Night Vision Any experience/opinion on the SiOnyx Aurora?

[YYCADM]

I recently purchased this unit, primarily for SAR and some predator hunting (coyote). While my experience with NVD’s /thermal is mostly older gen stuff, FLIR Scout, I’m pretty impressed by this device.
720P/60fps full color recordable video, stills, built in time lapse, pano & burst modes, electronic compass & GPS on-board, wi-fi pairing to smartphone app, water resistant to IP67 standard, really nice, solid build quality, red dot/holographic/magnified optics compatibility, recoil tolerant...and I’m very surprised at the quality of the imaging.

Three selectable settings; day, twilight and night vision mode. It’s marketed as an action cam with night vision, but it is a legit starlight monocular. Claiming 40 new patents, it is fully digital, using new light absorbing materials on a one inch sensor, they claim ISO of 812,000.

I’ve been putting it through it’s paces and it has enormous applications in SAR and shooting. With an IR illuminator it more than holds it’s own with a friends PVS 14, with the advantage of full color imaging (or selectable grey or green scale if that’s a preference). It gives up nothing to the 14 in terms of range; I think (and my buddy grudgingly agrees) objects are discernible at more range with the SiOnyx.

I know there is/has been plenty of debate for years about digital vs. Analogue...I have no opinion; I’m most interested in what really works. Of course military grade equipment blows the doors off this and anything else the civilian market has ...but we can’t access it & if we could, the vast majority would find it cost prohibitive.

So...has anyone tried one of these? What were your impressions?

 

[Killswitch Engage]

we just purchased one. i would concur with your experience with it. they are every impressive for digital tech. i dont feel its obviously on par with gen 3 nv it is definitely right there with high end gen 2 stuff.

 

[derk]

I recently purchased this unit, primarily for SAR and some predator hunting (coyote). While my experience with NVD’s /thermal is mostly older gen stuff, FLIR Scout, I’m pretty impressed by this device.
720P/60fps full color recordable video, stills, built in time lapse, pano & burst modes, electronic compass & GPS on-board, wi-fi pairing to smartphone app, water resistant to IP67 standard, really nice, solid build quality, red dot/holographic/magnified optics compatibility, recoil tolerant...and I’m very surprised at the quality of the imaging.

Three selectable settings; day, twilight and night vision mode. It’s marketed as an action cam with night vision, but it is a legit starlight monocular. Claiming 40 new patents, it is fully digital, using new light absorbing materials on a one inch sensor, they claim ISO of 812,000.

I’ve been putting it through it’s paces and it has enormous applications in SAR and shooting. With an IR illuminator it more than holds it’s own with a friends PVS 14, with the advantage of full color imaging (or selectable grey or green scale if that’s a preference). It gives up nothing to the 14 in terms of range; I think (and my buddy grudgingly agrees) objects are discernible at more range with the SiOnyx.

I know there is/has been plenty of debate for years about digital vs. Analogue...I have no opinion; I’m most interested in what really works. Of course military grade equipment blows the doors off this and anything else the civilian market has ...but we can’t access it & if we could, the vast majority would find it cost prohibitive.

So...has anyone tried one of these? What were your impressions?

After the "Claiming 40 new patents" line and only 1 post on here, I think its safe to assume you work for SiOnyx? (rhetorical question)

 

[YYCADM]

After the "Claiming 40 new patents" line and only 1 post on here, I think its safe to assume you work for SiOnyx? (rhetorical question)

No, I don’t work for them, or anyone else; I’m retired actually. I don’t even live in the same country, if it matters. I paid full price for mine, and as I said in the first line purchased it for search and rescue, which I do as a volunteer and have for a very long time
Sorry if I offended your sensibilities without say Hi first. I searched the forum and saw no mention of it, so I thought it would be alright to ask. We good now?

 

[Rootshot]

I just bought one of these and have been playing with it. Agree with the comments on value for price. I was blown away with the performance once I paired it with an IR illuminator. My picatinny mount for it is arriving soon. I'm placing it behind a Vortex red dot that has an NV mode (very low dot brightness).

The wifi connection to a phone app has been a bit flaky... I hope they improve this over time. It is cool that when you connect to the app, it uses this to push new firmware to the camera.

I'm not sure how water resistant this unit is in the field. The plug protecting the data / charging connector is a bit unimpressive. Likewise, the entire viewer assembly slides out to access the battery and data card. This doesn't appear water resistant at all and exposes internal connectors.

For daytime hunting, I also plan to take advantage of the recoil activated recording mode to capture +/- 15 seconds video when shooting. The only trick is mounting this outside of the line of sight while keeping the video upright. For example, I plan on mounting this to a small right side rail on my shotgun for bird hunting but this will rotate video 90 degrees....I guess I can use software to fix this after recording.

