Hi guys! Here I am with the news from the detective world!!! As I promised! I had always known the difference between the digital night vision and the traditional one but over and over again I fall into the same trap. the whole last week I spent spying on a client's business partner to detect if he had any contacts with their competitors. I detected no betrayal but the thing is not about it.. every night I had to change batteries 1 or sometimes 2 times.. which never happened when I used traditional nv. waiting for comments!!!!
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Back from the spy mission!
- Thread starter Lurking
- Start date
ScottRiqui
New member
The big issue is that digital night vision systems are "active infrared" - they have near-infrared illuminators on them to light up the scene, so they're probably not going to have great battery life in general.
Traditional NV can work using just the ambient infrared lighting, and the phosphor screen doesn't require power, so the only battery drain is the current to the cathode plates.
Traditional NV can work using just the ambient infrared lighting, and the phosphor screen doesn't require power, so the only battery drain is the current to the cathode plates.
What I know is probably years out of date, but when I was in the Navy, the head-mounted "traditional" NV goggles that we used would last several nights on one battery charge and, with just the ambient light of the Persian Gulf night (which, admittedly, was not even close to pitch dark) did an outstanding job of detecting all sorts of trash in the water.
Never did see a Boghammer or a terrorist, though.
Never did see a Boghammer or a terrorist, though.
ScottRiqui
New member
I just saw the poll - I'd have to say "it depends". Digital NV can save you some money, but you're only going to get Gen 2 performance, at best.
The biggest advantage to digital, in my opinion, is how easy it is to record the feed from a digital NV device, if that's important to you.
As you've already noticed, the battery life for digital isn't as good, because you have to constantly power the illuminator and the silicon sensor.
Lastly, the fact that digital NV device use an illuminator means that it's essentially a beacon to anyone else with a NV device (or even a digital camera or camcorder).
The biggest advantage to digital, in my opinion, is how easy it is to record the feed from a digital NV device, if that's important to you.
As you've already noticed, the battery life for digital isn't as good, because you have to constantly power the illuminator and the silicon sensor.
Lastly, the fact that digital NV device use an illuminator means that it's essentially a beacon to anyone else with a NV device (or even a digital camera or camcorder).