Binocular Night Vision Devices - recommendation

Which set of BNVDs?

  • PVS-15

    Votes: 3 8.6%
  • BNVD

    Votes: 7 20.0%
  • Sentinels

    Votes: 18 51.4%
  • Other

    Votes: 11 31.4%

  • Total voters
    35

DrRansom

Newbie
Taking a hard look at personal BNVDs. Tried a set of thin-film PVS-15s this weekend that I liked, but have heard some great things about both the BVND unit and Sentinels. Any recommendations for or against, or comparison data?
 

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Gunslinger
Staff member
Moderator
WARLORD
The BNVD and the Sentinels both represent a significant increase in form factor capability over the PVS-15. Of course I'm a little biased because I provided user input during the Sentinel design review.

The 15's are extremely heavy and ride way too high when stowed in the up position.
 

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Gunslinger
Staff member
Moderator
WARLORD
Doc.... why you ask me tough questions?!?! Lol. I have not used either operationally. Another awesome point about our little corner of the internet here.... TRUTH IN LENDING.

The BNVD had a lot of good user input to assist it's development. The Sentinel was a different concept, it was an improvement on an avation design. I like the Anvis design, I absolutely believe it has the best interface with the helmet over the "Litton" horse shoe design of the PVS 15. Mounting options equate to not only how the nod adjusts in front of your eyes, but how high the profile the nod is when it's flipped up. Climb in a single window with your nods flipped up, snapping them or breaking your mount so that you are fucked for the rest of that mission (at a minimum) and all of the sudden, how that NOD sits in the up position becomes real important.

The BNVD can be purchased with either the Litton inferface OR an avation ball detent (ITT did it right, because the users told them to).

So a lot of the mounting woes don't apply if money is no object, you can get the PVS-31 BNVD with a legit avation mount if that's what you want.

The Sentinel was really designed to drop in your existing tube into a better housing. Like agencies that got free Anvis 6's which were not really suited for ground use and placing them in a legit housing.

The PVS 31 represents the latest in user feedback for a new off the shelf dual tube design. If money were no option FOR DUAL TUBE NON FUSION I2 goggles. I would probably buy PVS31'S with white phosphor tubes.
 

DARC1

Gander Six
WARLORD
DrRansom, which BNVD's are you referring to - Night Vision Depot's original or the new L3/Insight PVS31's?
 

DrRansom

Newbie
I will use them for Low-light/No-light CQB training, combatives work, and for predator extermination.

No worries Roland - if the 31's should be on my list, then that's on me.
 

Tracker6

Newbie
I am a Setinel user. As alluded to previously, the ball/detent mount option is THE way to go in my book. It offers stability in a way that the dovetail cannot. It also mounts the goggles to your head with less of a single pivot point than the dovetail mounts seem to have.

As far as the controls go, the Sentinels are very ergonomic. It is easy to train your "hand memory" so that you can get your "knobology" down quick. Especially if you are talking CQB with dual tube NODs. You need to be able to flip those things up and down quickly or you will get stuck in the 40degree soda straw of green TV.

If you go white phosphor, make sure that they are new. The early civvi model white phosphor tubes were Gen II in some cases.

I have no time under BNVDs.
 
BNVDs are on my list of wants. Right now I am just running dual 14s. It's not the best or lightest but it still lets me break them up for when both me and the misses are out hunting at night.
 

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Gunslinger
Staff member
Moderator
WARLORD
I'm saving up my pennies for some new hotness. I will be purchasing upgraded tubes in the next few years. The latest high FOM tubes are a game changer.
 

DARC1

Gander Six
WARLORD
I will use them for Low-light/No-light CQB training, combatives work, and for predator extermination.

No worries Roland - if the 31's should be on my list, then that's on me.

Ransom - Based on what you stated as their intended use, I would recommend either the NVDepot BNVD's or the PVS-31's over the Sentinels for two reasons:
1. Durability
2. Interpupillary adjustment (hinged vs dials)

If there are few financial constraints then the PVS-31's with the best tubes I could afford would be my top recommendation for you. The 31's are also approx 40% lighter than most other bino systems commercially available.

Roland is 100% correct in his statement about some of the new tubes FOM ratings and performance...It's fucking amazing.

Unfortunately, civilian/commercial purchasing of a set of 31's with the latest filmless WP tubes is highly unlikely this year and probably the next.

To confuse the issue...on the civy side, dollar for dollar the NVDepot (with high quality thin filmed or film-less tubes) are currently the best buy (the Ford truck of NV right now). The are very rugged, cost several thousands dollars less than the 31's and are part compatible with PVS-14's (which you already own). These were also a DoD COTS solution when there weren't enough PVS15's for the force.

For clarity, I am not opposed to the Sentinels but I have a personal dislike for the knob interpup adjustments. For me, they are too slow compared to the hinged type when your helmet gets jostled and I have broken them on other types of NVG's when I smack into things (like wrestling a dude that doesn't want to be killed or flex cuffed, spalling/frag, sides of walls, car doors, etc). I have a love-hate relationship with the ball detent mounting so I won't comment on it other than to say it is a way more advanced method of mounting (and probably superior to the old club foot 1970's tech) but there's a reason only some of SOF and Aviation has access to them vs other ground forces.

