Night Vision PVS-4 vs PVS-24 vs TVS-5

GBMaryland

Herr Oberst
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  • Feb 24, 2008
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    So,

    I recently picked up a PVS-24 Omega.

    Until recently, I've been using nothing by Gen III PVS-4 and TVS-5 units that I pretty much rebuilt. (It's amazing what new surplus parts you can find if you wait long enough.)

    Now, the PVS-4 has a 95mm objective and the TVS-5 has a 155mm objective.

    It's interesting. A 34 year old weapon sight system with Gen III (Litton) MX-11620 tubes, aside fron signal to noise ratio, is pretty impressive compared to the PVS-24.

    Where the newer technology seems to do best is: S/N ratio, halo, and weight.

    However, when you don't turn up the gain on the PVS-4 or the TVS-5... they are every bit as nice as the PVS-24 tube.

    Now, granted, these are not apples to apples in comparison. It's just interesting to see how nice the older units perform.