Night vision technology is going digital fast. Look at all the major vendors and they all have a digital product offering. IR (infrared red) digital night vision uses a circuit board camera that is very sensitive to visible and IR light. This alone is why prices are falling and once you go digital IR, you will never go back.
This technology is in an early growth state and is making advances in light sensitivity and power every few months. In our opinion digital devices are equal in quality to Gen2+ at a fraction of the cost. The new starlight cameras are coming and will one day be a standard which is hundreds of times more sensitive to light than typical consumer market IRs.
IR digital night vision camera boards use the infared light band waves that are invisible to human and animal eyes. But IR sensitive night vision camera technology can also utilize visible light band waves as well.
For example, IR night vision scopes can see around a distant area at night taking advantage of an outside light that is on. You can point it at an area with a bright street light with no damage, in fact your view is improved. This is something that you may not think is important until you are out hunting in a situation where you want to look into shadows around lighted area. Can’t do that with a traditional I2 (intensifier tube) night vision device which will either be damaged by bright lights or shut off leaving you with no visibility at all.
The Digital Crosshairs 1000 night vision clip-on has a 4.3 inch rail mounted monitor that makes it easy to scan dark field or wooded areas without any eye blindness that results from peeking through a bright night vision scope eye piece in the dark. Your eye can’t adjust quickly back to night vision after looking into the bright scope’s viewer. This makes it possible to comfortably hunt for hours with virtually no eye strain or night blindness.
Just like phones and automobiles, everything will have a display sooner or later. Why not a rifle scope?
