Planning to buy night vision. Need some advice

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AirgunNiels

AirgunNiels

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Nov 17, 2016
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I am looking to buy a night vision optic but i can't decide between the photon or a nitesite viper. I am only going to use it at a maximum range of 25 to 30 meters. The viper is twice as expensive as the photon were i live. Are there any other reasons to choose one over the other? I would like to hear what you guys think.

,Niels
 
Hi Niels, I don't know about the viper but I do have a photon. I have had I lot of fun with this scope!
I shoot mainly rabbits and use it on an impact. I use QD mounts and can easily swap between it and my
day scope and they seem to hold zero well. 
At the ranges you want to shoot you'll have no problem. I use mine out past 50m. 
Since I've had mine I've discovered through uk night vision forum how to change the lens. 
They call it the photon extreme. Basically removing the original lens buying an adaptor
and using camera lens to vastly improve image quality and also range if need be. 
To do this is not to expensive as the lens are great quality but older and not in great demand. 
Anyway if your interested check out uk night vision forum. There is a ton of info there. 

The other cool cool add on is a small wifi camera transmitter I plug directly into the Photon. 
This transmits the image seen by the shooter to an iPhone. It's great if you shoot with a mate 
as then the none shooter can see what's going on and record it if need be. 
It's intented use was as back up camera but easily converted. If your interested I can give you detail
on how. Again not expensive. 
Proably a lot more nonsense then you needed to know!
michael
 
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I've not used the Photon, but I do have the NiteSite Wolf (next step up from the Viper) and love it.

Benefit of any of the NiteSite units is that you can use them with any air rifle/firearm that has a scope and you don't need to swap scopes and zero again. This can be a huge advantage if you have limited time to prepare (such as seeing a skunk grubbing in the yard or a rat raiding the chicken feed) as installation takes less than 60 seconds and you're ready to go.

On the downside of the NiteSite units is that you have to shoot from a heads up position. This also means you'll need some sort of support in most cases, especially if you have to adjust parallax for the shot. It can take a bit to get used to this, but once you have everything figured out it becomes second nature. I've some videos on my YouTube channel concerning the NiteSite. Search for "Wildlife Control Training Company" and you'll see one called Yard Invaders that deals with raccoon and skunks along with a Play List just for the NiteSite.
 
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The stock unit is not great in the day time. To control the amount of light that reaches the sensitive 
camera Yukons solution was to put the lens cap on. The cap has a small cardboard cutout with a hole
in it. You swap this out in differing sizes depending on how bright it is.... If you fit the camera lens it's 
a viable daytime scope as the lens then has an Iris to adjust for different light conditions. 
I only really use it this way if I've been shooting pre dawn into daylight. Although the picture remains
good you lose the advantage of having the IR reflect the quarry's eye. Much hard to see them
in black and white!
The wifi unit is available on eBay. I glued a 9v battery cradle on it for power and the camera input
goes into photons output. You download an app call Alvin and sync your phones wifi to the wifi from 
camera. I'll post a link soon as I have time.
Michael
 
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first pic is mine. impact with TR38 light ,mini HDMI cam with DVR from stunt cams. the mount is from sure with small mods to fit camera. The other impact is my hunting buddy he has a rear view monitor with Roland's gen one setup.With TR 50. It is a bit heaver and no recording but still avery nice setup.There are a lot of options out there. Depending on if you plan on moving around sitting in one place. My thoughts were lighter the better. good luck 

PS mine is not complete getting 6 inch mini HDMI and an hood with a 3x magnification
 
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"Gumby31"

The first pic is mine. impact with TR38 light ,mini HDMI cam with DVR from stunt cams. the mount is from sure with small mods to fit camera. The other impact is my hunting buddy he has a rear view monitor with Roland's gen one setup.With TR 50. It is a bit heaver and no recording but still avery nice setup.There are a lot of options out there. Depending on if you plan on moving around sitting in one place. My thoughts were lighter the better. good luck 

PS mine is not complete getting 6 inch mini HDMI and an hood with a 3x magnification
Click to expand...
Nice impact and nice bar you have there! I think that a set up like that works better on a gun with a pistol grip. What is your experience with shooting in a upright position with a screen like that?