So, not to be a total ass, if you have large sums of expendable income then I would get a set of AN/PSQ-36's...
 

DrRansom

Newbie
Great reply, thank you. I wish I hadn't looked up the PSQ-36s...

When you say the latest FOM tubes, what FOM value/range do you mean?
 

rbhoover

Newbie
Vendor
I own many different models of night vision but my favorite ones to use are my Sentinels. I have an aviation background so its what I am familiar and comfortable with. The NV Depot BNVD's seem unnecessarily 'clunky' to me, don't sit as close to my face as I would like and catch on my helmet when trying to flip one monocular up. The PVS-31 is an AWESOME option but can't be purchased by individuals (yet). Another interesting new option for the civilian market is the AB Night Vision MOD-3 system, its a completely modular unit that allows you to set your pair of tubes as either a bino system or individual monoculars. Pretty cool concept that I think will bring a lot of new design to the table in the future!
 

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Gunslinger
Staff member
Moderator
WARLORD
FOM is a newer term being thrown around these days although it's really not new. I prefer using ln/pr (line pair) resolution when comparing apples to apples.

The high FOM film less white phosphor tubes from L3 are getting consistent resolution in the 89-92 ln/pr range. This is truly a game changer. Throughout the late 90's and 2000's, I2 systems had kind of plateau'd out with the ITT pinnacle tubes getting up to about 71-74 and the weak sauce Litton/Northrup Grumman EOS/L3 avation tubes only getting about 64 ln/pr (PVS-15 tubes)

When L3 bought NG-EOS they moved the tube production facility from Garland Texas to Arizona and they fucked up the production quality, royally. The "draw tower" is a multi story tower where glass is melted and gravity draws it down into long thin rods, which are then bundled together and melted into another thin single glass rod, which is bundled and melted over and over until you have 10,000 glass rods all in the size of a nods tube. The rods are sliced like salami and the glass plates are what collect all the light (because of their 10,000 ocular edges or some shit) using a mixture of science and black magic.

Well when they set up their shit in Arizona.... all the black magic had leaked out and they could no longer produce high end tubes. So ITT was the ONLY show in town for high end NV tubes for like a decade.

But L3 wanted to be king, they now have 3 computer automated 3 draw towers that control every aspect of the process with two engineers monitoring systems at all times. Their multi million dollar multi year project to modernize their production facility has totally paid off and their consistent production methods with significant quality control measures means that they are producing tubes with qualities never before realized.

I know that didn't directly answer your question about actual FOM numbers, I would have to do some research on what the equivalent FOM numbers are for 92 fucking ln/pr brother. It's a fucking game changer.
 
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rbhoover

Newbie
Vendor
FOM is calculated by multiplying SNR (signal to noise) by resolution (expressed in lp/mm) Having a high resolution generally means a higher FOM if the performance characteristics of the tube stay the same. I have seen a few high 30's SNR's with 81 lp/mm resolution (3000+ FOM) that are remarkable! Those aren't really available on the open market though, all have been contract tubes. I have heard rumblings of tubes with 40+ SNR as well but have never witnessed it myself. Hopefully someday we can all have 5000 FOM, 100 lp/mm tubes in our everyday use night vision!
 

DrRansom

Newbie
Looks like NVDepot is now selling the BNVDs with a WP tube option. I've been attempting to get some actual specs on these, but have thus far been unsuccessful. I still haven't pulled the trigger on the bino NV...
 

Unity-Trent

Amateur
Vendor
I have experience with sentinels and -31s. Both on a flat range, navigating woods, hunting, and riding dirt bikes / vehicles, and some classes (Telluric and such)

I prefer the -31s for just about everything. They are lighter, which means less counterweight, and overall less weight. I do like they they independently flip, so if you need to gauge ambient light with the non-aided eye it's possible, but still possible to use Binos when needed.

I almost always use them with a COTI, and the integration is great. Especially when the E-COTI is available and you can use just the unit and a remote battery pack, it barely adds any weight.

That being said, in my experience they are both really great goggles. I do like the built in ilum on the sentinels, especially when shooting an RDS pistol in extremely low light. Otherwise you'll need helmet mounted ilum. Of course that is a fairly limited scenario, I just happened to do it a lot while developing the go pro mount.

I recently sold my sentinels and am waiting for my WP -31s to ship. So I can report in October when that happens.

I have quite a bit of through tube shooting video with the sentinels if anyone is interested. I can try and dig that up.

I do prefer the sentinels over the BNVDs, but my experience with the BNVDs is very limited, so that's mainly just from handling them in daylight.

Edit: forgot to add. I believe there were some reports that the -31s caused headaches because they cannot be reliably colimated due to the angular inter pupillary adjustment, whereas the sentinels are linear. My adjustment on both falls near the center of the range and I have not witnessed that issue first hand.
 
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