Quote Originally Posted by ramairthree View Post
I’ll see your necropost and raise it.

I spent about 2006 to 2010 with 50-50s.

Great visuals at the time, but we could not keep enough sets up and running and I had us go to PVS15s.

I keep meaning to buy NV every year since I retired but keep forgetting/ buying other stuff.

What do you guys carry that would match that,
And what is a level down price wise that is a good bang for the buck?

Thank you.
We were running the same thing around the same timeframe. I was used to PVS-23's and the vision was good at the time. Things have come a long way.

I went through the same debate when I looked at the prospect of buying my own. I broke at least 3 of the 23's over my career and one set of PNVG's (one of the first MFF jumps with them when we figured out the width had the probability of coming in contact with risers...). Breaking them in my past life was no big deal, it happened and you just got new ones. Since my wallet isn't deep enough to self D/X at will- I looked around for more durability. At the time I bought- Sentinels were the thing. Being able to run a powered ball mount and use the same battery packs and aviator helmet mounts I had laying around was a plus.

Currently, there are a lot more options out on the market that have enhanced durability.

If I may suggest, a different approach, before asking a company to throw you a quote or recommend a model:
- Look around for a housing style that you prefer. Do you want the goggles to swing out to the side or do you want them to adjust laterally for interpupillary adjustment?
- What is your preference and budget for helmet mounting systems? Some mounts are more expensive than others (like the PVS-21 mounts...) and not all housings will have adapters/ capability for all mounts.
- Any special needs/wants. Immersion/incursion rating, weight, etc.

Once you put all that down on paper, you have requirements. You can either do the research yourself or contact a dealer with them to find out what housings meet them. Find out or ask what your mounting and power options are and what the price of those are. This is an often overlooked part when people budget for a set of NVG's.

Finally, if you aren't 100% familiar with SNR, Resolution (lp/mm), FOM (lp x SNR), etc- do some research there. A good dealer should be able to explain them to you, how they are important, and what variations in these numbers will mean in a real environment and varying lum/weather conditions. From that information, you can take your intended use and determine a minimum baseline for performance.

It takes some time, but it should give you a piece of equipment that you'll be happy with after dropping $10k+ on it because you used an analytical approach to ensure it will perform as needed. Honestly, this was something I had to get smart on as well. When I was in, we had our own NVG shop with smart guys to do this for you. You got handed the best that was available by someone that wasn't selling you a product. Being in the civilian world there are loads of companies that want to sell you their products. I have seen a lot of LE departments get hosed because of this. Using a data and requirements driven approach will insulate you a bit from that.