Which Intensifier Tube Spec Matters the Least?

Night vision is a game where the rules are made up and the points don't matter.
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[@revvyishonisd5027]

Also halo value is set by physical distance from the photocathode to the micro channel plate. The closer they are set together, the lower halo value you get. But this can present a problem, if a strong enough lateral force is applied to your device and those to things bump into each other. You’ll get a nice big smear in the middle of your image. Google micro channel plate smear. You really don’t want that to happen. So really low halo isn’t necessarily a great feature, especially if you weapon mount your device. Or drop it and it lands lens first on the ground. Could really F you. From the sheets of L3 tubes I’ve seen, almost all of them are in the .8 to .7 range. This seems to be the “good enough but not too fragile” middle ground they shoot for. Since this is the most controllable value due to it being defined by parts placement rather than alchemical manufacturing processes like the other stat values.

[@Vinnytwotime]

My L3 WP unfilled tubes are 0.7 for halo. Good to know.

[@DelioPera]

I think the only Halo value that's worth looking at is 2. 1 was good, and Reach was solid, but 2 was a real generation defining game.

[@nfaisnfgay]

@@DelioPerano love for Reach? So over… the video games have fallen…

[@TheMsdos25]

@@Vinnytwotime I think the smudging damage is caused by the ion barrier film dislodging and/or touching the photocathode, so you won't need to worry about it on a filmless tube.

[@yzhou05]

@@TheMsdos25 I guess that could be 1 reason for plate smear, but pretty sure the OP is right that the majority of it is from MCP-photocathode touching. Also "filmless" tubes aren't actually completely without "film", it's just a proprietary film method that L3 calls "un-filmed".

[@baatmilk]

if anybody but Hop told me that the proccess of creating intensifier tubes involved giving them diablo random stat modifiers I would think they were lying to me

[@joshuahickey5264]

where can i buy a socketed pvs-14 im gonna load it up with el runes

[@rhodycars6058]

Just don’t get one of those ethereal tubes

[@trailertrashtactics]

I can't wait to see everyone on the forms suddenly speaking about how FOM doesn't matter when they were just preaching its importance 🤣

[@evey0259]

Everyone has been saying that for a while. Anything above 64 lp/mm is imperceptible and SNR is king.

[@knowtheplan472]

Hop and Brass have insane influence over the night vision community, I never seen nobody run the AEMS until BF showed how good it was and Airsoft PEQs are now hard to find single-handedly because of him. Someone should send Hop some Anvis-10s so he can shit talk them and drive the price down 😂

[@ethanbarnes3973]

All about that high Snr with 72lp

[@aidandavis2924]

Everyone has been saying that for a while

[@trailertrashtactics]

@@knowtheplan472 agreed on all topics

[@revvyishonisd5027]

Your next PowerPoint should be a night vision building company tier list. Cause a lot of the cost to value ratio in night vision comes down to the quality of the company you’re buying from and how greedy they are or aren’t. And amongst the most respectable mfg’s, buying is more of a personal dollar cost judgement rather than an esoteric hunt for specific stats and what is or isn’t important.

[@craposnap]

i agree, it needs to happen.

[@SuperXrayDoc]

I see too many people make the mistake of buying from companies that don't specialize in making night vision devices and don't show the tubes or specs sheet

[@craposnap]

@@SuperXrayDoc Same here, I’ve seen it happen plenty of times.

[@Hoplopfheil]

It seems like any good NV builder company is about a week away from a scandal about poorly assembled tubes... :)

[@craposnap]

@@Hoplopfheil 😞

[@PolymerLad]

Understanding tube specs was such a steep learning curve, glad to see a video to help anyone getting into the game. As a warning, even with a tube image provided, the focus of the image might not represent the blems well, at least of the one tube I have.

[@Hoplopfheil]

Yeah same with fuzz or junk on the inside of the housing. Your eyeball can focus on stuff the camera looks "past" I guess.

