For the last few weeks I have had the pleasure of being able to use a PVS-30 (UNS-LR) that was built with a white phosphor INTENS 4G tube, in a very rural and dark area that is just down the road from Yellowstone. Needless to say, there is zero light pollution in the area. I have been able to use this PVS-30 on my SPR build as well as my .308 MWS with a 20” barrel on several different range sessions. Both rifles have Leupold MK6’s mounted on them with non-illuminated TREMOR2 reticules. This PVS-30 was ordered through I2Technoliges a while back and like all good NV it left a smoking hole on my credit card for a while, but now that it’s paid for and in use.
Other night vision experience, the good old PVS-14’s, many hours; ANVIS many hundreds of hours on ANVIS built with the F9800YG tubes; and quite a few hours on my ANVIS with F9800 SLGDT tubes that have amazing performance in ultra-dark conditions. With weapon sights I have a few range trips with a PVS-22 and many range trips with a good old Raptor 4X.
With the PVS-22 the image was useable at 10X in all lighting conditions, but it was getting a bit grainy on all but full moon nights. The Raptor was well a Raptor, every time that it was in use I had to rezero my rifle when I would take it off or put it on, while very functional it was also a royal pain to be continuously rezeroing, it also was only a fixed 4X. While 4X is a good utility magnification, it’s just that, only good. Technology has really bypassed a fixed 4X night optic, CNVD have come down in price (some what) and availability of CNVD has improved a great deal over the years.
This CNVD has some impressive specs for a clip on. Luminance of +12290, 69 lp/mm, 29.6:1 s:n
The INTENS PVS-30, it is in the standard UNS-LR housing, which has the focus out there in front of the on/off/gain knob, I have longer arms so this is just a small stretch for me and nothing more. I am able to adjust the focus without breaking cheek weld. The knurling on the focus knob is pronounced and there are a few pins added in for a bit of added antislip feel. The focus know turns with some resistance but this also prevents accidental adjustment. Truth be told, once the focus is dialed in, you are good to go. It doesn’t matter if you are at 200M or you have wondered back to 1000M the focus is locked in. Heck even at 10-12 KM looking at mountains, the image is still crisp and clear. I have found that if I’m mounting the PVS-30 on the same rifle at the same position, the focus needs minimal to no additional adjustment. Adjusting the gain or turning the optic off is also very easy. The objective lenses cover is easy to pull up off the optic and equally easy to replace.
I have been able to get out in overcast ¼ moon (as it was setting) conditions, with the moon setting behind my target, this is not the best NV conditions, it just sucks. A little bit on how dark it is in this little bowl, there is a road that per Google Earth is 7.2 miles over and while on goggles you can frequently see the lights shining on the top of the cliffs that form the bowl. It is just very dark in this location, would be kind of nice to have a light meter to get a good quantifiable reading on just how dark it really is. No moon and in the open is better conditions as there are fewer shadows, IMHO. My targets were deep in the shadow of a 400 Ft tall cliff which is my back stop at this location, but even with these difficult conditions, I was still able to resolve the targets (10”x20” steel painted black) without little difficulty out to 1000M and using 14X magnification. The view of a mountain to my north east on this evening was very crisp and clear, distance to the face of the mountain was about 6 miles.
Another night with ½ moon, mostly cloudy with scattered snow, shooting at the same location, I was again able to get out and had a better night finding the targets, as the lighting was a whole lot better. Other than the occasional snow squall spotting targets out to 1000M was not an issue. Hitting the targets was a totally different issue as the wind was gusty 10-25 MPH and switching around over about a 100 deg arc. I was having a very difficult time hitting at 400M and gave up trying to hit anything after a few shots at 500M. Without some assistance spotting getting hits was a severe challenge for me with these wind conditions.
I have also been able to get out on a full moon night (98% illum) and mostly cloudy but W/O precipitation. This was an incredible night to be out with NV. Even back 1000M 10X20” targets were crystal clear at 14X and even up at 18X they were still clear with the beginnings of a grainy image beginning at this point. The conditions were so bright that I was able to turn the gain way down to the lower quarter of the gain and could have most likely could have gone down farther with the gain to provide additional improvement in the image. But it was late around 0100, and I was already tired from a bike ride earlier in the day and getting cold, trying this extra adjustment just did not occur to me at that time.
I still need the Z adapter to place the PVS-30 in front of my spotting scope, but this is something to try down the road. I also still need to give it a try on my .338LM.
Overall I’m very impressed PVS-30/ INTENS 4G tube. After a few times out shooting is that I am very impressed with the optics, image quality the tube provides is excellent, low light performance has been very good with less scintillation than other high end tubes. The zero shift (0.1 on my SPR and 0.0 Mils on my MWS) has been fully repeatable. I think that the 0.1 shift on the SPR is due to the flex in the KeyMod rail. With both rifles I have been able to produce >1” groups at night with the PVS-30/INTENS. This is the first white phosphor tube that I have been able to use, while the image is crisp and clear, I am going to need a few more nights looking at it before I can really make a solid call on the difference between green and white phosphor, right now they are just different images. If you are looking for a PVS-30, while the refurbished versions are very attractively priced, the INTENS 4G version has some amazing performance to it, if you are looking for a new PVS-30, talk to your vendor about the INTENS version! I’m looking forward to getting out in different locations and conditions with it as the year progresses. It also has me wondering if I want to put INTENS tubes into my goggles…….
