason the troops don't have it now. They have actually developed and deployed a long range imaging system that can see miles. It has been deployed by border patrol and the Navy to a small extent.
I am not an expert in night vision, but I happen to be a technology analyst that has been following this company for years.
I am not an expert in night vision, but I happen to be a technology analyst that has been following this company for years.
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