Night Vision dual spectrum lights

[2bfarming]

I'd like to hear your experiences with lights that can switch from white to IR such as the surefire 952v.

I want one light for my gun and I need both spectrums. Are these lights better than the filter cap option which are nearly worthless?

Pro's and con's to the models you have used? The best option in your opinion for running with a 14 and a laser on an sbr.

 

[gyz77]

I have 4 and really like them. I run a Clip on so I have them mostly as a backup to my IR illuminator. Works ok for close up. 100% better than a cap!!

 

[shooter6.5]

WHEN i mount the pvs-14 on the SBR i use a d-lock. On and off quick. It is behind an eotech. Mostly helmet mounted. On the weapon-a ST X300, 500 lum white light. A Luna IR light and a Laser Devises CQB, dual use Laser. All are small and easily removeable except the SF. It is hell to get on and off so I leave it on.

Plenty of distance and a great combo. The SBR is a 6.8, 12.5 inch barrel.

I have tried just about every light that is both IR and visible and none match the current set up I run. Just not enough distance !!

 

[Strykervet]

I thought I just answered this same question a week or two ago... Anyway, the IR filters suck. Bad. I use 'em for white light covers on some old lights I have. In the dark, they just glow and that's about it. I think an IR chemlight would work about as good.

I also have the Surefire vert. grip. It came with the incandescent, but ate batteries like a MF. So after ten years of that, I just switched out the lamp with a new LED/IR head, and I like it. It is good for illumination in a room, building, whatever, but it doesn't do the same job as the illuminator on a PEQ-2A. Laser illuminators are in a league of their own.

In the future, if I need another weapon light, I'll probably get their 720V Raid. On the other hand, the grip light is pretty nice. Back in my room clearing days, I didn't think I'd like it at first but realized that the only time I used the grip was also the only time I needed the light and vice versa. So they got married.

There is a class 1 illuminator, I forget the name, but it illuminates nearly out to a mile? Looks like a regular, round flashlight and some NODs dealers sell 'em. Lots of folks talk about 'em. The laser illuminators just work better all around, I think.

FWIW, Newcon Optik makes lasers that are class 3 and available to the public. They make a nice laser range finder I'm interested in and I know the army uses some of their bigger ones (27km+). Now I don't know how the lasers measure up, I don't know anybody with one, but the specs look a lot like a PEQ-2A and they can't exactly be total junk if they are making $30,000 laser range finders.

 

[2bfarming]

Stryker, I think your thinking of the torch from tnvc which I hear is the shiznit for value and performance in the dedicated IR illum arena. It seems to me that with a 14 your range is fairly limited anyway so If you could get 100 yds of illum. from one of the dual spectrum lights that would be sufficient. Will any of the current models accomplish this?
I REALLY don't want two lights on my gun....ever. Let me clarify my setup. pvs 14 gen3 helmet mounted, LDI cqbl laser on top rail. need a quick detach IR white light combo.

 

[Strykervet]

Yeah, that sounds right. Torch.

That is about the closest I've seen to what the PEQ-2A's illuminator is capable of that civies can buy, save the Newcon Optik. I may try that out one day for giggles, since nobody else seems to have taken the plunge. It looks built better than a PEQ-2A and how hard is it to fuck up a laser anyway? A kid can build 'em, they're simple.

The dual band IR light works a lot like a regular flashlight. So at 100m, it'll be pretty dim if you see much at all. However, it will illuminate farther than regular white light will using the same source. It would be damn fine for 50-70m and under for anything you want to do with it, I'm sure, and may work well given prime conditions even farther.

The PEQ-2A uses collimated light. It is a laser flashlight. Nothing to compare it to but the KC Daylighter, the big lights on 4x4's? Only it goes even farther than those do.

With 14's I could regularly knock the shit out of IR chemlights at 300m and light up the whole damn range too. Don't underestimate how far you can hit shit with NODs on. You just can't identify targets discretely at long range, you have to go by how they are dressed or what their silhouette looks like.

In the past, I kept the PEQ on top, zeroed it stayed there, and I'd put a Surefire white light on the right side and connect it to a tape switch on the vert. grip (until I got the vert grip with light). I'd only put it on when I needed it. Most of us used 'em that way. An IR light was not needed due to the PEQ.

Dual band light is a perk, really. And if you don't need long range illumination or a laser, then it is really nice because then you have an all in one.

Did that help? I'm having a hard time conveying what I'm thinking right now, see, your idea of "illuminated" and mine may be two different things, because comparing collimated IR illuminators to LED ones is apples to oranges and very hard to explain unless you've seen 'em in action. Search for images of Surefire IR lights, and go to TNVC and look at the ads. They have pictures with the ranges given that give an idea of how well it'll work.

 

[2bfarming]

Thanks stryker

 

[IR-V]

I'd like to hear your experiences with lights that can switch from white to IR such as the surefire 952v.

I want one light for my gun and I need both spectrums. Are these lights better than the filter cap option which are nearly worthless?

Pro's and con's to the models you have used? The best option in your opinion for running with a 14 and a laser on an sbr.

The Surefire 952V gives 150 lumens white-light output, with a nominal 120 mW rating on the IR LED lamp. Performance-wise, the "sweet spot" of the white-light illumination of the 952V goes out to around 175-200 yards, giving clean, bright illumination that is useful for target recognition at that distance for a "field of view" of about 20 yards. Comparable "sweet spot" from the IR output of the 952V, as viewed from a PVS-14, is at around 50 yards max, or 1/4 the effective range of the white light lamp in the same device.

The combo (VIS + IR) LED illuminators typically compromise on the intensity on the IR output in exchange for the convenience of having both VIS and IR switchable from the same lamp. In my opinion, the Surefire X300 Ultra (500 lumen LED white light output) and the LDI SPIR (600 mW rated IR LED) is a superb illuminator pairing with massive performance to size ratio. The X300 Ultra gives effective, visible illumination out to around 400-450 yards, while the SPIR will give comparable intensity (when viewed with PVS-14) out to 600-650 yards.

What's right for you, depends on your intended application. For example, if your work is mostly indoors in rooms / enclosures averaging 400 to 1500 square feet, even the "crappy performing" IR filter over an incandescent visible lamp rated at 120 lumens output is going to give plenty of useful IR illumination for identification.

IR-V