Other night vision experience, the good old PVS-14’s, many hours; ANVIS many hundreds of hours on ANVIS built with the F9800YG tubes; and quite a few hours on my ANVIS with F9800 SLGDT tubes that have amazing performance in ultra-dark conditions. With weapon sights I have a few range trips with a PVS-22 and many range trips with a good old Raptor 4X.
With the PVS-22 the image was useable at 10X in all lighting conditions, but it was getting a bit grainy on all but full moon nights. The Raptor was well a Raptor, every time that it was in use I had to rezero my rifle when I would take it off or put it on, while very functional it was also a royal pain to be continuously rezeroing, it also was only a fixed 4X. While 4X is a good utility magnification, it’s just that, only good. Technology has really bypassed a fixed 4X night optic, CNVD have come down in price (some what) and availability of CNVD has improved a great deal over the years.
This CNVD has some impressive specs for a clip on. Luminance of +12290, 69 lp/mm, 29.6:1 s:n
The INTENS PVS-30, it is in the standard UNS-LR housing, which has the focus out there in front of the on/off/gain knob, I have longer arms so this is just a small stretch for me and nothing more. I am able to adjust the focus without breaking cheek weld. The knurling on the focus knob is pronounced and there are a few pins added in for a bit of added antislip feel. The focus know turns with some resistance but this also prevents accidental adjustment. Truth be told, once the focus is dialed in, you are good to go. It doesn’t matter if you are at 200M or you have wondered back to 1000M the focus is locked in. Heck even at 10-12 KM looking at mountains, the image is still crisp and clear. I have found that if I’m mounting the PVS-30 on the same rifle at the same position, the focus needs minimal to no additional adjustment. Adjusting the gain or turning the optic off is also very easy. The objective lenses cover is easy to pull up off the optic and equally easy to replace.
I have been able to get out in overcast ¼ moon (as it was setting) conditions, with the moon setting behind my target, this is not the best NV conditions, it just sucks. A little bit on how dark it is in this little bowl, there is a road that per Google Earth is 7.2 miles over and while on goggles you can frequently see the lights shining on the top of the cliffs that form the bowl. It is just very dark in this location, would be kind of nice to have a light meter to get a good quantifiable reading on just how dark it really is. No moon and in the open is better conditions as there are fewer shadows, IMHO. My targets were deep in the shadow of a 400 Ft tall cliff which is my back stop at this location, but even with these difficult conditions, I was still able to resolve the targets (10”x20” steel painted black) without little difficulty out to 1000M and using 14X magnification. The view of a mountain to my north east on this evening was very crisp and clear, distance to the face of the mountain was about 6 miles.
Another night with ½ moon, mostly cloudy with scattered snow, shooting at the same location, I was again able to get out and had a better night finding the targets, as the lighting was a whole lot better. Other than the occasional snow squall spotting targets out to 1000M was not an issue. Hitting the targets was a totally different issue as the wind was gusty 10-25 MPH and switching around over about a 100 deg arc. I was having a very difficult time hitting at 400M and gave up trying to hit anything after a few shots at 500M. Without some assistance spotting getting hits was a severe challenge for me with these wind conditions.
I have also been able to get out on a full moon night (98% illum) and mostly cloudy but W/O precipitation. This was an incredible night to be out with NV. Even back 1000M 10X20” targets were crystal clear at 14X and even up at 18X they were still clear with the beginnings of a grainy image beginning at this point. The conditions were so bright that I was able to turn the gain way down to the lower quarter of the gain and could have most likely could have gone down farther with the gain to provide additional improvement in the image. But it was late around 0100, and I was already tired from a bike ride earlier in the day and getting cold, trying this extra adjustment just did not occur to me at that time.
I still need the Z adapter to place the PVS-30 in front of my spotting scope, but this is something to try down the road. I also still need to give it a try on my .338LM.
Overall I’m very impressed PVS-30/ INTENS 4G tube. After a few times out shooting is that I am very impressed with the optics, image quality the tube provides is excellent, low light performance has been very good with less scintillation than other high end tubes. The zero shift (0.1 on my SPR and 0.0 Mils on my MWS) has been fully repeatable. I think that the 0.1 shift on the SPR is due to the flex in the KeyMod rail. With both rifles I have been able to produce >1” groups at night with the PVS-30/INTENS. This is the first white phosphor tube that I have been able to use, while the image is crisp and clear, I am going to need a few more nights looking at it before I can really make a solid call on the difference between green and white phosphor, right now they are just different images. If you are looking for a PVS-30, while the refurbished versions are very attractively priced, the INTENS 4G version has some amazing performance to it, if you are looking for a new PVS-30, talk to your vendor about the INTENS version! I’m looking forward to getting out in different locations and conditions with it as the year progresses. It also has me wondering if I want to put INTENS tubes into my goggles…….