[@TacoTory556]

Very true noticed that when I got my tube recently, in the picture you couldn’t even notice the blem until i actually looked through it

[@Zel_eo]

I got a deal for a mil surplus PVS 7 Gen 2+ with mount & knock off bump for $760. EVERYONE online said it was horrible because it was a pvs7 and only gen 2, but it was all I could afford as a poor legal student. Two years and some change later, I have done long range land nav, taken game, and can confidently shoot / move under nvgs. Fun Fact: any night vision is better than zero night vision. Also, being able to take hogs on a moonless night with an invisible laser from 200y away makes me feel like Great Value Sam Fisher. Now that I have a great paying job I'm looking to dive deeper with some pano bridge systems or maybe quads...if the bank will accept "Money for Noods" as a reason to give out a $35-40k loan.

[@MichaelThorne12Tribes]

Take 7️⃣ For The PVS?

[@ImperiumLibertas]

Definitely go pano. Quads are nice but heavy and they have distortion. Duals + pivot mount seems to be the best middle ground where you can go wide fov with more distortion and quickly switch to narrower fov with little distortion.

[@waylonk2453]

Chad

[@MichaelThorne12Tribes]

Will Pay 8️⃣ For PVS🤞 Meet Or 🚢

[@roflchopter11]

The QTNVG is "only" like $12k with medium quality tubes.

[@TheAnimal191]

I recently heard a guy say "FOM is irrelevant" and had no idea what he meant because he classically refused to elaborate. This is the most comprehensive beginner intro to NV I have ever found. Thank you.

[@luguefamily1498]

Really great vid Hop, especially for just getting into the NV game recently. Your knowledge and reviews are appreciated.

[@BrassFacts]

brace for people that don't own nods to get really upset over this one

[@Hoplopfheil]

Almost as upset as the people who do own NODs

[@snowjerkface]

Truth on the last slide. I bought my PVS-14 from TNVC and the specs were pretty good. WP, SNR was 30.8 , halo below 1.0, and I thought it was fantastic. Then I really wanted to try Binos and went with BNVDs through JRH in GP and I remember stressing and hoping I'd get good specs. I'll never forget when I saw the sheet and how low they were, 1500 FOM and SNR 21, but to be honest, to me they looked fantastic outside in the neighborhood and out hiking in the woods with little moon out. So yes, I couldn't really see a big difference on the two when I took them out, just the fact that one is WP and a mono and the other is GP and a bino. What I do like is the features on each one, gain control, articulating shutoff, etc. I do enjoy some arfcom posts in the NV thread about specs and wait times. Some people really do hold out for that unicorn then take a photo of their closet once they get it. Lol

[@danielh5397]

There are indeed certain characteristics of intensifier tubes that will NOT show up in a spec sheet. For example, certain tubes have visibly more fixed pattern noise (chicken wire effect) than others and what I've noticed personally is that tubes with higher SNR tend to have this effect more commonly and more noticeably than tubes with lower SNR. Another characteristic that won't show up in a spec sheet is when certain tubes have a "streaking" effect when exposed to light sources. Some have it worse than others. Some tubes that do have this get reportedly better over time or after the tube has been on for some time. White is not always better than green simply for being white. I've looked through some reportedly low spec green tubes that absolutely look incredible compared to high spec white tubes. Every tube is truly a unique snowflake.

[@GetTheFO]

I experienced the streaking issue with an L3 OMNI VII tube, it would get better after it had been on for a little while, but it was a pain in the ass using it in areas with light sources. Otherwise was a great tube… just would shadow and streak like a motherfucker.

[@natsuccubus]

hop’s iconic terrifying floor stain

[@Hoplopfheil]

That's not blood, it's rust! Rust from a barbecue grill! Mm mm, barbecue.

[@94todd]

Maybe the real important NV spec is the friends we make in the night 🟢👄🟢

[@IowaNVGuy]

Killed it! The industry sucks for passing this info on to the end user, nice to have this available for those just getting into the game!