 

[The King]

Used one quite a bit:

1. It doesn’t really replace a head mounted pcs-14. Why? It’s output lens is small and difficult to look through when compared to the insanely effective 14 lens.

2. With an illuminator it seems to work quite well. It’s a GREAT NV camera for use doing recordings and such.

It works Ok without the illuminator. Again like a g2 unit.

3. Doesn’t seem waterproof really.

All in all very worth the money. I’m considering putting one in a housing on the hood of my truck with IR rigid LEDs and a display inside.

 

[PlinkIt]

I was actually very impressed the first couple times I took the little camera out to look around. The times it seems to really shine is twilight and half Moon or greater nights. On those times that there is a good bit of light, but not enough for my eyes to see everything, this little camera manages to give you ALOT of help seeing what's going on. And the fact it still comes in color tones is helpful. We also use it when it's still a good bit of light out to check all the IR lasers & illuminators for the evening. I actually used one last night to align an illuminator with a shotgun before we went hunting for the evening. It was too bright to have the pvs14 out but the camera let us get ready earlier.

Now when there is little moon, or cloud cover, or shadows such as in the woods.... This thing is thrown in the bottom of a bag and the pvs14 is used. Because the grainy digital output plus anything hiding in some shadow completely out of sight. I think Huey outdoors has a couple videos up on YouTube still that will give you a very good comparison of the two.

I'm glad I bought it, and it's likely perfect for deer hunters wanting to scan an opening just before dawn, or after dusk. And full moon nights I'll scan with the camera over the pvs14. But if we go play in the DARK... It's not going to compete at all.

 

[Rootshot]

I'm not sure if anyone has tried this, but I mounted the Aurora to my hunting rifle. I set the triggered recording to recoil activation. The "BARSKA AI13212 30mm Ring with Picatinny Top Rail" I got from Amazon was used added a small pic rail to my 30mm scope. It's not the greatest quality but it fits the need.

 

[Almonz]

I am building a helmet setup utilizing one currently. There is a long thread going on arfcom right now discussing this very topic. Mostly everyone who has one has mainly positive things to say.

 

[Rootshot]

Soooo...... I'm prepping for a hunt and finally take the Aurora to the range to see how works with it's recoil activated recording mode. I was deeply disappointed that the viewfinder assembly pops loose after every shot and no video is recorded. This was on a lightweight 308 rifle with a muzzle brake. I filed out a support request online but didn't hear back. I then called support a few days later gave the very nice person on the other line all the info (he wasn't a tech) and didn't hear anything back.

I padded the viewfinder assembly with a few strategically placed 1mm thick 3M self adhesive strips of closed cell foam. This is to create a tighter fit to the main camera housing. I go back to the range yesterday and try out this hack. It works, the viewfinder remains solidly in place. The only problem now is.....still no video recording.

After recoil-activation recording fails, I try manually starting the video and then placing the camera on the rifle. No luck. Nothing gets recorded. Recording while hand-holding the camera works fine. It appears that there is a loose component causing the camera to shut down during recoil.

I called support again today and added this new bit of info to my ticket. I was assured that this will be escalated and I can expect to hear back soon. As cool as this camera is, my customer experience is pretty low right now.

 

[Rootshot]

Soooo...... I'm prepping for a hunt and finally take the Aurora to the range to see how works with it's recoil activated recording mode. I was deeply disappointed that the viewfinder assembly pops loose after every shot and no video is recorded. This was on a lightweight 308 rifle with a muzzle brake. I filed out a support request online but didn't hear back. I then called support a few days later gave the very nice person on the other line all the info (he wasn't a tech) and didn't hear anything back.

I padded the viewfinder assembly with a few strategically placed 1mm thick 3M self adhesive strips of closed cell foam. This is to create a tighter fit to the main camera housing. I go back to the range yesterday and try out this hack. It works, the viewfinder remains solidly in place. The only problem now is.....still no video recording.

After recoil-activation recording fails, I try manually starting the video and then placing the camera on the rifle. No luck. Nothing gets recorded. Recording while hand-holding the camera works fine. It appears that there is a loose component causing the camera to shut down during recoil.

I called support again today and added this new bit of info to my ticket. I was assured that this will be escalated and I can expect to hear back soon. As cool as this camera is, my customer experience is pretty low right now.

Followup..... tl;dr - this company has their heads up their butts when it comes to customer support.

