Hi!
I have three night vision (NV) devices; one gen1+ and two digital.
I did a lot of reading of reviews, which I could evaluate against my own experiences of NV from my service (although this is now many years ago, and much has happened on the military grade equipments. We had then gen 2+ at the best). An interesting observation for the reviews is that people either love or hate the affordable NV devices. Some feel they fit their expectations, other have had much too high expectations
Each one of my NV has been of less than about 200E. You can get pretty useful gear for that price if you first decide what you are going to use it for. This is very important to avoid disappointment. Some NV is like comparing a pair of binoculars with a spotting scope, both can be good for a certain task, but catastrophic for the other. My devices are all monocular, as I find the binocular ones too expensive for the gain you may get. But this is again depending on what you want to use it for.
All my devices have built in IR flashlight. In this price range the use of IR is a must, especially for the digital ones, but gen1+ is also not giving much amplification of ambient light. You can use them without IR if ambient light equals the full moon. However, a good 7x42 or 7x50 binocular would be at least as good in most occasions. In my opinion, the built in IR flashlight in all my devices are really good, certainly sufficient for more or less the useful range of the device (set by mainly magnification and resolution). I have, however, complemented with an external IR flashlight (VkTech Ultrafire MPN UF-T20 for 22E) and an IR laser (Pulsar L-808S for 110E). They can be attached to an NV device with the tripod socket or a gun sight rail (you may have to buy this stuff separately for a couple of euros). Using an external IR increases the useful distance of the device (depending on the magnification and resolution), and when looking for animals they may increase the distance to which one can see eye-reflections (eyes reflect IR as good as visible light) to hundreds of meters. ). External IR also saves battery life of the device, battery the built in IR drains battery fast. I find that the IR flashlight and the laser works about equally good, the laser being more leight weight, and the flashlight being cheaper.
My gen1+ device is an ATN Night Trek 3x42. It is sold under many brands and for prices varying between 100E and 300E. I paid 110E. It is good enough for looking at dog-sized animals to about 75m, but you can see them fairly well to 150m if using external IR. I use it to scan areas as the FoV is pretty wide and the image is more comfortably “analog” (or “optical”) than the digital devices (if you can accept the edge image distortion surrounding the reasonably sharp sweet spot). I have also noticed that children have a little easier to see with the analog device than the digital, although they prefer the digital ones for their added feature of taking photos/video). Good with the gen1+ device is also that you can save a lot of battery by not needing to have it on all the time. You simply give it a boost with the on/off switch and then it works for a minute or two on the charge it gets. It runs on a battery type that is less common, but still readily available on amazon at low cost.
After having scanned an area and spotted some animals I may want to change to my Bestguarder 6x50 digital NV. It can easily see a dog up to 250m. Again, this is a device sold under various brand names, mostly for about the same price (about 200E), although some specs on the electronics can differ. The Bestguarder have relatively high photo/video resolution. This digital device has a much narrower FoV, and is a little more fiddly than the Night Trek (the digital images tend to be somewhat more extreme in difference betwen whites and blacks compared to the smoother, optical image of the gen1+), but it gives much more detail in the image, and at greater distance. Compare it with a spotting scope vs binoculars (But dont compare the magnifications of NV to those of your optical binoculars! The actual magnification is the same, sure, but the “behavior” of the NV device is much more like that of binoculars/spotting scopes of higher magnification, i.e. 3x is maximum what one can compare with a binocular of up to 10x in how to handle it, and 6x is behaving like a spotting scope of 20x or higher, working best on a tripod or monopod). Great with the digital NV is that it can take still photos and video, which is really very very fun! But the narrow FoV of the 6x NV makes it almost hopeless for scanning an area. It runs on regular AA batteries. The built in IR is so good that I find no need for the external IR other than to save batteries and to detect eye-reflections at great distances. The Bestguarder is also the heaviest and bulkiest of my NV devices. It is my “spotting scope”.
My most recent purchase is the Bresser 3x14 digital NV. Again, it comes under many brand names and various prices. I paid 125E. It has a FoV similar to the Night Trek. It can take photos/video, but at lower resolution than the Bestguarder. It does not have the reach of the Bestguarder (both due to the lower magnification and the lower resolution). I have not tried it extensively yet, but I find that is best suited for similar distances and purposes as the Night Trek. It is very easy to handle, and pocket size. It runs on regular AA batteries. The view is very detailed and clear to about 75m. The built in IR is sufficient for that task. I think it will make my Night Trek gen1+ obsolete.
In summary, for a short range watching like of the garden area, owls in trees, and animals in the fields when spotting from the car, I think the Bresser 3x14 is really fun. I only appreciate the ATN gen1+ for its cool “feeling” of classic green NV, and the, in some way, comfortable optical view (But certainly, the digital devices gives MUCH more detail). For looking at animals at a longer range, for instance when trying to spot otters when stationary in a hiding place, or spotting wolves at hundreds of meters distance from the car window, then I find the Bestguarder 6x50 unbeatable.
The two types of devices complement eachother (like binoculars and spotting scopes). If I tried to use any of the devices in a way they are not optimized for I would get greatly disappointed.
There are many NV devices to choose from, but in this price range up to 250E I have found no better than these.
I hope this was helpful!
