Re: night vision help and ????'s
LoL!... I don't really hate ATN at all. I just have a problem with the support they show their customers and the misleading advertising with faked images that they are reknown for using. I've spoken to too many of their victims to be a fan and it's only fair to say the housing is worth 20% of the weighting if you understand the tube and with ATN, they should know better but they mislead their customers a lot.
OK, yes I agree. Time to make sure the people on SH realize the truth about NV. It's not a bunch of boyscouts here out looking for wildlife. Some of these peope risk their lives and depend on their equipment. NV is life-support gear for the professional shooter in many cases and misunderstanding it is going to get people killed.
ATN have a poor reputation and unless you're just a backyard shooter and the integrity of your equipment doesn't matter, I'd stay away from them. The combination of poor quality control and lack of support for their victims is pretty devastating to those unfortunate enough to get caught out. I'm not saying that all of their equipment is junk or anything, because I've also heard from people who never had a problem. But as they say, Caveat Emptor.
Now, onto the harder stuff. Perhaps it's time to cycle a few articles though the 'Hide to provide a basis for understanding technology but for this post, I'm going to stick to the questions posed by the original poster and explain a few things.
First... In the context of Gen1/Digital vs Gen2 and Gen3. What is the real difference? First, it's possible to get digital and Gen1 that has higher MTF, S/N, Resolution etc than any Gen2 or Gen3. I personally have a Gen1 tube with a resolution well over 100 lp/mm... So why is there such a big gap between Gen1 and Gen2?
The answer is GAIN. Because for Night Vision at this level, this is the single most important feature to understand. NODs ( Night Observation Devices ) will take an image formed on the photocathode of the tube and create a brighter image on the screen of the tube. Now people who have used Gen1 and Digital together with Gen2 and Gen3 under truly dark conditions will understand this instinctively but those who use Gen1 under moonlight will not. The reason is because Gen1 devices have a tube gain that is typically aroung 300... So the amount of light that comes in is amplified 300 times before it comes out. There are some losses with the lenses and the system gain is lower than this, but that's how it works.
However Gen2 and Gen3 devices amplify this light around 30,000 times. That's right. Thirty Thousand times. That's 100x more amplification than a Gen1 tube can provide. Gen2 and Gen3 have special microchannel plates inside that amplify the signal substantially.
You see, back in the days of WW2, they had Night Vision. In fact, the US army were the first military to actively use it and it was devastatingly effective against the Japanese on Iwo Jima. But it had a few problems, like needing a set of IR lights that were so large, they were fixed to a truck.
They refer to that as Gen0, though that's a title it's been given more recently. Then later ( around the Korean war era ) they brought out Gen1, which was better, but only worked in bright moonlight. Without this it needed a VERY good illuminator. These two modes of operation are known as "Passive" and "Active". Active night vision has the illuminator and it's basically like an invisible torch. Passive means that it uses ambient light.
Now the US army did get clever. They always knew active ( or Gen0/1) night vision wasn't much good against an enemy with Night Vision because it was like holding up a big neon sign saying "I am an American soldier. Please shoot me."
So they put three Gen1 tubes together and created a cascade tube. These multipled the gain and with losses it was still pretty spectacular. Interesting fact - the best cascade tubes made by the british still outperform many early Gen3 devices... However these are VERY large and VERY heavy.
So they invented the Gen2 tube and Gen2 and Gen3 are pretty close for this argument, so I'll go into that in another article.
Anyway, the difference? Gen2/3 can see under ambient STARLIGHT... So when Gen1 goes completely dark, Gen2/3 can still see very very well. In fact, the Human Eye can see better than Gen1. That's right. On the nights that you can't use Gen1, you can still see better with your own unaided eyes. I can't tell you how frustrating this is if you've just purchased a brand new Gen1 and you discover you can see better without it on when there's not much moon around.
I'm also going to lump ALL CURRENT COMMERCIAL DIGITAL in with Gen1, because in testing, that's the sort of performance it gives gain-wise, which is pretty critical.
Now if you're a soldier, police officer, ranger, government employee or professional user of Night Vision, there's not much choice. It's Gen2/3 or nothing... But what if you're not?
Well, keep in mind that you can only see as far as your IR spotlight goes. So it's basically like shooting with a spotlight. You can't see what's past your shooting range, it's no use to you in SHTF scenarios ( because people can see IR spotlights ) and guess what? Animals can see it too. In the UK where the lack of Gen2 and Gen3 at reasonable prices makes Gen1 a must-have, they use extra IR and even have stuff like high powered IR lasers which US citizens are not permitted to own, import or buy. And they find that the animals eventually figure out the danger and can see the red dot of the illuminator. It's still more effective than spotlighting or lamping, but it's not perfect.
Also, the illuminators use a LOT of batteries, so if you're just going out shooting once in a while with a LOT of preparation, they are fine, but if you're on an extended trip or use it regularly, you're going to have a problem. Some people use illuminators with Gen2/3 as well, but remember they amplify light 100x more so they use just 1% of the power for the same illumination. And digital use even more batteries, so be prepared to put 8 new alkaline AA batteries in your digital every night and use it for less than an hour.
By comparison, modern Gen3 use 1 x AA battery and run continuously for 40 hours.
Now, I am not against Gen1 *or* Digital. Indeed, I still have them and still research them. However my experience with a Bushnell Stealthview, which works very well due to the VERY good illuminator built in, however even against a large fox, while I could spot it out to 150m and maybe a little further, it had to get into range at about 100m before I could indentify it. Maybe that would be further under a full moon, but I rarely go shooting under a full moon.
Furthermore, I want my equipment to work whatever night I need it, no just when I don't need it.
These are REALLY important considerations for anyone purchasing Gen1. Gen1 and Digital have their place, but in my opinion, it's not for the professional. People who have seen Gen2 and Gen1 together on a dark night will usually never touch Gen1 again. Night Vision should be useable at all times and needing an illuminator makes that problematic. Many Gen3 shooters don't use an illuminator because they don't need to, though it does make spotting eyeshine easier.
Also important is that you can't see past your spotlight, so the overshoot area being unseen is a big problem for me. I like to know exactly where I am when I am shooting and what is beyond my shooting area. Bullets travel way past 100m.
But no matter what, there's nothing you can do about the low gain of both Gen1 and Digital. Manufacturer ratings like "Detection Range" and "Recognition Range" are difficult for most people to understand and to be honest, have more to do with technical parameters of the system such as system resolution and MTF. They are no use for normal people to work out how far they can use their NV gear.
So I think it's really important to qualify what is going on. When those around here say "Gen1 sucks" they do so because they know from experience that most of the time it is not sufficient for most purposes under which you need night vision. They are not being bigotted - they are just demonstrating experience.
Peope will still buy Gen1 and Digital, but they will usually find it lets them down or doesn't work as they expected it to.
The truth is, serious night vision needs a budget of around $2000... Digital and Gen1 really is not a "cheap" way in because it doesn't do the job. It's like saying a cheap plastic hammer is sufficient if you can't afford a metal one.
Anyway, I think it's important for new purchasers to fully understand. I'll write up an article in the main forum on Gen1 vs Digital vs Gen2/3... Time to pull out the old images again and post them up
Regards
David.
