Folks ask about these a lot. Figured I'd start a thread with info about them, video and pics and answer some common questions.
Here is video from a night with little moon from a PVS14 "standard" grade, 3rd generation Pinnacle autogated unit.
One thing to keep in mind-
I don't live in suburbia or anywhere near a city- that means their is VERY LITTLE ambient light in this area in contrast to an urban or suburban area where their is a lot of "city glow" at night. Out here it's mainly just the stars and the occasional house light in the far distance as seen in the video. To even film this inside a house wouldn't be overly realistic as things like ghost loads from LED readouts on clocks, DVD players, even the little green light on your GFI outlets really puts out a LOT of light when viewed through a night vision device.
I wanted the video to show as much as possible average "SHTF" type conditions, I.e, electrical grid is down and their isn't a lot of ambient light.
I'll try to remember to take another video of a full moonlight night and a night with no moon. You all know how I am with computers and video cameras, this one took a couple "takes" as it was.
The other thing to remember is I did not use a camera coupler type device. Reason- I don't have one. Their IS items like that available if your goal is to use it with a camera. That's not my main goal ;) I basically mashed the camera lens up to the rubber eyeguard on the PVS14. This makes for some odd shots at times during the video as the eyeguard is SUPPOSED TO BE FLEXIBLE, so when I failed to couple it together well, part of the eyeguard obscured the view in the camera. Sorry, I never claimed to be Spielberg :)
The nice thing about these units is how they have come down in price so much the last couple years. 5 or 6 years ago wholesale cost on these was considerably higher than what we can sell them for now! In other words, it's a good time to buy. Will prices go lower? Hard to say but probably not in the short term. Also, I've found that often times if you try to sell a product like this too cheap, some things assume it's junk. And their is a whole plethora of dealers wanting to stick to their old $1200 a unit PROFIT margin on these that have to convince you that if you don't pay $3800. for the same unit purchased from them, that you are getting ripped off.
More to come...
Here is video from a night with little moon from a PVS14 "standard" grade, 3rd generation Pinnacle autogated unit.
One thing to keep in mind-
I don't live in suburbia or anywhere near a city- that means their is VERY LITTLE ambient light in this area in contrast to an urban or suburban area where their is a lot of "city glow" at night. Out here it's mainly just the stars and the occasional house light in the far distance as seen in the video. To even film this inside a house wouldn't be overly realistic as things like ghost loads from LED readouts on clocks, DVD players, even the little green light on your GFI outlets really puts out a LOT of light when viewed through a night vision device.
I wanted the video to show as much as possible average "SHTF" type conditions, I.e, electrical grid is down and their isn't a lot of ambient light.
I'll try to remember to take another video of a full moonlight night and a night with no moon. You all know how I am with computers and video cameras, this one took a couple "takes" as it was.
The other thing to remember is I did not use a camera coupler type device. Reason- I don't have one. Their IS items like that available if your goal is to use it with a camera. That's not my main goal ;) I basically mashed the camera lens up to the rubber eyeguard on the PVS14. This makes for some odd shots at times during the video as the eyeguard is SUPPOSED TO BE FLEXIBLE, so when I failed to couple it together well, part of the eyeguard obscured the view in the camera. Sorry, I never claimed to be Spielberg :)
The nice thing about these units is how they have come down in price so much the last couple years. 5 or 6 years ago wholesale cost on these was considerably higher than what we can sell them for now! In other words, it's a good time to buy. Will prices go lower? Hard to say but probably not in the short term. Also, I've found that often times if you try to sell a product like this too cheap, some things assume it's junk. And their is a whole plethora of dealers wanting to stick to their old $1200 a unit PROFIT margin on these that have to convince you that if you don't pay $3800. for the same unit purchased from them, that you are getting ripped off.
More to come...
Comment