Decent starter NVG set?

[Ashton]

I feel bad asking this since it was surely asked in the past, but since the forum was cleaned there are no threads to search...

I'm interested in a set of night-vision goggles, mainly for walking around my property at night looking for nocternal animals (4 acres in the GA Mtns) Though if they were applciable for making IR lasers visible that would be a bonus (but this is not required)

I'd like to spend around $50, though I can go as high as $100. Anything decent for that price? or do I need to save longer to get anything that will work reliably?

on a side note, any good IR flashlights for use with the above-requested NV goggles?

 

[prismatic]

The cheapest NV that I know of is a $100 hand-held monocular by Famous Trails. It's a simple Gen I unit that doesn't need batteries; instead you squeeze a built-in lever which will charge it up for a couple of minutes. The unit comes w/ an IR illuminator that requires an odd-sized battery. This unit has 3x magnification and often shows up in sales ads for the Big5 Sporting Goods chain.

Most people would recommend that you save up for a Gen II tube or better. A used or blemished Gen II monocular should be a bit over $1000, I think. The picture quality is very noticeably improved over Gen I.


For IR, most recommendations on the old forum seemed to be for IR filter attachments by Surefire for their flashlights.