Custom Night Vision | Data Sheets and Intensifier Tube Specifications

There's a lot to learn about the science and math behind how night vision works. In this video Kevin explains some important factors regarding tube specs, as well as what the numbers mean and how they correlate on the data sheets provided, when you buy from Custom Night Vision.
www.customnightvision.com
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0:00 - Intro
0:26 - Overview
1:15 - Photocathode Sensitivity \ Gain
2:26 - Signal to Noise Ratio
3:15 - Equivalent Background Illumination
4:55 - Resolution
6:03 - Halo
6:59 - Outro

[@blrdgg6571]

This is great. I love playing around with your website and actually being able to see the tubes and their specs. If you're looking for video ideas, I'd love to see how you guys collimate tubes.

[@kevin11288]

We’re going to do that soon

[@PhotonisDefenseInc.]

EBI is the background noise of the image intensifier and comes from the thermal emission from the photocathode. The EBI adds noise speckles to the image. These noise speckles are only visible in the photon counting light-level range because a tube has high gain there. EBI is usually expressed in lux and can be compared to the photocathode illumination from the scene. It’s important because it’s one of the means to achieve a good SNR but it’s not a performance determining factor by itself. A tube with high photocathode sensitivity but a high noise factor in the rest of the tube may still have a poor signal to noise ratio. Thus consumers should not focus on EBI specifications as a stand-alone measure of tube performance.

[@33sosa85]

I can't believe this comment is being slept on. I learned more from this comment than 10 hours of nvgtubers blabbering

[@dbr2205]

Thanks for the detailed breakdown. I'm slowly making my way into night vision and this information helps me understand some of the terms alot better.

[@kevin11288]

You can always call and we can help make it easy.

[@EeZ3-808]

Great information! The LOST footage was genius! Aloha 🤙🏽

[@customnightvision]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@bluffcityquietpills]

How can this video still be under 1k views!? A lot of great info here

[@kevin11288]

I'm not sure man, I feel like the video titles may be hindering the "findability" of some of these videos.

[@operatorlxix5839]

I recognize the Lost scene! Damn that was long time abo

[@wherenowhow6037]

Excellent video that explains the technical details. Very well done.

[@CheekyMonkey1776]

Very informative… thanks!

[@1BXB]

I learned from this. Thanks.

[@clarenceclark8592]

What specs are good for low light rural operations where you must id things that are at farther distances vs urban where you have more background light to work with what’s the best specs for both situations

[@sargentga]

It's basically science

[@Jason-fg4jr]

Next day of I'll be using the builder ... I need to find my specs on the PVS-14 I have now ... the guys I bought it from were very helpful but nothing like ya'll are ... 100% buying my duals from ya'll... looking forward to doing business... stay safe frosty and free everyone... oh and

[@kevin11288]

Thank you!

[@wtfmrkratos]

So... Higher SNR Lower EBI =< 2.5 Higher LP which is the resolution Lower Halo Is that right? did I misunderstand any of that?

[@gregmcgonigal363]

I'm very slow getting in night vision and I currently have a single monocular. I'm planning converting to bino, hopefully in the near future. With today's tubes, how important is tube matching now? Would the data sheet help get me close to a "perfect" matched tube?

[@kevin11288]

Yes, having a data sheet to Mach is important.

[@mrgrump2534]