[@kraemer66]

I love a good clean signal to noise ratio. I usually keep my gain low too. It reduces noise and your eye adjusts and it looks great. Nothing worse than those tubes with no gain control. Put it on and it's like you're looking into a grainy blue sun compared to how I run mine. Halo becomes even important when you're running full power IR devices. The stronger lasers really bloom on mine.

[@bass779]

This is the most important presentation you have made. There is a complete vacuum of information on tube selection, ever since Sam Houston put his rambling, amateurish presentations behind a paywall. Thank you so much.

[@LordPerique]

I would take anything Sam Houston, or any of the other TNVC salesmen, say with a grain of salt anyways.

[@bghiggy]

He's an absolute douche online too. Anyone asking simple questions he comes in and shits on you like you are supposed to have 10+ years of experience and expertise

[@p03saucez]

SNR is kang. Night vision is better than none. And totally agree with you on not getting hung up on specs alone (same goes for cans). My Elbit WP XLS tube has like 22 SNR but still looks amazing.

[@M81_WOODLAND]

This is definitely a useful reference to come back to. I want to be a moon goon when I grow up.

[@CallsignArclight]

thank you so much hop, this is a really well done video that condenses a lot of useful info down into somethig incredibly manageable for me

[@Giovanni-od7if]

Really well explained! Getting my first NV device soon and this was insanely helpful, thank you.

[@cornelius5595]

I've been looking at some of these sheets wondering where the hell to even start for considerations. I appreciate the breakdown, and know that I shouldn't worry about it all too much.

[@DagaYute]

Super useful vid - probably the only youtube vid that goes over this in detail.

[@Sardy540]

Outstanding delivery. Brief, super informative. Thanks from Australia mate.

[@brandonpowell480]

Great video for those looking for basic understanding. On the super gain tubes, these are not new and not exclusive to tnvc. They came from a South Korean military request specifically for jungle warfare circa 2017ish I believe. Basically the requirement was asked for to help with really dark canopy cover. Any L3 distributor (tnvc, licentia arms) is able to get them for customers. From what I understand, the South Korean military no longer orders them because they determined the normal pvs31 tubes served a better overall purpose.

[@WillStinton]

This was a helpful video. I think I’m just gonna get a Photonis White Phosphor PVS-14 and content myself in the “Having NV is better than not having it” group of people

[@waylonk2453]

Hop, as someone who's getting into the NV game I must say thanks. You've saved me a lot of time sitting at the computer stressing specs and tallying tradeoffs.

[@KingKong-bo7nk]

Thanks hop I’m just starting to look into this seriously and this was the break down I was looking for to get my head around the spec sheets

[@RomeoAirsoft]

Great video hop! Really helped me understand specs more in a condensed manner

[@roseprecision]

I really like these in depth videos from hop. They give you the ability to evaluate products independently before purchasing.

[@joshgalt2022]

Awesome video and perfect timing. I just took the plunge on my first set of duals today. Cheers to the King-El Hoppe’

[@christoph9587]

This was amazing!!! I needed to see this. I am currently looking at buying Nighy vision. This was a huge help. Thanks for your expertise sir. Much appreciated....

[@AidanShourds]

Thanks for this video Hop, i got lost in spec sheets so this helps narrow my choices down.

[@mikethemaniac1]

Hop I don't think they solely send rejects anymore. While that WAS in fact the practice of the mid 2000's, It has not been my experience that tubes bought present day are military spec rejects. In fact, my tubes I bought in 2020 met all OMNI VIII contract specs and are perfectly clean, so... You know.

[@zackz4015]

Thanks for the video, I already had my unit but it was fun to pull out the spec sheet and actually understand it

[@himawaricopter]

Thanks hop. This helped me a lot with filtering through all the info out there.

[@Ironjo22]

Spectacular info!!! Literally helped me from making a mistake but that’s not cheap. Thank you sir.

