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Night Vision Night Vision in Europe - which of the following Photonis tubes should I choose?

actross

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Oct 17, 2017
4
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I’m from Europe and as you know I couldn’t buy good US IITs. So I want to buy a mini 14 with a Photonis tube. As I want to use the tube for many years (10+) it is important to me to buy a realy good tube. My dealer offered me the following tube types (XX3040GG/ XW3040B) which should be the best here available models of Photonis. I know the green tubes well but if the white phosphor tubes should be better they could be an alternative for me to the green ones.

My understanding is that the XW3040B tube is the white model of the green XX3040GG. Further my understanding is that both are 4G and intense tubes. Is it right? Are there some more differences?

Following the specs of the to me available tubes. Which tube should I choose and which green and which white model is the best?


XX3040GG

1. FOM 2000
S/N 30.9
65 lp/mm
output brightness 8.1
gain 18100
EBI 0.08
Image alignment 0.18

2. FOM 1900
S/N 29.4
65 lp/mm
output brightness 8.1
gain 18500
EBI 0.15
Image alignment 0.09

3. FOM 1860
S/N 28.6
65 lp/mm
output brightness 8.2
gain 18700
EBI 0.2
Image alignment 0.07


XW3040B

1. FOM 2040
S/N 31.4
65 lp/mm
output brightness 5.9
gain 12800
EBI 0.09
Image alignment 0.07

2. FOM 2030
S/N 29.4
69 lp/mm
output brightness 6.1
gain 12800
EBI 0.09
Image alignment 0.15








 
For the respective phosphor types, these two stand out from the others:


XX3040GG


1. FOM 2000
S/N 30.9
65 lp/mm
output brightness 8.1
gain 18100
EBI 0.08
Image alignment 0.18



XW3040B

1. FOM 2040
S/N 31.4
65 lp/mm
output brightness 5.9
gain 12800
EBI 0.09
Image alignment 0.07


 
@ compasscall: I really appreciate you taking the time to leave your feedback. Thank you very much. As I know your youtube videos and I saw your outstanding Intens tube your feedback is very helpful to me.

What do you think about the specs of the selected tubes? Are they good enough to be sure that I buy a tube on a high level?
Further for me it‘s not clear if the green and white tube have nearly the same performance because of the not comparable data. Do you think they are on the same level ? Which one of the two is the best choice for dark environment out in the field?

Many thanks
 
That's a tough call as both tubes are within 10 - 15% of the performance maximums.

If you plan on duals I strike out the XX3040GG as the image alignment is out the greatest and may pose problems when trying to collimate with another tube. On the other hand, image alignment aside that tube on paper is impressive so if your sticking with a single tube system, I'd say this would be the tube to pick out of the two.

The XW3040B would be the one to go with if your most often going to be using it in a urban environment. I much prefer Photonis white phosphor tubes for such environments but tend toward green tubes in rural environments.

Green for rural, White for urban that would be how I'd choose.

Lowlight performance is ever so slightly favors the XX3040GG.

 
Thank you very much compasscall.
Duals isn't the plan. I dream of one Mini-14 with a Photonis 4G tube.
My dealer just showed me one more white tube with great FOM:

XW3040 - FOM 2300
S/N 33,3
EBI 0,12
lp/mm 69
gain 10300
output brightness 5.9

Looks great but isn’'t the image to dark with a gain only at 10300? The other white have a gain of 12800. The green 18000. My friends told me that I will see no difference even in very low light condition. Are they right?
The specsheet shows that the gain of this type of XW3040 is lower with a band with from 8 to 12t compared to the above white tube (10 to 15t).
As my dealer is hours away a live test is unfortunately not possible to me.
 
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