PERFORMANCE
More man once in the run-up to this test, we were told that file different 'generations' that feature so heavily in night vision catalogues and spec sheets are indicators of the technology used, rather than of the fact that you really do get what you pay for a Gen 2 picture really is several times better than a Gen 1 picture. Later - generations - on paper at least - are even better, but you'd need exceptionally dark conditions to realty be sure. On a cloudy night, the glow of Southampton's streetlights, 15 miles away, was enough to mask any benefit that might have been gained by spending an extra couple of thousand pounds on either of the Cobras compared with the ATNs.For some reason, everyone who makes Gen 1 night vision equipment seems to think that we want a magnified image. But we don't. As the makers of the more 'professional' products obviously realize, a magnified image can be disorientating and can only be achieved at the expense - of a narrow field of view. The field of view problem is exacerbated by the fact that all the Gen 1 images suffered from more or less severe distortion towards the edges.
| Night Owl Nexgen Marine | ||||||||||||||||||||
| A reasonably bright picture, with little distortion in the centre of the image. But the quality fell away noticeably towards the edges; its x4 magnification limits the field of view to 12ø. Of which only the central 6' is really useful. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Yukon NVMT 2WP | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Another nice bright picture from this one, with little distortion, except at the very edge of its field of view, but 3x magnification is probably still a bit on the high side for marine use. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Yukon Exelon | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Another product with a high (3x) magnification, which is achieved at the expense of a very narrow field of view. Having said that, the picture is beautifully bright and sharp, so long as you take the trouble to get the focus right, and slays reasonably sharp, even to the edge of the field of view. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Bushnell Seagull | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The lowest magnification of all the Gen 1 models should have been repaid by a corresponding increase in field of view - but I'm afraid, it wasn't. The Seagull's picture was reasonably bright and pretty good in the centre of the field of view, but it distorted dramatically towards the edges. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Night Force Marine 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The Night Force's picture was bright, but generally rather blurred, apart from a pronounced 'sweet spot' in the middle of the picture. With 3x magnification and the narrowest field of view of any of the models in the whole group, the end result is rather tike tunnel vision. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ATN NVG7 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The less expensive of the two pairs of goggles in our group, the NVG7 nonetheless produced a super picture that was clear, bright and contrasty with only a slight loss of quality at the extreme edge of the image. A good result. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ATN NVM14 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The ATN NVM14 did exactly what the makers say it does in the brochure and produced a truly stunning picture - extremely bright crisp and dear right out to the edges.On balance it was arguably the best performer in the test. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Cobra Tornado | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Another excellent performer. The Cobra Tornado Night Vision monocular produced a truly superb picture, which was bright, contrasty and clear - almost to the very edges. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Cobra Lightning | ||||||||||||||||||||
| The most expensive product in the test by a very substantial margin, this should have been a star performer. But whilst it was undeniably good, with a bright, clear picture right to the edges of the screen, it wasn't 'over four thousand pounds good'.In fact, under the fairly benign conditions of our test it wasn't noticeably better than the significantly less-expensive ATN monocular. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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