Night Vision Comparing Various Tubes

[GBMaryland]

I've got a fair amount of NV tubes that I've been playing with for years (generally for entry level astronomy and checking out the weirdos in the State park behind my house).

I've got unfilmed L3 tube with an ICT power supply, Photonis XR5, Photonis SuperGen, Photonis Intens, ITT Pinnacle (OMNI VII era), and various REALLY old stuff that works in PVS-4/TVS-5 systems.

Except for one system, all of these at AB Nightvision Mod 3 housings.

Since I got the wife unit an iPhone II Pro, I wanted to see if taking pictures of tubes would work well when attached to a TS-4348/UV NV device tester.

First up, ICT repotted L3 Unfilmed tube:

High light > Low light II > Low Light III


You can clearly see the scintillation in the low light photons... and I'm not at all sure that I did on the very low light setting (III) which is meant for the AVS-6 [according this old tester]. NOTE: The Mk1 Eyeball can actually see line separation in the middle of the test pattern, while the camera can not focus enough.

Second we have a Phontis Intens white tube, which is really a blue tube. (The blue is supposed to use more of your eye's ability to see, and it works well. Though green has always been better for me, the blue doesn't seem to strain my eyes as much. ...but everyone is different.)



As you can see... there is not a significant difference... but I can tell you that the unfilmed tube seems to contrast better when viewed with the naked eye.

Functionally, the Photonis tube seems to handle high light really well. I can't test that with the ICT/L3 tube... as it's suffers from high light cathode poisoning. (Otherwise, it works pretty damn well in the dark... just not as intended.)

BOTH of the tubes displayed have what I can only call a refresh conflict with the iPhone. Interesting.

On to a Photonis XR5:

What's interesting here is that the green of this tube is different. It's GREEN-GREEN, which my Mk 1 eyeball doesn't love. You can also see that the tube isn't as clean as the other two... but it's actually pretty good. Though not as much in low-low light...

 

[GBMaryland]

Next up ITT Pinicle OMNI VII era [milspec aviation tube] Gen 3 tube:

It had a very limited focus range for the center of the test pattern, and it may be because it's a PVS-14 housing.



Lastly, a Photonis XX1940 aka SuperGen:

This is, without a doubt, the worst of the bunch. ...but hey, I've got it, it works, and if you are using it vs good 'ol American know how... you're gonna miss something.



Let's see if we can put em all together...

 

[GBMaryland]

Comparing very low light on the tester...




Bottom picture:

It interesting that the Low III setting on the tester got the best pictures from the ITT Pinnacle OMNI 7 contract tube.

Then it's the L3 which slightly edges out the Photonis Intens...

The ITT tube is in a PVS-14, and it makes me wonder if the optics are also better... or different enough. Also, I'm wondering if the camera likes green better than the blue of the Intens.

 

[GBMaryland]

I figured out why the Photonis tubes were not showing as well in the Low III setting on the tester, especially compared to the Unflimed and Pinnacle tubes... I forgot that these tubes have a gain adjustment, which was at 60%:

Picture 1 is a tube with a 64lp/mm resolution, but decent gain.

Picture 2 is a tube with 72+lp/mm, and you can see the slight difference.

Keep in mind that these tubes on the tester is VERY faint... so the camera has done a time lapse exposure to ensure the viewable image.

 

[TNVC_Will]

Cool, thanks for sharing. If you have the data sheets, I'd be interested what the Intens photocathode sensitivity is (if it's listed). The Echo WP I had and other Echo sheets I've seen don't list it.