,Niels
 
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"WCT_Editor"I've not used the Photon, but I do have the NiteSite Wolf (next step up from the Viper) and love it.

Benefit of any of the NiteSite units is that you can use them with any air rifle/firearm that has a scope and you don't need to swap scopes and zero again. This can be a huge advantage if you have limited time to prepare (such as seeing a skunk grubbing in the yard or a rat raiding the chicken feed) as installation takes less than 60 seconds and you're ready to go.

On the downside of the NiteSite units is that you have to shoot from a heads up position. This also means you'll need some sort of support in most cases, especially if you have to adjust parallax for the shot. It can take a bit to get used to this, but once you have everything figured out it becomes second nature. I've some videos on my YouTube channel concerning the NiteSite. Search for "Wildlife Control Training Company" and you'll see one called Yard Invaders that deals with raccoon and skunks along with a Play List just for the NiteSite.
Click to expand...
Thank. I will watch your videos when I have some more time.
How is the image quality on the nitesites? Doesn't the screen on top create a lot of light that comes back in to your face that may scare animals away?

,Niels
 
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"AirSupply"http://m.ebay.com.au/itm/Wifi-FPV-Wireless-P2P-Car-Reverse-Video-Camera-Transmitter-for-Iphone-Android-SH-/361874725454?hash=item54416a1a4e%3Ag%3An9YAAOSwZAtXI%7EvH&_trkparms=pageci%253A2f140296-f48f-11e6-8d54-74dbd1806af7%257Cparentrq%253A48d5b29415a0a5e2820aa243fff55622%257Ciid%253A14

This is the unit. Many there the same. Just an example. I'll post a pick of how I set mine up on the gun 
when I get a moment.
Click to expand...
That is actually a lott cheaper than I thought it would be. The photon comes in two magnification options. I think im going for the 6X. Which version do you have?
,Niels
 
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imagejpeg
imagejpeg

Great looking set up Gumby31. Would like to try an add on set up just for comparison. 
Niels my Photon is the 6x but I now have a Takumar 55mm (x6)lens and a 105mm (10x)
Photo is of how I organise wifi transmitter. 
imagejpeg

This is the Photon with the 55mm lens. Standard lens in the back ground. 
If you do get the Photon I would recommend the energizer ultimate lithium batterys. 
They are the only ones that have really last a decent amount of time. 
Also the scope has very little eye relief as in you'll want to mount it as far back on your mounts 
as possible. 
If you really only hunt out to 30-40 metres I think you'll be happy with standard x6 model. 
If you decide you want more range out past 50m you will need more ir and maybe want more
magnification. 
 
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You can control the amount of light in two ways. First involves how bright you have the IR set. This is controlled by a knob on top of the unit. Second, are "dimmer" screens you can put over the display. Personally, I've never had an issue with the animals being spooked by the light, but I can see where this may be a concern. If I'm filming, I always have the unit brighter than if I was just shooting to giving higher image quality. Otherwise, I generally turn it up just far enough where I can see the crosshairs clearly (which is also why I recommend an illuminated reticle when possible).

As for the image, it is based entirely on the quality of the scope you're using. 
 
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Hi neils
The 6.5 photon is the best
Out there for the money!!
The 6.5 i use on all.cals upto and including 300 win mag,you can fit a a yukon 1.7doubler lens which takes it up to around 11.3 mag, the flip up lens cover that comes with the photon ,just press the cntre of the cap out where the pin hole is (yes it just pushes out)
And it sharpens the picture one hell of a lot acting like an iris,you may have read ab the photon extremes where they fit a camera lense,but a lot of people wont tell you if theres any play at all in the camera lense it will shoot all.over the place when you make an adjustment!!
Nv uk.is a great site..look up.cluve ward he supplies the 6.5 with a doubler at very good price,the later photons have a lock ring glued in to stop you fitting a doubler,clive removes these
Hope this helps if you need any.more info drop me a pm
Rgds steve
 
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The upright shooting is almost natural with mine. It is light weight the screen is small and compact and just far enough away you can focus your eyes on it with out the hood. The hood makes all the difference it makes seam like you are just looking through a scope.(just a little higher) when the hood is on no light to speak of comes out to light your face up.so spooking is a non factor. it all works off a cell phone battery about 2 hours run time so i carry a backup battery in pocket. i got my build off youtube MR ChuckHunter. His video is long and drawn out but so detailed it is worth the watch. I also am the kind of guy that loves projects and diy. I do realize not everyone is that way.
 
