Anyone look at Spygear or other low end IR night vision?

[sunny_nites]

I changed out the visible IR LEDs in a couple of my security cameras with non visible wavelenghth LEDs to make them less visible and the image quality looks pretty much the same but you can't see the cameras at night now.

Been thinking that swapping out the LEDs might also work with some of the "toy" night vision goggles to make a really inexpensive night vision viewer.

Was just wondering if anyone else had tried that, before I plunk down the $$.

Thanks

 

[citruspers]

I did, but in the end my conclusion was that most of the kids gear was, in fact, meant for kids. If you want nightvision on a budget you have two options, either buy a cheap camcorder with a true nightvision (IR) mode, or buy a cheap (50$ ish) 1st gen available light nightvision monocular, like the cyclop-1 (which is what I did). You'll basically get more visibility than with a toy NVG, plus it's still very sensitive to IR.
Most cyclops are sold without the 135mm lens though, which has sadly become a collector's item, but you can mount any M42 lens you want and the good thing is: they're cheap. A 50mm F/1.8 with M42 mount generally goes for 5 dollars in thrift stores and maybe a bit more on ebay.