[@urgentcarestories]

Thank you for making this. Very dry but helpful info as I’m getting into Nv shooting. Much appreciated Hop. Feel better soon

[@protectpersevere2030]

Great write up man. Appreciate the time it prob took research this

[@CertifiedBullpupHater]

Fantastic breakdown Hop.

[@jeffgeesaman4386]

I really wish you had this video made 2 years ago. LOL Awesome info and totally on point. I bought my expensive L3 DTNVS NODS and I love them but now that I've had the pleasure of looking through a dozen pair or so, I would have saved some serious money had I know all this before. Love your content. Straight forward no bullshit. Keep up the great work.

[@spartan7404]

“Taking pics and posting them is the entire point of NV ownership, and everyone will make fun of you for every blemish in your tube.” Truer words were never spoken.

[@opel1111]

Really appreciate all the NV videos, just bought my first PVS-14 this past weekend went with L3

[@christoph9587]

You lucky dog you!!!!! I want to get some so damn bad but just don't have the cash yet. I am jeolous....

[@perchowski3021]

Same, picked up a WP L3 unfilmed from TNVC. Its 37.7 SNR 72 lp/mm, .7 EBI & .7 HALO, with 0 blems. Think I got a pretty good tube!

[@adamy9260]

Thanks for doing the NV spec leg work for us Hop. It is all a lot clearer now.

[@zackaryk2000]

Now that's some good content. Thanks hop!

[@KevinLou1]

That throwback Bungie reference - much respect

[@Mansizedtarget]

Very helpful. Thanks for what you do.

[@masterjo_6703]

Great information, very well done presentation, for a lot of people I don't think it makes a large difference, unless you have the cash to care. I have one omni 8 tube from 2018 and one omni 5 from 2004 with a huge blem. Currently about to bridge the two into duals, because other than Snr and extreme low-light preformence it doesn't make a huge difference for my use case, and it's perfectly usable. I could spend a couple thousand more for something better, but I have the same practical visibility (I'm not in the worst conditions ever) and advantage of two tubes either way. Practicing using your night vision, having a comfortable setup and being able to have it at all is more important imo.

[@uh60ce1]

From someone with 1500 hours under nvg's don't go cheap. Remember what environment you're using them in. And remember SEFE. Material Defects. Shading, Emission points, Flicker effect and Edge Glow. Otherwise, you can deal with cosmetic blemishes and the people making fun of your chicken wire are the poor's that didn't have the funds to even own them. Hopefully this helps. Awesome as always Hop.

[@yamahapeanut44]

What is flicker effect?

[@uh60ce1]

@@yamahapeanut44 if you think of like the old drawing books you flip through to see a movie., It's like that. The Nvg's will flicker on and off. Sometimes really fast, other times really slow. Either way, ya wanna get a migraine? It sucks.

[@yamahapeanut44]

@@uh60ce1 that makes sense. Thank you.

[@Grunt-Barra]

Even playing airsoft, all these guys talk s*** about someone else's budget nvgs, and there isn't a thing on their kit worth more than $100 😂

[@clarenceclark8592]

Thank you hopp for explaining what’s important an what’s not it freakin helps a lot why isn’t their more videos like this if everyone had this info manufactures would have to either lower prices or increase quality of tubes jus my opinion who knows but thanks it helped me good job

[@nocturnal_walker]

amazing vid, this topic is not really covered elsewhere. thx, will save this one for future use when I'll be on market for NV.

[@voltron0911]

This was incredible. Thank you. 🙏

[@PistoleroJesse]

I got the knowledge beat down in the last live cast, but this was an epic follow up. Thanks.

[@deltathirtyfour]

nice "who's line" line :)

[@Hoplopfheil]

Who's Line Pair/mm

[@deltathirtyfour]

@@Hoplopfheil I like some high signal to noise , great pp.

[@christas6774]

i love your comedy through this video. The last picture at the end of the video....cheap night vision, expensive night vision...the All Seeing Eye hahaha

[@va05sti]

Solid info! That’s for breaking it down for the new guys!