I run duel 14s (one 28 snr elbit thin filmed and one 32 snr filmless L3) I just crank the Manuel gain down just a tad on the filmless and the images merge perfect and it don’t bother me… also don’t buy into that bullshit that you have to send in your shit to get collimated, It’s literally simple, All you have to do is back off the lock ring on your PvS 14 ocular lenses and spin your eye piece (a about half a turn at most)and you’ll see the images come together. it’s laughable how easy it was, I also just collimated my single 14 before the second one to my un-aided eye so I did not get double vision and no one ever talks about that which is something I don’t even see how a machine would do because wouldn’t you need my eye to see what I’m seeing with my own eye? Maybe that last part sounds stupid, but it works for me. vendors just wanna get you to buy from them most the time which I can’t blame them for that’s what they’re in the business to do Basically what I was getting at is that your brain will utilize the more cleaner image on top, anyone who wants to try to say that’s wrong can just hop over on the Discord and see that there are many dudes that run one green and one white tube with unmatched specs with no problem… of course when I say unmatched, I mean not within 50 FOM like the vendors want you to be… I’ve seen and heard of in research setups closer to 300 FOM off like a 2000 ish FOM matched with a 2300 ish FOM tube work perfectly fine and SNR’s spread apart by almost 5 so anyone telling you otherwise is shilling or being a spec snob and or is probably just using their stuff for astronomy under magnification, which then absolutely will matter but for simple head mounted night vision that just doesn’t matter unless you get to the complete opposite ends of the spectrum with specs like 24 snr and 38 or some shit but even then your brain is still gonna try to merge the images especially if you properly collimate the tubes like I discussed earlier wich is more important and it’s also easier to do if you put the “cleaner image” on your dominant eye, which probably is common sense for most people At the end of the day its up to you and I only went this route to save money and I didn’t buy more at once and I like being able to have one for a friend or my brother on night walks and camping so it works out… I can’t really split up normal binos so I deal with the 24 ounces with a 1.5 pound counterweight, while helment is like right under 5 pounds without war pro

[@brandonschwertley2723]

I understand the difficulty in a human being able to discern the difference in two relatively similar units, however I do wonder at what level do user's start to notice degraded capability? I'm sure it's going to depend on what stat you are comparing and who's eye ball is looking though it. At some point though SNR, Resolution, EBI and Halo all have to be different enough to make a noticeable difference right? Otherwise why charge more for better tubes and why rank them so stringently to begin with. Do your staff have any personal input on this, like at what point are the stats different enough to readily tell you are looking through a worse unit.

[@wherenowhow6037]

By the time you get into such a dark environment to see the difference between a mediocre tube and a really high spec tube, all of the images even on the high spec tube have become so poor that you really need to turn on an IR Illuminator for any real PID. An IR Illuminator pretty much makes all tubes equal then.

[@kevin11288]

That would depend on the individual. There is no way for me to quantify that. Better tubes are better but if you don’t know what to look for or don’t have 10 units to compare side by side it would be difficult to illustrate. I tell people if the SNR is over 35 you’re only making marginal performance gains as that number increases. However the difference between 31 and 35 SNR is definitely noticeable. EBI is environment dependent, halo isn’t typically an issue on current tubes.. selecting a well rounded tube/ tubes is really the best course of action.

[@MrDustinclement]

I’m just here to argue. And boost the algorithm

[@Red5.0931]

the memes! lol i love them

[@shadyburnz12]

Awesome bro

[@user-nk8ww9ce9k]

Im all about those celestial bodies.

[@bthemedia]

Much higher SNR of education in this video than T-Rex part 1, though at 7:10 you basically make the same point that T-Rex 🦖 did.

[@kevin11288]

I have to throw that in there for the 5% of potential customers who will never actually break the threshold and buy because they are incapacitated by the data.

[@Jason-fg4jr]

Where ya'll located???

[@kevin11288]

Houston TX

[@dhdhdhhdhdhdhdbdbd4661]

Thank you. Waiting two Elbits bought on your super web site shipping to Ukraine(through US citizen) for hunting Russian invaders. Thank you. 🇺🇦🇺🇸🏴‍☠️🤝 It’s a pity of different restriction between our countries borders and laws. Cause we all like America and thank Americans for biggest support agains pigs.

[@PhotonisDefenseInc.]

Resolution is a measurement performed by people certified to do so. In other words, line pairs per millimeter specifications are determined by certified people looking through the image intensifier at calibrated charts. The procedure to determine this involves an operation voltage, color temperature of the light, a specific projection lens, a calibration target e.g., USAF calibration charts or Mire de Foucault charts, a specific and standard camera setup and input radiation to achieve best contrast. Basically, the person reads the target chart and determines the limiting readable patten and compares that to a calibration chart to determine the resolution. Of utmost importance in all of this is the Modular Transfer Function (MTF). A good MTF, enables the viewer to discern contrast. The better the contrast, the better the detail, the better the detail the better someone can discern objects in low light or high light conditions.

[@MrT13]

My break brain.