Selecting a night vision tube

Darknight

Darknight

Member
As I wait to see how these new thermals perform I had a few questions about gen 3 night vision. What's the difference between gen 3 & 3p?
How is Pinnacle different than Alpha or L3 or any other tube?
I see some sellers offer a spec sheet. What should I look for or what are good numbers on a spec sheet? High LPM? Low LPM?
I'm shooting a 204 ruger at coyote & likely with 6x dedicated scope if I decide against thermal.
 
Itt, I believe it is harris now makes the pinnacle tubes.Its their thin film tubes. I believe they have some now called everest, its probaly white phospher. L3 offers the omega filmless tubes which normally have very high specs. Most new tubes come with a data card that list tube specs. the FOM or figure of merit is the SNR x LP/MM. The signal to noise or snr represents the tubes low light capibility. The lp/mm is the tubes resolution. I would consider good numbers snr 28+ and lp/mm 64+.Theres been alot of tubes coming out lately with 30+ snr and 72 lp/mm specs. The new photonis intens 4g are also impressive and have capibilities that the harris and l3 tubes dont have, for now. Im sure both companies have new projects underway.
 
As Kyle mentioned (good synopsis)L3 tubes with their White Phosphor filmless tubes we get come in nowadays with Signal to Noise of 34 and higher. One of the batches has S/N from 37-39 with 82 Line Pair Resolution. The L3 tubes we offer are full mil-spec and come with L3 factory data sheets as well.

While the 4G stuff is impressive, it still does not perform well vs. filmless in in extreme low light. And at 1K more than filmless WPT, we struggle with the extra $$ unless high light and out of band criteria's are needed.
 
Thanks Gents! I never knew what to be looking for on the spec sheets and what's good/bad/indifferent on those sheets. So when looking at the Gladius vs the Magnus for example, what is the difference? Aren't both of them L3 tubes but one has higher light transmission?

Appreciate the assistance.
 
Originally Posted By: DarknightThanks Gents! I never knew what to be looking for on the spec sheets and what's good/bad/indifferent on those sheets. So when looking at the Gladius vs the Magnus for example, what is the difference? Aren't both of them L3 tubes but one has higher light transmission?

It's the quality of the lens. Better glass and different coatings transmit more light.
 
Good to know, I never knew if one tube (ie-L3) had a higher recoil rating than say, a Pinnacle tube. Also never knew what to analyze on the spec sheets so thanks for the input.
 
I am not one to dwell much on the spec sheets as generally most dealers want substantially increasing prices (some way too much) for higher SNRs especially. If you want to pay more for a tube, then I would concentrate more on the ones with less blemishes and good resolution across the entire tube face. Resolution is only measured on the spec sheet right down the center so be careful with this spec. Ask the dealer before you purchase if the resolution carries throughout the tube face to the edges. Also, SNR is only a measurement of the capability of the tube's performance in poor ambient light conditions. Once you start introducing more ambient light or IR into the equation, the lower SNR will perform the same as the higher SNR tube. Finally, it is really hard to tell the difference in side by side comparisons of high SNR tubes versus low SNR tubes. The difference in performance in real life situations is hard to distinguish. I've had customers come and pick out their PVS-14 only to find that they selected the one with the lowest SNR stats. Most customers tend to focus more on blemishes and resolution which are the most important specs to concentrate on IMO if you are using them for hunting predators and hogs. Kevin
 
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