[@PeekEngineering]

Thank you Hop. This is unequivocally the best night vision buyers guide on the internet.

[@abledemo1]

This was actually really helpful, just listened to the vid while cross referencing my spec sheet. And feel pretty good about my Elbit gen3 white. Glad Steele ind. Didn’t bend me over.

[@musician445]

Thank you Hop sir, this helps a lot.

[@Ryan606]

This was very helpful, thank you.

[@fatedescent2329]

“…your eyeballs aren’t that good…” why you gotta come for me like that.

[@VoluntaryPlanet]

I've been needing a video like this for some time, thank you!

[@Auto5k]

FOM should be calculated by multipling with the square of the SNR, so that it weighs nore in the result, this would help make FOM a more useful metric.

[@LordPerique]

I don't really care about CR anymore now that the majority of commercially available tubes are 72+

[@aidandavis2924]

We don't really even need fom at all

[@EliasRodriguez123]

Great content, thanks for breaking it down!

[@australovenatortomino_1741]

Really helpful, especially when this is the first time ever I saw these specs.

[@Tofu61]

When hop pulls out the powerpoint presentations I get a full chub

[@stcredzero]

I really appreciate that Considerations is zero-indexed! (It's a programmer thing.)

[@asolo5]

Excellent vid. Thank you

[@parallel-knight]

I don’t own NVG but am interested in getting a pair of PVS-7’s or PVS-14’s. Gen 2 +. So this video is actually really helpful and interesting! Thank for posting would be interested in more.

[@stevedo18able]

For me, this is priority of NV 1. Budget 2. Color of Phosphorus 3. No zone 1 blemishes or peppering Snagged an Elbit WP with 64 Res, 35 SNR, 2290 FOM, 0.98 EBI, 0.61 Halo in mil spec Carson for $2400 few months ago. 1 pepper in zone 3. The market is great at this moment in time to pick up anything gun related from 3rd party. That same tube would be around $3500 estimate, brand new from a company.

[@kevin11288]

Phosphor*

[@sinisterthoughts2896]

where would one look around? I'm just a lost neophyte.

[@MyLonewolf25]

Where did you find that sale??

[@stevedo18able]

@@MyLonewolf25 arfcom forums. Great deals pop up once in a while, mixed with polite haggling.

[@compulsivegunbuyer]

Excellent video!

[@badat3208]

all i took from this is someone may have had a knife fight for a remake of Marathon

[@Hoplopfheil]

I'll knife fight anybody who tries to remake Marathon

[@bahima]

Hop, an enjoyable and informative PowerPoint presentation into the murky world of NV. If all civilian NV are rejects, why does ITAR still apply? So freaking hard to get into civilian NV here in Australia without paying military prices for civilian gen 1 garbage.

[@Hoplopfheil]

Check out Cold Harbour, they're a Canadian company who can sell night vision to Australia.

[@bahima]

@@Hoplopfheil Thanks heaps Hop, I will check them out!

[@brtodd95]

This vid had me rollin….good stuff!!!😂👍

[@kevingnomen6092]

Once I get a suppressor I’ll start looking into night vision. But I appreciate this video Hop!

[@Glonk_Respecter]

I’m legit hunting for a 14 right now, this video couldn’t be better timed.

[@HaveYouMetMyFist]

I've owned several tubes. I had an old pinnacle like you mentioned and there isn't much of a difference to newer elbit thin filmed tubes. I had two pvs14 elbits bought together, and one had higher specs for every single measurement, and it was the worse looking of the two when looking through them. Don't know why but it wasn't as clear or crisp even though the spec sheet said it was the better tube. So you are absolutely right about that. Really makes the specs seem meaningless unless they are extremely out of the norm.

[@DevonReclaimed]

"Halo, were you blinded by it's majesty?"

