3 Stage Gen 1 Night Vision
I purchased a three stage Gen 1 tube from eBay last month. Bit bigger than a standard Gen 1, but a lot better image.
One I got was made in the UK in 1983. Its just the tube so I had to provide my own objective lens and eyepeice. Objective is a 50mm Camera lens and my first attempt at an eyepeice was a 20mm telescope eyepeice (which didnt work).
Here is it connected to a AA battery pack and laid out on wooden blocks to find the focal lengths.
I ended up cutting the eyepeice of a cheap 4x32mm scope and using that to magnify the phosphor screen and it worked great. Next step was to get some PVC tuving and couplers to hold it all together for some photographs and field use.
At some point I’ll replace the PVC with some kind of machined case, but for now its working fine.
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😆 Nato abandones these about 30 years ago. Even 3rd world countries have better equipment. But all in all very descent performance for the price. And a heck of a lot better than all the GEN1 stuff available commercially nowadays! With the exception of a few maybe. It’s a shame it’s so damn bulky!
Regards,
Marc
You should start buying these and paint them black. You sould be able to sell them to NATO for a tidy profit!
If not, may be some of the richer 3rd world countries would buy a train load of them from you. 😉 😀
Mike
I have an f1.2 coming in the mail. I had to beg of one of my wifes SLR lenses to make this and 1.7 it was.
And for anyone interested this is the tube Marc was talking about, its different to mine, and so is the price –
This is the type I purchased –
That ones from Israel, there’s a guy in the UK selling them for $16 shipping instead of $30.
I’ve had a couple of those. They can’t be beat for the price! But if you want to use it in really dark places bus as good a optics as you can find. Look for the F-stop F/2.8 is quite normal for 50mm lenses. Try for at least F/1.3 if you can. The image really benifits from this!
There is a xx2500 tube on ebay right now. That’s a pretty good tube!
I’ve made several nightvision scopes with the PH8079 you have, a mullard xx1335 tube, EI xx2500 and am nog working with a F9800 tube!
It’s not rocket sience and fun to do. Just check ebay once in a while foor cheap optics!
Some pics from somewhere that had less ambient light than the first set of pictures. Still did well – image I saw is brighter than picture, camera has a fit and makes it too dark.
So far I’m VERY impressed for something thats nearly as old as I am and cost me less than $100.
The light in background on next pic is from a car’s headlights on a road that runs behind the treeline just under 1/2 a mile way according to google earth.
Hey pretty f——- good dude, I can’t believe you are real ninja!!
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Yeah, but with a little new paint on the plastic pipe clothes, they will think it is the lates toys. Kinda like the chinese fake toy sniper scopes being sold as Mil Spec. HeeHee! 😉