[Azathoth]

Originally Posted by ThunderCactus

In terms of clarity and target ID, yes. In terms of gain and ease of walking around at night, iffy.
The main difference between gen2 and gen3 is that gen3's sensitivity peaks in the near IR spectrum, making it more effective for picking up the ambient IR light available at night.
Downside is if it's REALLY low end gen3, the lower resolution and lower SNR will affect your ability to ID targets.

It's a similar situation to comparing top end gen1 to bottom end gen2. The top end gen1 has excellent clarity and decent resolution, but the gain is shit. The bottom end gen2 has WAY better gain, but it just as ineffective as gen1 because the noise and resolution is so bad.

However as I said, the gen3 is operating in a different spectrum than gen1 and gen2. Ultimately it really comes out to dollars per effectiveness. If we're talking old ass like omni 2/3 tech, then I'd rather have a photonis SHP tube

been a long time since i posted anything. Frank I think you did a poor job of explaining it. Pictures for the under educated on the subject.



700 NM is nominally where IR truly starts. In the scientific literature the number is 750 as humans and some animals see bleed through in the 700 NM range. The above graph shows that GEN II tubes require VISIBLE light to get peak performance. The majority of what GEN II can detect is in the visible spectrum. Technically you can calculate the area under the curve of Gen 2 you will probably find that >66% of the amplification requires VISIBLE light.

I have seen the same graph with GEN 1 plotted on it. Basically Gen 1 doesn't ever go above 0.10 response under any light condition.

This graph is key to understanding why certain IR flashlights and IR glowsticks don't seem to 'work'. Military grade IR light sources are >800nm+

Most easily found civilian IR light sources:




Lets say that's 770nm. Basically if you are running Gen II you can see the response from the tubes are VERY poor when compared to Gen 3. Gen 3 is gathering no less 5 times more sensitive.







High performance Gen 2 is superior to OMNI I - III However, I haven't seen a Gen 3 Tube < OMNI IV ever. I can't ever recall seeing or reading of units with lower than OMNI III spec being available for sale ever. Ibso facto no gen 3 tube that is currently available would be inferior to a Gen 2 HD tube