Night Vision Weird atmospherics hobble the best thermals!

[TheHorta]

So, I pulled out the Tigger tonight to fondle a bit. Stuck it on the SCAR-20 in front of a SB 3-27x56 HP. First thing I noticed was how abysmal the image was. It’s cold and damp out — low 30’s, overcast, just has rain. No fog or wet feeling, but probably high humidity.

Everything was just soup, no definition at all. Critters stand out well, but all other inanimate objects are just... blah.

So I grab a UTC and... same thing.

CNVD-T is even worse.

Halo-LR is blech!

ReapIR v2 60mm... ugh!

ChinaSkeet is meh.

Skeets are blah too.

I’d love to see how @Eliteuas Recon V would perform in this atmospheric soup. Because no LWIR does very well.

 

[gthirteen]

See, man! Image intensification is useful...

 

[j-dubya]

C’mon god... that’s because you’re still on thermal.

Switch back to starlight...

 

[Reload10]

Look through the swir said the blind man

 

[WhereNow&How]

Everything was just soup, no definition at all. Critters stand out well, but all other inanimate objects are just... blah.

Yep, but that doesn't really bother me too much. I dont shoot inanimate objects. Just show me the critter.

I actually prefer Arctic in the Flir line when shooting hogs because it basically turns the inanimate objects into "a soup of blue" whilst the live critter is a glowing Hot Iron image. The contrast is spectacular IMHO.

This greatly improves contrast for a set of black cross hairs to more precisely be aligned and leading on a running target such that your leads are more accurate and precise. Puts you down in the "tunnel fully focused" so to speak.

Lots of people want to see thermal according to or similar to what they see with their native eyes. That is how they determine how good a particular thermal imager is. Not me. Show me its performance on the live critter. If the algorithms are written such that the critter is the central focus of processing power, I am happy.

 

[KYAggie]

Sounds like a first world problem ; one I wish I had. I got 99 problems, but crappy atmospheric conditions for thermal NV isn’t one, sadly. I would gladly trade all my other problems for it though, won’t even charge you extra, I’ll even pay the shipping!

 

[shoots100]

So, I pulled out the Tigger tonight to fondle a bit. Stuck it on the SCAR-20 in front of a SB 3-27x56 HP. First thing I noticed was how abysmal the image was. It’s cold and damp out — low 30’s, overcast, just has rain. No fog or wet feeling, but probably high humidity.

Everything was just soup, no definition at all. Critters stand out well, but all other inanimate objects are just... blah.

So I grab a UTC and... same thing.

CNVD-T is even worse.

Halo-LR is blech!

ReapIR v2 60mm... ugh!

ChinaSkeet is meh.

Skeets are blah too.

I’d love to see how @Eliteuas Recon V would perform in this atmospheric soup. Because no LWIR does very well.

Buy once, cry once.
You need to get rid of those junk thermals.
The thermal vision app on my flip phone works great in all types of weather and a retired air recon seal ranger sea bee told me that they used it to kill Osama !!!!

 

[jeffl838]

I was out in auburn last night and had the same issue on thermal. Was glad I had head mounted i2 on my mountain bike and not thermals

 

[obk]

Is the issue the mass/thermal capacity of cold, humid air?

 

[tangloppen]

Well, now you have a excuse to buy an INOD...

No matter what, LWIR is only for mere peasants, MWIR is only possessed by the true kings of the piggy world...

 

[Killswitch Engage]

had the same situation the other night with a low ceiling, cold air mass and high cold north wind. even though the humidity wasnt outrageous the image from the cold air mass being trapped by the low cloud ceiling made for one of the worst thermal images ive seen even compared to rain and fog. big pig pvs-27 looked like a fucking boss tho. theres still very much a spot for i2....

 

[spife7980]

Is the issue the mass/thermal capacity of cold, humid air?

Probably somewhat but when its cold and had just rained everything gets soaked with cold wet rain so everything becomes the same cold wet palate. Thermal is a contrast game, you need differential temps, hot vs cold. When its all gotten washed in the same temp wet soup rain its all the same shade.

I find when its been the same temp all day (particularly cold cloudy days with little sun energy to heat stuff up) that the image is boring and washed out, when its been hot and then cools down everything cools are different speeds so its all different shades and you get much more vivid detail.

Thats for the background though, the critters will always be hot and glowing.

 

[COTTON_00]

I'm located in southeast Nebraska and have had the same problem lately it's been cold foggy what felt like 2 weeks straight with snow on the ground. So when I go to the reap 60 it's a straight washed image no detail but the deer critters ect can be picked up easily and I could easily identify deer at 700+ yards so next I go to the lwts lr same conditions scopes side by side walla clear image detail is very useable ect. like I said we had this weather what felt like 2 weeks so I was testing these thermals side by side every night with same results. Since then then the fog has lifted and warm front has come thru and that image on the reap is once again amazing.

 

[obk]

Do different thermals have the ability to adjust the scaling of the contrast gradient? I'm thinking kind of like how you can use focal length on binos to see 'through' vegetation.

Better still, is there a good goto resource for learning the basics of these systems/their variety?

 

[TheHorta]

Most thermals have the ability to crank up the gain, but in these conditions it’s of limited benefit.

Cooled thermals (MWIR) are better.

SWIR really isn’t thermal. It’s closer to NV in how it behaves compared to MWIR/LWIR.