Night Vision Future of night vision

[sulcop96]

I have used quite a bit of night vision over the years starting back in the 80's throughout my military and LE/SWAT time. In looking for less expensive alternatives for out team (typical LE shoe string budget) I looked over all the digital offerings. Now this is LE use and I have yet to run across an advisory with any NV capabilities so I did a bit of research but decided to continue on the NV road.

Today I ran across information on the new ATN day/night scope. Now I know no one really has seen one up close but in reviewing the features, GPS, wifi, video, ability to change night color scale from black/white to green and full color day image and having a variable scope on top of it seems very interesting. All this is shoved into a price point under $800 making digital considerably less then anything other then Gen 1 NV.

Now I still have no interest in this particular product, not about to trade my ATACR and trust this as my primary work optic, but thinking down the road will digital some day replace NV for some applications? Mostly the hunting, LE and general use applications not the military aspects. My understanding is a illuminator will almost always be necessary. But looking at the application and associated costs is this the future? Is there an ability to combine a high quality day scope with digital, and is there enough promise in digital that it will continue to evolve to the point where a day/night optic can be used at say 20x out to 3-400 yards?

Sully

 

[Delta4-3]

Digital is advancing very rapidly. 7 years ago I was in Sadr City with a high end digital device that had to have illuminators that required ridiculously bright visible illuminators. Now, I have a digital that pics up illuminators over 900nm.
5 years is my guess. That is when digital will be a serious competitor for I2 in a cost vs. performance aspect.

 

[Victor-TNVC]

I would agree Digi has come a looong way since the early SuperVision hype from years ago I reviewed. Back then this device was marketed to be the PVS-14 killer and the review I did sure upset a few share holders hoping their penny stock was going to make them very wealthy.

Since then, I agree the IR sensitivity improvements has really impressed me over the years.

IMHO, I feel top quality fusion hybrids will become more affordable and mainstream costs in the next 5 years (maybe sooner) to bridge the affordable best of both worlds of I2/Thermal.

Vic

 

[sulcop96]

Didn't even think about fusion hybrids.... Man the way science is working overtime I can see us all wearing "zoomies version 12" and getting rid of all this cumbersome goggle stuff.

Sully

 

[VTSEAL]

I think that a lot of the development funding and demand for product will come from other use cases beyond the hunting/fishing/tactical world. Last night I saw the first advertisement I had noticed in a fishing magazine for the FLIR Marine units as a companion to your sounder/chartplotter/radar setup on high end boats. Marine navigation is a perfect market for hybrids, in particular because of difficulty in navigation during fog and no ambient light scenarios. I won't be surprised to see the high end luxury vehicle market, and perhaps other transportation sectors looking for something similar (think bus, local rail, cargo loaders, mining equipment). With funding and demand coming from these types of buyers, I think we will see this type of equipment become more accessible and affordable to the consumer market.

 

[I^2 Technologies - Peter]

Didn't even think about fusion hybrids.... Man the way science is working overtime I can see us all wearing "zoomies version 12" and getting rid of all this cumbersome goggle stuff.

Sully

That's the dream! I think that we will look back and say "can you believe we used to wear that stuff?" Alas I am afraid it is going to be a while. Some form of a sensor that can do what night vision does is just not here yet. The reason that digital is being pursued is cost. An Image Intensifier is expensive and Space Shuttle parts difficult to build. If I2 wasnt Thousands of dollars no one would be looking at a cheaper alternative.