This is old news, I think, and everyone may know it. For anyone who wonders, though, this is my experience with night-vision technology. My only previous use goes back 40+ years to equipment my rich uncle loaned me. It was a bit better than nothing, heavy, and had a short operating life before needing more batteries. Worthless in a dynamic situation.

I purchased one of these recently to go watch beavers on the farm. I had absolutely no idea what I was getting, it's 1st generation and the bottom of the line.

I have to say the darned thing is pretty good. It takes a bit of tweaking of the lenses to get it into focus but it will focus. It does very well with any ambient light and the little IR flashlight illuminates what seems to be total darkness.

I can only imagine how good the stuff we see on the grunts works, or the 4th generation civilian stuff. For the cost, however, I'll going to have to stick to what I have.

Arf