Thread: Nightvision scopes

Originally Posted by ARdave

lots of great info. thanks guys. will give you call you next week tasbay

Not a Problem Dave . Im sure we will find you something. Can even get you a D-760 like Spanners (2 week delivery) though with a Photonis Tube, Legal (probably Unlike Spanners), Warranty and if you want parts no problem.... (unlike Spanners). Spanners D-760 has the ITT Pinnical Tube but it still has a Russian Housing. Its very much a trade off and having used a fair bit of U.S Gen3 I have come to the conclusion that for the extra bit of view if you are not in a life or death situation. The Risk of imprisonment, lack of warranty and the fact if it goes Kaput you can`t get it fixed just isnt worth the Hassel. That said I won`t touch anything with a Ex Eastern block Tube, their housings and optics are ok though and a lot of the stuff sold in the U.S even Gen3 has Russian housings and also in many cases Tubes though in general not the Gen3 as the Russian tubes are more expensive then the U.S ones and not as good.
Talk soon Darrin

I am currently looking at NV and I read that the D-760 has problems holding zero and has plastic internals, see link below
I also read you need to be careful of the cartridge choice as they were only designed to handle the NATO 5.56 and can break,
the article are from a year ago, any idea to how much truth there is to this?

Night Vision and Technology Forums

Cheers

Originally Posted by Tasbay

Not a Problem Dave . Im sure we will find you something. Can even get you a D-760 like Spanners (2 week delivery) though with a Photonis Tube, Legal (probably Unlike Spanners), Warranty and if you want parts no problem.... (unlike Spanners). Spanners D-760 has the ITT Pinnical Tube but it still has a Russian Housing. Its very much a trade off and having used a fair bit of U.S Gen3 I have come to the conclusion that for the extra bit of view if you are not in a life or death situation. The Risk of imprisonment, lack of warranty and the fact if it goes Kaput you can`t get it fixed just isnt worth the Hassel. That said I won`t touch anything with a Ex Eastern block Tube, their housings and optics are ok though and a lot of the stuff sold in the U.S even Gen3 has Russian housings and also in many cases Tubes though in general not the Gen3 as the Russian tubes are more expensive then the U.S ones and not as good.
Talk soon Darrin

If you;'re looking for a bite, I'll give you one
You know nothing about where/what and how I have got my nightvision gear.
All my gear was imported 100% legally to NZ, though possibly out of warranty now, I have no problems getting parts if required.
You obviously have no other level to stoop to to try and justify selling your over priced and well under speced gear.
The fact that you state your Gen 2+ is almost as good as Gen3 Omni3 confirms the quality of it.
If you think for 1 minute that theres not much difference between OMNI3 and 6 then you obviously havnt used any quality equipment before.
Photonis tubes prob have the worst rep out there HA!

BTW, if you want to sell commercially here, you can pay for an advert and a section like everyone else does.

Originally Posted by Spanners

BTW, if you want to sell commercially here, you can pay for an advert and a section like everyone else does.

Fair call Spanners

Originally Posted by DAF

I am currently looking at NV and I read that the D-760 has problems holding zero and has plastic internals, see link below
I also read you need to be careful of the cartridge choice as they were only designed to handle the NATO 5.56 and can break,
the article are from a year ago, any idea to how much truth there is to this?

Night Vision and Technology Forums

Cheers

I'd personally take that thread with a grain of salt.
There has been a ongoing feud between a couple of NV retails for YEARS - one side is constantly at the other trying to discredit, the other side keeps out of it.
There are a couple of guys in that thread whicj are shitstirrers in the NV world - Pandamonia one - banned from basically every NV forum LOL

In regards to the D740/760, there are a number of housings used - all Russian. (I'd guess that 90%+ of NV housings on the market are Russian)
A number of similar scopes exist with different names, however they are not the same.
Without going through all my reference, Dedal made a couple and I cant remember the other company that make similar, but its not the same housing, you can see they are visually different.
The Dedal housing is better in regards to strength, however a little heavier, in
The housing I have is the 2nd or 3rd Generation (wrong word I know - maybe version is better?) of that style.
It has the front support band on it, as a couple housings had cracked when they had been fallen heavily upon.
The issues have been long sorted as far as my knowledge does - there are 1000s of them being sold by TNVC in the US, and other than that thread above, I think you'd be hard pressed to find much/anything negative about them.

