Raymarine night vision, users?

[TJ D]

Hi Forum,

We just noticed that the price on the cheapo raymarine night vision monocular has come down enough for us to consider getting one.

Has anybody used one in the real world? Is it worth $600? I think that if it worked well, it would add a lot of confidence to night time approaches, but only if it works well...

I'd appreciate some thoughts.

TJ

[UNCIVILIZED]

What unit specifically are you looking at? What gen? Links?

[TJ D]

Well, it's the Raymarine Ocean Scout TK, 482GBP. Most of them are closer to 2 grand, and that's more than I'm willing to pay, but the cheapie, if it works, would be in the budget.

TJ

[crabcake]

User Review here

[TJ D]

I've seen the Amazon reviews, but they're not really useful, all over the map and not really from sailors.

I was hoping for a person or two who's used one of these low-cost ones in a sailing environment.

Thanks, though.

TJ

[Dirk Williams]

Flir, units are IR, not night vision. Huge difference. That unit suggested is bottom of the barrel. Not real effective.

NODs, are very practical. Ive use mine on my boat often at night. A decent set of pvs14s is going to run you 3400.00 autogyrated high end units.

probably pick up a set of pvs 7 for,2500.00 those are the two into one units. Old school, but practical,for boat work.

TNVC.com is where I shop. Have a look.,

Dirk

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Dirk Williams

Flir, units are IR, not night vision. Huge difference. That unit suggested is bottom of the barrel. Not real effective.

Correction:
IR units are one type of "night vision" technology. They have different attributes than the other common "night vision" technology: "image intensification".

Whether a particular unit is "effective" depends on your intended use.

How exactly does TJ D plan to use it?

[seamountie]

Its a differance in which part of infared you are looking at. Most light amplification systems see into the near infrared, as do a lot of cameras. FLIR detects far infrared, or heat. Light amplification sees reflected light, and can only be used in low light, lest you damage the amplification electronics. FLIR can be used any time. You could use it on a bright windy day to spot a MOB. But far infrared is blocked by normal glass & plexi, so you can't use it through you windshield, but NV (light amplification Night Vision) can be used through glass.

I am certain you veterans can correct any tech errors, but thats the differance in a nutshell.

[Sidney777]

Used to call em different Generation. Russian ones were the cheapest. Try pawn shop
Cash America pawn(I think) has a 30day return

[Dirk Williams]

I can live with that " another kind" of night vision. What IR does is show heat trace.

I was involved in the recent past in T&E on high end IR sniper rifle scopes. We launched roughly 200/400 rounds at targets out to 700y. What we learned is simply this.

The IR technology is impressive. Theirs and up side and a down side. I was involved In Summer time, night time shooting. Long story short the scopes tested were stand along version which sat on a pictinny in front of the existing mounted optics.

These IR units were used on suppressed rifles and non suppressed rifles. The day time temps were 80 ish and, waited until 21:00 24:00 to shoot.

We discovered that EVERYTHING had a heat signature , the road, the sand, the trees and the rocks. Everything. We couple view out to our scopes ranges clearly. Was very impressive.

What learned that seeing wasn't the problem but interpreting exactly what we were seeing was difficult. An example would be 800y across the range we could clearly see everything, make out the trees, the roads, an old shoot house, rocks.

What we were not able to define a man standing still. The mans heat blended into the surrounding items basically heat on heat.

We tried this at 500 then 400 then 300 then 250. We could finally see movement at roughly 250 y. However we could only see the movement, and not able to,determine if it was human, or an animal.

at 200y, and in. we could clearly see our test subjects movement, his physical description. Was clearly that of a man at those shorter distances. If the man stopped movement, he was again lost in all the other heat signatures.

The consensuous of us shooters was , that the IR scope was not practical for summer night shooting. Everything was a blend of heat signature. I suppose one could be taught to interpret the different colors of red and be effective.

However I think on water, and in the winter the outcome would have been favorable different.

Another series of test,I was involved in was with Night vision using a PVS-22 and then a PVS-27 night scope was entirely different. Again these NODS site on a pictinny rail in front of the rifles existing scope, often with a rubber boot connecting the objective end of the scope" big end" to the sighting side of the NODs.

Long story short, we could consistently observer, and engage steel ar 500 targets to roughly 700y. We could not see actual impact, however we could hear the bullet impact the steel.

A pvs 22 nod gen III can be purchased here in the US, for roughly 2500.oo and a pvs 27, gen III in the 3000.00 range.

Now to a more practical nod unit. The pvs 14 is what you see our troops using. They can be used over one eye, or can be paired and used with both eyes.

I happen to own 4 pvs14 gen IIIs, and a couple sets of older pvs -7s, I, guessing gen II, again their the two into one lense set up. I have used this kind of nod for at least 15 years, almost nightly while at work.

I have used pvs14s fairly often on my sailboat. They gather existing light to amplify. Are green when looking thru and are quiet effective out to roughly 1000 y, for seeing movement, and determining if it's human or animal.

These pvs 14s are mounted on rifles aft of your optic, I use red dot sights, and mount the nod, on a QD device behind the T-1.

Simple quick. At sea, one can mount the nods device to a " catchers mask" style set up, or into a helmet using a J arm, actually the mask uses a J arm as well.

the 14s are more expensive, as their a super lite, super easy nod and high quality units. All my pvs 14s have a second IR switch that illuminates better in say a house or room when entering.

If I were advising you, I,would suggest not wasting your money on Russian garbage. Anything US made and genII or better is pretty darned slick.

TNVC.com is a place for purchasing sourcing some of this high level gear. And lastly they won't sell to,you if your outside the us. Some sort of federal rules. There are alway ways around the rules.

Hope this helps.

Dirk

[TJ D]

Hi guys,

Good info. I know the military literally live and die by this stuff, so to the military guys, thanks.

Stu, to your question- I'm looking at something that's going to work mostly close-in. Think approaching a harbor at night, it's pretty much radar in, using the plotter as reference.

But, at some point, you sort of have to go to visual mode. It's for this last little bit of an approach that I see this thing coming into its own.

I'll probably take a look at some surplus stuff and see what's on offer. We have an address in the US, so we can ship there. I'll have to see if the Brits would give me any trouble flying in with it. l was recently out hunting vermin at night with a buddy in Texas, and his $400 IR scope was pretty good. If that thing would stand up to the elements, I would consider a hunter's model as well.

I guess the bottom line is that we probably wouldn't be asking terribly much of this device, so the low cost one if really the only reason my interest was triggered.

Thanks, TJ

[a64pilot]

Having flown many hours with both Goggles ( light intensification) and FLIR, unless you have serious money to spend, get a good searchlight.
You have no need to be covert, so why not light up the night?

[Sunsetrider]

I just got these binoculars for $429 at Amazon. I haven't had the opportunity to really try out the night vision, but in other respects they are pretty amazing - you can monitor day/night views on your ipad live, for example.

https://www.amazon.com/ATN-BinoX-Bin...s=atn+binox+hd

[Omega46]

What about Raymarine camera?

[Sidney777]

I traveled @3000 on 3 river trips in sailboat and the Fog, or just mist, fowls up seeing with search light. Also, blinding your forward vision when you are in stern of boat (sometimes). You sometimes get stuck motoring at night because you can't find a place to anchor,or anchor out of way of 200ft barges. Binoculars helped before it got too dark. --un believable darkness in remote areas. Would love night vision.