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I wouldn't be totally opposed to someone trying this thermal imaging smartphone set-up:

https://inteliscopes.com/

It looks like an interesting set of products but I'd just feel better if we tried it with your money first :)

I kinda like the idea of using the screen on my smartphone. I have the Samsung Galaxy with an OLED display and OLED is pretty much the best display technology currently in existence. There is just always the fear that a smartphone scope might be...um... you know... not very good n stuff. 

Has anyone here heard of this product and / or used it for thermal vision night hunting?

 
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 Cool video.
I think I will be keeping mine. I have a lot less than $500 in mine and it does have some cons about it. But a person size object at 100 foot? Good luck shooting a field mouse at 65 yd or a skunk at 75 yd. (Well actually haven't shot my field mouse. But I do see him most nights.) My point is you are limited by what your scope and your IR light can see together. (Of course how far your gun will shoot accurately.) So with that said, my scope is a cheap center point 3-9 X 32 X 1 inch tube, for night hunting it is good. At night you need the wide field of view just for searching around. The IR light is more important than the scope. Mine came from ludicrous-lumens TR-38 and was less than 30 bucks and you can see anything inside 100 yd easily. ( I could see a lot further. The light will allow it. The scope not so much. (Remember, I said it is cheap.) On my buddy's hawk SW 8-32x 50? guessing. You can see out 150-175 yds way further than we can shoot accurately with my gun. The best part about it in the day time is just take it off. (2 sec) Got multiple guns, just mount it on the scope no need to zero. (almost any scope) Mounting the light is the challenge on multiple guns, but camera is no problem. If you want a day cam, get a second cam $130, swap it out (it is just an HDMI plug in) now you are shooting day. So you can do day/night for still less than $550 or just night lass than $350
Cost of the essentials (estimate) $315.00
HD cam/DVR $ 200.00
16 mm lens $ 7.00
10 mm s mount extension $5.00 
sure mount $28.00 cam holder $45.00
TR 38 30.00

Cost of extras (estimate)) $207 
extra cam day 130.00
16 mm lens 7.00
10 mm s mount extension $5.00
hood 3x zoom $55.00
6 inch HDMI $10.00
 
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I should give props where they are do. The concept of my build is from the fasteddie post in camera/video record equipment a couple of months ago. So thank you to him for starting me on a fun journey. I would link his post but don't know how. I don't think MR ChuckHunter is on here. His videos are powder burners. But a big THANK YOU to both of them. I just took both ideas and made something that works for me. I think I mentioned I LOVE projects!!!!
 
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You guys have got me thinking about this in an "I'm about to make an impulse purchase" kind of way.


I guess the type of set-up you need will depend on where you live (to some extent). The place where I want to night hunt has heavy tree coverage so being able to find anything to shoot is more of an issue to me than being able to shoot at long distance. 

I want to be able to find those rabbits when they run off into the bushes. The problem is that pretty much all quality thermal imaging scopes are too expensive to be worth it for me. 

Apparetnly the thermal imaging cameras that connect to smart phones come in two models - the regular for around $170 and the pro models for double that price. I believe the difference is the distance you can see. The one I read about said you could see animals 200 feet away (with the pro) and 100 feet with the cheap one. 

200 feet is probably fine for a backyard or for walking through the woods but not if you live somewhere where hunting is about long range in wide open spaces. 

The question for me is I try to make a thermal imaging scope from my phone or just use it to find prey and then use a night vision scope as well.

There is also that Leupold thermal monocular that is going for $650 on eBay. Leupold claims it can see 600 yards. If only it was an actual scope too...
 
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