[@maxamick9962]

I can’t recommend Kosher Surplus enough! First time buyer and I couldn’t be more happy with my purchase.

[@coopersand911]

I love it when he brings out the slide shows!

[@adameungard480]

Freakin love this channel

[@zaynemikita6897]

Well glad I watched this. I bought an Elbit WP tube and people all said hey its only 1800 FOM. Whats funny is my tube still looks significantly better than their photonis tubes and crappy old gen 3 green tubes. Wish I would have watched this earlier. Thanks!!!

[@jameslarkins7589]

Came for the guns. Stayed for the bullet points!

[@breckfreeride]

Where's the cats

[@poortac5568]

Night Vision Guys has a fantastic deal on Gen3 Elbit WP PVS14 right now. All the specs are at or above what you recommend and are less than 3 grand 👍 Great video, I wish I saw this before spending 6 months trying to figure out what I should buy.

[@JamesReedy]

Just buy it is a great point. Going from no NVG to a middle of the road $3000-3500 mono is like unlocking a f’ing super power. The first time I looked I nearly shat myself, then I turned to the sky and was like holy f’ck, stars, satellites, meteors. I’ve gone a year plus without seeing a meteor. I saw 3 inside of 15 mins of staring at the sky thru my PVS-14.

[@LordSquirrelShow]

I laughed more at the Halo/Marathon joke than I probably should have.

[@mikelangford1835]

Hell yeah man, work ethic. Great vid.

[@Gingercattleman]

A lower Halo Value is better really after Halo 3 ODST the value isn't worth the money

[@eliasmuniz4902]

Happy new year bro

[@JawBreaker16]

Great video alot of information

[@thearmorer5527]

As an og bungie fan, the marathon joke hit different. Love it.

[@not_sure...]

Thanks Hop 👍

[@MP-kf6mu]

Perun is great, you made me feel better about the refurbed pvs14 I got.

[@zarz55]

Getting into NV with the hopes of buying one day, very helpful video

[@yzhou05]

Great info Hop. Only thing i’m not sure is accurate is that “all civ tubes are gov contract rejects”. I have heard from TNVC and other reputable resellers that if the tubes are described as “Mil-Spec” they have met all the gov contract minimum requirements (as low and useless for comparison as those specs sometimes are). The tube manufacturers definitely have to fulfill .gov/mil quotas first, but afterwards extra tubes are available to the civilian market.

[@Hoplopfheil]

The way I understand it is that they're trying to make milspec tubes all the time but the results are so inconsistent a bunch end up failing out. They never set out to make blemmed low spec tubes to sell to dirty civilians but it turns out that way. Like how a lot of Intel i5s were just failed i7s with two cores disabled.

[@yzhou05]

@@Hoplopfheil For sure some fail in some way or other and are then sold at a small discount to us dirty civilians, but I've seen plenty of direct to civilian market tubes with much higher than even the most recent OMNI VII or VIII minimum specs.

[@brandonpowell480]

L3 finished goods are definitely not rejects. Especially the pvs31a, 1531, and the M914A. These units come as the full deployment package and with the same government issued tubes.

[@TACOHOG]

yeah, that isn't the case, Civ tubes are not mil reject tubes.

[@Dovacat]

I really wish this was posted before the Steele industries black Friday sale cause it would have saved me a lot of time

[@maxmatthews2776]

Best explanation I've seen without the bullshit. Feel better soon buddy

[@peasant_shots]

Excellent presentation as always, hop! Damn I wish I wasn't broke :P

[@paullamarca8021]

Is that background for the spec's the shroud of Turin or a NYC sidewalk? Anyway thanks for explaining the spec's in a simple to understand way.

[@Hoplopfheil]

My rust covered patio

[@streetjustice4287]

Yo the eye of Sauron had me laughing my ass off in the break room at work

[@revvyishonisd5027]

I took that to mean AC130 mounted thermal 😂

[@schizosaint777]

Hop power points are the only ones I have ever paid attention too