Welp, with due respect to my fellow forum buds who I beat-out in the PX for this CNVD-T, I present to you the latest thoroughbred added to the stables at Horta Acres — the gracefully aging L3 CNVD-T:
You can clearly see and feel the pedigree of the CNVD-T imparted to Junior (CRATOS). The LWTS sits between the two, but it is appreciably larger than either. You can see the three L3 stallions sandwiched between the superlative BAE/Trijicon units (SkeetIR-x and UTC-x). The CRATOS is noticeably smaller and weighs about 4 ouces less than than good ol’ PopPop. Also, the CRATOS objective is larger while being smaller and lighter overall.
Both Gramps and Junior have 640x480 OLED displays, but the Old Timer has a 320x240 sensor. If I had to guess, the CNVD-T and the MTM/PAS-23 share the same sensor and screen, but in different packages with different mission envelopes. The MTM and Gramps present a very similar view TTL.
My particular unit is a L3 dealer demo unit that was originally manufactured in OCT 2010!
While the MTM is a power-hungry Cookie Monster that likes to suck down a fresh set of two SF CR123A’s in 2 hours flat, the CNVD-T sips power from 4 lithium AA’s that will get you 8 full hours of runtime.
When it comes down to brass tacks, however — image performance, practical detection range, etc — Gramps gets left behind. PopPop is racing in his walker while Junior is a Top Fuel dragster. Where the rubber meets the road, the CRATOS is one giant leap for Thermalkind, while the CNVD-T is a small hop by comparison.
The SkeetIR-x is still the image quality king of commercially available “Unity” (true 1x magnification) thermals. Image-wise and feature-wise, the CRATOS takes the Silver Medal and looks up to the SkeetIR standing on the Gold Medal podium — but not by much!
For the same price, I’d take the Skeet 10 out of 10 times — again, personally. Skeet can be handheld, weapon mounted (dedicated), used as a clip-on, and — my favorite feature — is made to be helmet mounted! That ticks just about every box and it does almost all of them EXCEPTIONALLY well. The CRATOS, on the other hand, is primarily designed to be weapon-mounted as either a dedicated or clip-on scope. As a clip-on, it is a hair superior to the SkeetIR, but that’s the only category where I’d give the win to the CRATOS. Both Junior and Skeet have IR lasers, but Skeet has two more party pieces up its sleeve — and both are potentially huge advantages: 1) Skeet has full TracIR support, which CRATOS lacks entirely and 2) Skeet can run on external power, and CRATOS **can’t** — even if you manage to snag the mystical CRATOS split cable! To top it all off, Skeet is MUCH lighter and smaller than CRATOS, so as a package, Skeet has zero peers (not even the forthcoming Nox can compete). The only challenger — the Pixels on Target Voodoo S — might be a real challenger, but we may never see it come to market.
Back to the CNVD-T... just like the MTM, it was the Big Swinging Dick “back in the day” and, for something that rolled off the assembly line literally a decade ago, it still performs quite admirably. For the $5K I paid for the full, like-new kit, that’s about what I think it’s worth, but no more. Any modern clip-on, from a pure image-only perspectice, will outperform the CNVD-T. If you have experience with the MTM, you know exactly what the view through Gramps looks like. But compared to his grandson — the CRATOS — Junior runs image circles around Gramps, although I think Pops still holds his head high in the Geritol Thermals.
You can clearly see and feel the pedigree of the CNVD-T imparted to Junior (CRATOS). The LWTS sits between the two, but it is appreciably larger than either. You can see the three L3 stallions sandwiched between the superlative BAE/Trijicon units (SkeetIR-x and UTC-x). The CRATOS is noticeably smaller and weighs about 4 ouces less than than good ol’ PopPop. Also, the CRATOS objective is larger while being smaller and lighter overall.
Both Gramps and Junior have 640x480 OLED displays, but the Old Timer has a 320x240 sensor. If I had to guess, the CNVD-T and the MTM/PAS-23 share the same sensor and screen, but in different packages with different mission envelopes. The MTM and Gramps present a very similar view TTL.
My particular unit is a L3 dealer demo unit that was originally manufactured in OCT 2010!
While the MTM is a power-hungry Cookie Monster that likes to suck down a fresh set of two SF CR123A’s in 2 hours flat, the CNVD-T sips power from 4 lithium AA’s that will get you 8 full hours of runtime.
When it comes down to brass tacks, however — image performance, practical detection range, etc — Gramps gets left behind. PopPop is racing in his walker while Junior is a Top Fuel dragster. Where the rubber meets the road, the CRATOS is one giant leap for Thermalkind, while the CNVD-T is a small hop by comparison.
The SkeetIR-x is still the image quality king of commercially available “Unity” (true 1x magnification) thermals. Image-wise and feature-wise, the CRATOS takes the Silver Medal and looks up to the SkeetIR standing on the Gold Medal podium — but not by much!
For the same price, I’d take the Skeet 10 out of 10 times — again, personally. Skeet can be handheld, weapon mounted (dedicated), used as a clip-on, and — my favorite feature — is made to be helmet mounted! That ticks just about every box and it does almost all of them EXCEPTIONALLY well. The CRATOS, on the other hand, is primarily designed to be weapon-mounted as either a dedicated or clip-on scope. As a clip-on, it is a hair superior to the SkeetIR, but that’s the only category where I’d give the win to the CRATOS. Both Junior and Skeet have IR lasers, but Skeet has two more party pieces up its sleeve — and both are potentially huge advantages: 1) Skeet has full TracIR support, which CRATOS lacks entirely and 2) Skeet can run on external power, and CRATOS **can’t** — even if you manage to snag the mystical CRATOS split cable! To top it all off, Skeet is MUCH lighter and smaller than CRATOS, so as a package, Skeet has zero peers (not even the forthcoming Nox can compete). The only challenger — the Pixels on Target Voodoo S — might be a real challenger, but we may never see it come to market.
Back to the CNVD-T... just like the MTM, it was the Big Swinging Dick “back in the day” and, for something that rolled off the assembly line literally a decade ago, it still performs quite admirably. For the $5K I paid for the full, like-new kit, that’s about what I think it’s worth, but no more. Any modern clip-on, from a pure image-only perspectice, will outperform the CNVD-T. If you have experience with the MTM, you know exactly what the view through Gramps looks like. But compared to his grandson — the CRATOS — Junior runs image circles around Gramps, although I think Pops still holds his head high in the Geritol Thermals.
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