Night Vision Info on Zeiss Orion Z51 Fero Night Vision Military Scope

[Rebels010]

There is one up for sale and I’m curious about these. For the most part I’ve avoided the night vision/thermal due to cost and actual usage for me. Could hunt hogs with it maybe 1-3 times a year. Didn’t want to buy anything cheap and just waste money. This one seems to get ok reviews for the money though. Price is $500 plus freight and it’s made in 1979. Should I just continue to stay away? Anything I should know or look for on these scopes?

 

[GotM118LR]

I have one I bought years ago. They actually work pretty well. Price is comparable to some of the digital scopes out there right now. With digital, you’re gonna get a clearer image but you MUST use a good IR illuminator. You can also use a digital device in areas where you are pointing toward lights in the background without and negative effects. The Z51 uses a cascade gen 1 tube and is on a completely different level than commercial gen 1 garbage. With the Z51, the image is gonna be less clear than digital, but it works passively (without supplemental IR) fairly well. Background lights cause heavy streaking in the image and aren’t good for the gen 1 tube. It’s not a gen 3 device by any means, but other than the background lighting issue, performance is decent and on par with a lot of gen 2 stuff.

Yeah, there’s way better stuff out there, but usually for way more money. For $500 it’s actually a decent buy.

 

[cake5150]

I have one I bought years ago. They actually work pretty well. Price is comparable to some of the digital scopes out there right now. With digital, you’re gonna get a clearer image but you MUST use a good IR illuminator. You can also use a digital device in areas where you are pointing toward lights in the background without and negative effects. The Z51 uses a cascade gen 1 tube and is on a completely different level than commercial gen 1 garbage. With the Z51, the image is gonna be less clear than digital, but it works passively (without supplemental IR) fairly well. Background lights cause heavy streaking in the image and aren’t good for the gen 1 tube. It’s not a gen 3 device by any means, but other than the background lighting issue, performance is decent and on par with a lot of gen 2 stuff.

Yeah, there’s way better stuff out there, but usually for way more money. For $500 it’s actually a decent buy.

Yep, what this guy said. I've owned six or eight of them. It is actually pretty mind-blowing how well they work, both for the time period they were designed in and for the price they sell for. As with anything surplus, condition is going to vary WILDLY. That goes for the exterior, functions, and the tube inside. I've had to tear down and fix at least two, one of mine and one for a friend, that had the focus limiter set wrong by whoever refurbished them in Germany before they were put in storage. I've got another one from a buddy in right now awaiting the same "surgery." A couple of the ones that I had I really hated to sell but it is also hard to justify keeping when you have a large array of smaller, lighter, more capable gen 3 devices. They positively smoke the PVS-2 scopes that I've owned, and those use the same three stage cascade type gen 1 image tube technology. Bottom line, get an inspection period if you are going to buy one. On a side note, the cases they come in seem to be designed to survive a direct hit from a Soviet MIRV.

 

[Potatomasher]

What does this "surgery" consist of? What to look for.. Etc.. I've recently picked up a very nice condition Z51 that when turned on the focus does not appear to be all that good compared to what I've seen in pics of the images these produce. Add some dancing light fairy dots located in and around the center of sight. Mine seems to improve a bit after a few minutes, especially after pointing it skyward and then back to a horizontal plane. There's something up with up it and looking for as much "learned" pointers on repairing these as possible. Thanks