experienced advice on night vision

[tombogan03884]

Any body doing anything with expedients like trail cams, or wireless cameras ?
I know some of them have NV , don't know how they would be for surveillance.

[Rastus]

They all seem to have IR in them.  The ones that you can connect to are way expensive...$400 +.  I have a couple of Solion S90's cameras which are around $110 each which you can connect to whenever you want and also get an alarm if something nearby approaches.  The bonus for me is that they have a solar panel so you aren't changing batteries.  To get distance you'll need (~300 to 600 yards) to have a router that has antenna connections that screw in so that you can buy an wifi extender antenna for ~$35-$100 depending on what you get. 

[xsquidgator]

There's an inexpensive thing you can do that might help.  As said before, Gen I stuff needs some kind of illumination to be able to see.

If you're in a static position looking out with Gen I NV, you can set up your own illum.  "Illumination" means pretty much dim red lights.  Something as simple as a light with a bunch of red backup-light repair tape from AutoZone, over the light, will light the area up like daytime to Gen I NV.
The "illum" can be really really dim to the naked eye and still be very effective to the early NV.

As a science experiment thing, get some (less expensive) Gen I NV and walk around your neighborhood at night with it- you'll be able to see your neighbor's security cameras because most of them use IR or dim red light to light up the area in front of the camera.  When you look at a lot of home security cameras up close at night, they have some dim red LEDs lighting the area up so that the camera can see.
You can put the dim red lighting somewhere else than where you are, and see just fine.  For tactical purposes of course, don't be sitting at the same place where the illumination is coming from.

[xsquidgator]

Re wireless cameras- here's one setup that works ok and is budget friendly.
I bought this one (or very close to it)

https://www.amazon.com/HeimVision-HM241-Surveillance-Weatherproof-Monitoring/dp/B07RKJDK65/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1S4Z3NFZN1LLA&dchild=1&keywords=wireless+security+camera+system&qid=1600824224&sprefix=wireless+security%2Caps%2C641&sr=8-3

It uses red LEDs to light up the area in front of the camera.  To any kind of NV, even Gen I stuff, the dim red LEDs look like a floodlight at night.  To the naked eye though, you have to get within maybe 30 feet or so before you can see them, and then only if you're looking for it.  My neighbor has wired cameras that you can barely see this dim red light from, but put on some NV and it's like looking at a floodlight.

If you wanted to, you could use this $169 wireless camera system to detect IR illum.  The clunky part of it is that the camera viewing has to be done from a 12" LCD screen- the viewing screen puts out a lot of light on its own.  This camera system can "see" someone walking within about 40 feet or so of the camera, since it lights them up with the dim red LEDs.

[les snyder]

I posted the original question on the Equipped To Survive board and got this response from member Wiley Coyote

http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=297099#Post297099

[Sponsor]

[alfsauve]

~$3,000

[MartinWill1989]

I bought the low end FLIR monocular last year and haven't been too impressed.   I realize it's the low end and I just haven't had the situation where I could really test it.   It was just to play with and learn about NV. 

On the bright side, I just did a Optic Planet search and I think market must have 100 times more options now than a year ago.

Let us know what you decide and how it works out.

Thanks for warning. I was just about to buy a FLIR, but now I think it's better not to buy this, but to save more money and then buy a good quality night vision device.

[alfsauve]

Tom, nothing wrong with the brand.  I just got the very low-end monocular and it's just that.  Low end.

[Rastus]

Les, what did you end up with?

[Rastus]

endoacustica appears to be a bot.  If not, my apologies.  Just to bring the subject up my youngest son and I were talking about the proliferation of lasers and how with NV that laser on the battlefield will get you killed.  He mentioned that the Ukranians are using laser detector/alarms on the battlefield.  Does anyone here know anything about one of the detector/alarms? 

It seems like everyone and his brother has a IR laser these days.  I think it would be cool to be able to detect lasers with a purpose build device instead of putting time on the expensive NV intensifier tubes.