What is Fueling the Interest for Better Vision in the Outdoors?
Navigating, seeing, or conducting work while being outdoors after dark is always challenging, no matter if you are a once-a-year hunter, a weekend camper, or a search and rescue professional. As dusk settling in, the human eye’s ability to perceive movement, shape, or identifiable hazards begins to deteriorate. This issue has driven the interest in cutting-edge optical technology that can help restore our ability to see at night or in other low/no light conditions. The sighted human vision may have become outdated under low-light conditions, and successful outdoor exploring, working, or hunting is fundamentally safe, efficient, and enjoyable experiences convert the desire to be visible and tracking into a valuable asset in outdoor nighttime navigation.
There are multiple advanced products in today’s market, such as the AGM Rattler v2, that present versatile options available the outdoor enthusiast relying on consistent performance where no daylight remains. The optical capabilities of modern thermal and night vision optics empower users in various circumstances from tracking wildlife at night time, to locking down a perimeter without being detected.
What is the difference between Thermal and Night Vision?
Thermal optics are completely different than night vision. Night vision devices, monocular, binocular or scope, work by taking light and magnifying it. If there is some light at some distance moonlight, starlight, or artificial light, the night vision device will enable the user to have some usable image of this scene. Thermal optics completely alter this view of the world by seeking heat signatures. Everything, or every person, animal and warm item produces infrared radiation, absorbed as a heat source or image regardless of the light obtainable (or absent).
The choice of optics will depend on discovering these important differences. Night vision is about getting as much light as possible to form a clear image. Thermal optics is about revealing warmth under adverse conditions. Both forms of optics offer contrasting functions. Their properties will produce a division in their usage purposes, enabling the user to achieve a tactical edge at the right time.
Night Vision Devices: Pros and Cons
Night vision devices are best used when some trace light is available. They are the most common device for scenarios like nighttime hillwalking, night navigation, wildlife observation and security patrols. As images are more continual in nature and often retain good detail and depth of perception – important when differentiating between certain characteristics, or making your way safely through unknown terrain – there are some major disadvantages as well. Night vision can be very poor in total darkness and night vision devices do not cope with bright light very well either, as well as being engineered to cope with it. Bright light can easily obscure or “bloom” the image and ruin the clarity of detail or turn the device off indefinitely.
When are Thermal Optics Better?
Thermal optics are at their best where night vision is at its worst. They can be utilized independent of ambient light, and allow the user to identify animals, people or obstacles lurking in a dark landscape regardless of light, fog, foliage, or camouflage – which is an undeniable advantage that is critical for search and rescue teams and a hunter who is seeking out elusive prey that is deliberately placing themselves out of view. Outdoor Life recently published an article about thermal scopes that also suggests that the use of thermal optics like night vision have work their way into increased use by outdoor men that are serious about what they do. The article also suggest there is one area where thermal optics have an advantage when determining the detection of movements in a complex environment.
Maintenance for Your Thermal or Night Vision Device
Taking care entails maintaining your thermal or night vision device properly. Always keep your optics in a dry padded case so they do not get damaged. This will protect your optics from moisture and bumps that occur during transport. Moisture and bumps are bad for the future of delicate parts and make sure to properly protect the roughed-up optics from impacts or from the environment.
When you clean optics, only use a cloth that is len safe and then follow approved solutions. This will avoid scratching the lenses and stripping the very sensitive coatings that provide clarity and contrast in the lenses. Gentle and repetitive care will help preserve optical quality for a long time to come.
Also be proactive and check your battery levels and calibration periodically, make it a point to be fully connected and properly calibrated as that provides itemized essentials for reliable performance when the safety of others depends on it. As with all sound investments, giving your equipment attention during the course of your ownership will enhance your ownership experience and prolong the equipment odyssey ahead.
Which Should You Choose? One Last Checklist
When to compare thermal and night vision devices, the first step in deciding the best device is to contemplate with yourself what your main use is. Is detection, navigation or wildlife observation your main goal? Implementing this first step as rationale will indicate which technology is best for your needs with the environments you tend to relish.
You must also contemplate environmental factors. In assessing the environment, consider several factors: the area (open fields, thick forest, urban environment), weather and dark levels (overcast, rainy, pitch black) you mostly expect to encounter. Depending on the types of variables above will naturally strengthen your decision in moving forward with either thermal or night vision devices.
Lastly, consider your budget not just in terms of immediate budgeting for this technology but any possibilities of expanding/outfitting your capabilities in the future. Considering budget along with future use opportunities for the given tech items can be worthwhile and emphasize better value for a minor cost. Ultimately coupling the technology to present needs as well as what is too likely a gradual shift in future uses guarantees you will experience long-term benefits from just one purchase.
Concluding
Choosing from thermal and night vision optics is more of a match instinctively/correctly the technology with your own goals rather than an ultimate bigger or better expectation for one is definitely either a singularly better choice or an incorrect choice. Night vision has the bold power of manipulation that offers notorious wide visibility at night which is extremely useful for navigation and/or observation, whereas thermal imaging shows what the human eye cannot by providing a tactical advantage that fairly limits capabilities in ugly conditions. By ensuring you have selected the correct equipment and taken appropriate actions to maintain that equipment, you are transforming a highly advanced piece of optics technology into something you will rely on for insight when literally all else is dark.