After submitting an online ticket and calling twice, I FINALLY received a callback from their support team yesterday. As before, these appear to be generic outsourced support team members who are nice human beings but are constrained to following a flowchart of common problems and aren't empowered enough to even send me an email.

After two calls with them yesterday afternoon, they asked me to submit my receipt so that they can exchange the camera....no case number assigned, nothing. I promptly did this only to receive the following message:

"Thanks for the information below. I see that you purchased from retailer OpticsPlanet, so while our support line was able to assist with troubleshooting and advice, we would not be handling the RMA process itself. Please contact OpticsPlanet and they can assist with the RMA, or you can use their RMA webpage here to complete the RMA online: https://www.opticsplanet.com/rma

Best regards,
Kelly"

Arrrgh... what waste of time. Since my bear hunt is next week, I won't be able to complete the exchange in time.

Deeply disappointed.....

 

[Strangedays]

I have been seeing these advertisements on Facebook, Instagram you name it.
I don’t remember seeing round counts on life of product. Like these claim 4,000 rounds life on an m4. I don’t think any of the night vision devices I purchased in the past claimed a round count. They also weren’t this cheap though.

 

[Rootshot]

IMHO - This is not a device to be used for anything but casual hobby use.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I'm not sure if anyone has tried this, but I mounted the Aurora to my hunting rifle. I set the triggered recording to recoil activation. The "BARSKA AI13212 30mm Ring with Picatinny Top Rail" I got from Amazon was used added a small pic rail to my 30mm scope. It's not the greatest quality but it fits the need.

We had a picatinny mount, their Aurora's gen 2 version, which was problematic. I had it on my rifle and didn't get it situated properly because the thing tended to stick and not close fully. Anyway, here is the video from that night...



As best as I can tell from the numerous nights out, 70% moon or better is needed for night use, assuming no clouds or fog. >75% is better. We have certainly had some fun with it and gotten some neat video, but the number of nights during the month that meet the lighting requirement are few.

Other examples:
97% illumination with light clouds...


57.7% illumination testing, grainy image, not great at all.


No moon, IR illuminator, too far to be useful (185 yards)

 

[Bevo]

I built a dual Aurora helmet setup the last couple of months during covid boredom. Haven't really gotten out and used it yet...too damn hot and my place doesn't have any hogs on it right now. Supposed to get a TNVC TOR-Mini IR laser on Saturday so maybe I'll get out this weekend.

Team Wendy EXFIL LTP
Battery supply is dual anker astro E1 6700mAh
Norotos Rhino II
Norotos Dovetail socket
Inforce WML IR/White

Not shown are Peltor Tac 100s with gel cups on the Team Wendy Peltor QR adapters

 

[DownRangeThermal]

I played with the new PRO model the other night and that new sensor is a dramatic improvement!

 

[MarinePMI]

I played with the new PRO model the other night and that new sensor is a dramatic improvement!

Please, do tell....

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I played with the new PRO model the other night and that new sensor is a dramatic improvement!

I am waiting on the side by side comparison.

 

[Longshot231]

I'm curious about the rating for the round count. So they claim it's good for 4000 rounds of a 5.556 from an M-4.

Being new to NV, I would like to know what happens after 4000 rounds. Does that mean that they cannot guarantee the reliability of the device? Does it mean that it stops working altogether? Enquiring minds want to know.

If I pair this up in front of a low power scope, will it require re-zeroing the weapon? They claim that his can be mounted in front of a scope but I'm skeptical.

What about behind an Eotech with NV capability? Will it require re-zeroing the weapon?

I realize that I could do better for serious tactical or self-defense work by getting more expensive equipment but for varmints at close range and low-recoil weapons would this fit the bill?

I see that Sionyx has a $75 rebate with a free IR illuminator deal online with a purchase of their camera. Is it a good deal or not?

 

[Bevo]

I'm curious about the rating for the round count. So they claim it's good for 4000 rounds of a 5.556 from an M-4.

Being new to NV, I would like to know what happens after 4000 rounds. Does that mean that they cannot guarantee the reliability of the device? Does it mean that it stops working altogether? Enquiring minds want to know.

If I pair this up in front of a low power scope, will it require re-zeroing the weapon? They claim that his can be mounted in front of a scope but I'm skeptical.

What about behind an Eotech with NV capability? Will it require re-zeroing the weapon?

I realize that I could do better for serious tactical or self-defense work by getting more expensive equipment but for varmints at close range and low-recoil weapons would this fit the bill?

I see that Sionyx has a $75 rebate with a free IR illuminator deal online with a purchase of their camera. Is it a good deal or not?

Not sure about the round count stuff, but I upgraded to thermal and still have my dual Aurora setup if you're interested. PM me if so.