Recoil resistance is tube specific thing based on halo/bloom.
Smaller the halo the closer the parts inside the tube are.
Nice for viewing when artificial lights are around, but recoil can cause them to crash together resulting in damage and blackspots
My 760 has a smaller than desirable Halo for recoil due to high tube specs. Will it ever go on my 338 - prob not.. 308 yip.
The minimum G force values are specified in OMNI contracts, however the tube can be at the min, or waaaay past it and there is no way of telling, other than photographing the halo and measuring it from the image.

See the REALLY bad photos below for an idea on halo and what it looks like.
The area is pretty bright so the gain is turned right down, but it gives you an idea on halo, but makes the tubes look like crap
I'm going to setup the iPhone 4 adaptors on the NV and take some good pics at some stage.

Spanners, No sorry I was not looking for a bite. What you have there is a hell of a nice unit and with the Pinnical probably one of the nicest scopes around. I was just trying to explain ( Could have done better) that sometimes you need to weigh up the pros and cons. Yours is Legal ( not many Gen3 in NZ will be), You can get parts, you have it made but unfortunatly Most here in NZ who want something are kind of stuck for choice and generaly anything Gen3 or Military comes with Back up problems. You seem to have overcome that.
I have moved quite a few D-740 scopes and apart from 1 Zero hold has never been a issue. Appears the front lens in the one that caused a issue was in fact just slightly loose but not enought that it was picked up on.

Hey Spanners, that view of the Z station on Quay Street puts you in the Waldorf Apartments! What else are you lookin' at around there under cover of darkness....!!

Ray.

Not Waldorf, but close
Last week here

Notice there is a ITT hand held monocular on TM at the moment in U.S Gen3. If it has the original tube it will be Gen3. Cannot say I have used one but did have The Gen2 140? Model here for repair from a SAR team. Got it up and running. Was like looking through a snow storm the Signal - Noise was that bad so I don`t know what the Gen3 version would be like. Bloke is starting at $500 , probably worth a punt.

Tasbay, the model is a 150 so that makes it Gen2. Is $500 still a good price?

Originally Posted by kokako

Tasbay, the model is a 150 so that makes it Gen2. Is $500 still a good price?

Hi kokako, yep you are right. The 160 was the gen3 unit. So the one I fixed up was the 150. I don`t remember the g3 stamped on the side though. Mind you it was a few years ago now. They were imported by a Woman running a business called Night Vision New Zealand.

Bugger me I just remembered I have a catalog from her & found it!!. Its down as the Night Enforcer (scary stuff) 150 & 160.
160 is Gen3 and 150 is Gen2 U.S

Blurb: Generation2 . the NE 150 incorperates an easy to ues Ergonomic design with rugged construction. This product is offered with a high - quality,low cost Gen2 intensifier tube and has min of 36 lp/mm resolution.

SAR- search and rescue had a bulk deal in about 2000 ( going by Catalog date) and they paid about $4800 per unit. I remember they were shit against what I had back then and I had words with the local SAR head about it. He said they only had a short time to decide and went with it without talking to me, Hmmm that figures.

Now to your question do I think its worth $500. They had a bad reputation for breaking down and the ITT tubes were not that good. ITT still hasn`t the best reputation for U.S tubes but that comes down to who you talk to. I had a nice Gen3 ITT tube for a while till it died with about 100 hours on the clock,3rd set of batteries and not a nice feeling knowing you couldn`t replace it. The 150`s picture was crap in the 2 units I have used and they had plastic lenses from memory. You don`t get much in the way of NV for $500, though I did sell a PVS-7a U.S gen2 a few months ago for $750 so yes I geuss its worth that. Looks in good outside condition. Just don`t get on my back if its a shitter OK!!

Let me know how you get on with it.

Thanks for the info, I think I will give it a miss.

Thanks

Craig

Originally Posted by kokako

Thanks for the info, I think I will give it a miss.

Thanks

Craig

Fair enough. Anyone selling a Gen2 unit as a Gen3 Just beggs a very big question mark in my books. There was one of these 150 units that sold and resold a couple of times in short succession on TM about a year or so ago.... Could be the same one and it was sold as Gen3.

Originally Posted by R93

M
Very dare I say..... political.

That's how we ended up with the Steyrs................. wasn't our first choice that's for sure.

Originally Posted by Bulltahr

That's how we ended up with the Steyrs................. wasn't our first choice that's for sure.

Dont I know it. The A2 won the trial hands down. Plus all the parts were in stock. Training didnt need changing for operators or armourers. The A2 would have been a cost effective venture and upgrading would be easy.

Oz had a factory in Lithgow so away we went. But we still used/use Austrian parts.