Night Vision on the cheap

[fingerpuk]

Hi.

I have my first night game coming up, and I just realised I’ll be able to see nothing. As I’ll only play maybe two night games a year (for now) I don’t want to spend vast sums.

Are the cheap monoculars usable? Nightfox Prowl 2 etc? My first game is on the 10th so I’m tight on time.

 

[hitmanNo2]

Stay away from digital. It's simply not worth it. You're looking at at least £1k for a gen2 mono. But there are deals about for less. If you're patient and can wait around for good deals on parts and happy to do a little DIY, you could get gen2 for as low as £750. It won't be pretty or amazing, but it's better than no night vision.

And plenty of people do night games with no nods. Just make sure you have a decent weapon light.

 

[fingerpuk]

Ok, that’s way more than I’m willing to pay for the use they’ll get. I’ll have a weapon light and spare torch. That’ll have to do.

Are the cheap digital that bad? All I expect to see is blobs moving. I don’t need Hollywood fiction levels of clarity.

 

[Mad dog 49]

I have a digital one, same reason as you, it gets used maybe twice a year. It's not on par with actual analogue nods, and anyone using analogue nods will see you lit up like a Christmas tree, but for Airsoft they are workable. The picture is decent enough for airsoft and let's be real here, nobody is sighting in a target in airsoft at 300m so horses for courses. Some of the digital ones do have a bit of lag which can cause issues, but the ones I got were cheap enough and don't have a lag. Nitesights or something like that I think are the ones I have.

 

[Mad dog 49]

Nitesights elite. Currently about £200 with a picatinny mount, helmet and mount included. The helmet is so bad, yeet it in a bin, but the sight is okay for airsoft.

 

[Adolf Hamster]

Worth noting an alternate strategy- if you dont have nv get some cheap torches you can wedge into tree branches at chokepoints. I'd argue this is more effective than gen 1.

Then you can go hide somewhere nearby and enjoy the tracers rolling in and screams of "take your hits" as people shoot at them.

One night game years ago someone brought a big work floodlight and set it up on a bridge that was the only way through a part of a fallback game. The game rather predictably ground to a halt when they pushed us back past it.

 

[Captain Darling]

As mentioned, good torches are cheap these days and very useful.

I struggle to find sites that run night games. Where are you playing?

 

[Cannonfodder]

I picked up a cheap set of NVGs a couple of years ago just for messing around with a I'd rather go without than use them in a game.
The lag, whilst it's not really noticeable when still I found walking in them would end up giving me motion sickness when moving at anything faster than a snails pace.
Then there's the IR lamps. To see anything I need to turn them on which will light you up like Blackpool sea front to anyone else with NODs, they might even be visible to non nods wearers if they're at the right angle. Those lamps will also give people a spot to aim at so unless they're protected then you could easily end up with a very expensive paper weight.

Night vision is one of those things where you get what you pay for