Hello,
Looking to get a good middle of the road set up. I am not LE or Mil, just a regular guy. Will likely be see the most use for hiking / exploring at night, along with some training. I do know a few others with NV but have not been about to hook up at night to test out anything in person. I have learned enough from my time here on M4C to post before you buy as posting afterwards doesn't really help all that much.
Here is what I am looking at and will try to give a short summery as to why I am leaning towards each item. Please let me know if any reasoning I am giving is flawed, not accurate or just dumb.
- PVS-14 $3400 White Phosphor 3rd gen 1900 FOM https://www.jrhenterprises.com/PVS14...s14whp1900.htm
Helmet $275 Team Wendy LTP Bump https://botach.com/team-wendy-exfil-...tical-helmets/
Mount $200 Rhino II w/dovetail https://www.modarmory.com/product/rh...pyrm-dovetail/
Laser/Illuminator $1200 DBAL D2 https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...l?sts=pi&pim=Y
J-arm $130 Noisefighter featherweight https://noisefighters.com/collection...onocular-mount
Reasoning for each Item:
-PVS-14, When I was first looking I was leaning towards the Photonis Echo but after watching a few vids of side by side comparisons (Nightwalker has great vids) his thoughts were that when it gets real dark these are still Gen 2 devices and start to struggle. Also a friend said I should really be allocating a good part of my NV budget towards the NVD as that really is the most important part.
-Helmet, The two I was most interested were the Ops-Core Bump and Team Wendy Bump. Most reviews point towards the TW LTP Bump being the most comfortable. I am not sure what the preference is between the 2.0 and the 3.0 and if the advantages of the 3.0 are worth getting. The price I found is for the 2.0 and that would change a bit if I opted for the other.
-Mount, I had originally wanted to get a Wilcox G24 as that seems like one of the better mounts but because of that the price is reflected. To get away from having to invest in an expensive Mount and J-Arm I as briefly thinking of going with the G11 and the standard J-arm. After a discussion with a friend (allocating more money towards the NVD) I went to looking at the Rhino II. Getting the Rhino II with the updated Dovetail Adapter and Noisefighter J-arm seems like a good compromise. This uses a dovetail over the horn type interface which may allow more flexibility with updating in the future along with allowing it to stow better than the original Rhino II.
-Laser/Illumiator, I have reviewed vids on many units comparing side by side. While bulky the DBAL-D2 seems to have a good IR-laser (for civilian legal) and a better illuminator compared to other civilian legal laser based one. Seems all the Civ legal DBALs are pretty close. I did see a review on the the Holosun LS321, and as you got further out the illumitator could not keep up to the DBAL-I2. When Compared to the D2 most of the illuminators did not fill in as consistent across the beam, nor did they have the spill the D2 has more adjustability.
-J-Arm, Pretty much answered this under the mount section but please let me knwo if I'm off base with this.
Mostly I am looking to see if I have over looked anything or my logic is flawed with my above selection. I know once you get into acceptable quality equipment some of decision making starts to be user preference.
Thanks for any and all advice.
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