I’ve been casually interested in getting a night vision device in the past but never got serious about it. 

What are current options/price ranges for NV for an “average Joe” like me? 

I’m thinking of having something in case I hear a big noise outside at midnight and want to look out a window without backlighting myself, possibly a device that can be rifle mounted too.  That means a monocular, right?

Is thermal still an expensive luxury, or are there options that are competitive with “green tubes”?

 

There are some cheap options for a few hundred that you can get off amazon if you just want to look out in your yard. I have a buddy who bought a set of binos for $200 or so and they worked much better than I thought. I think the PVS14 is the standard for the [probably above] average Joe. They can be had depending on sales/refurb for $2-3k. I know a couple guys that night hunt coyotes and they swear by them.

A inexpensive monocular isn't going to rifle mount.  The key to inexpensive night vison( gen 1 or 2) is as good an IR illuminator as you want to get.

28 minutes ago, DirtyDigz said:

Is thermal still an expensive luxury

Yes and no.  I've been flirting with buying a thermal scope for a couple of years.  The prices have come down quite a bit over the past 5 years and will come down even more when ATN or FLIR get their hands on more advanced tech.  You can get what is now considered a crappy scope for well under $2,000.00, but that same scope 10 years ago probably sold for 7 grand.

I'm waiting for the next best thing to emerge so I can jump on a thermal scope that has a 640 sensor, at least 60fps, and at least a 40mm objective.

What the forum experience with the digital day/night scopes at about $5-600?

.

Here is a much cheaper solution

 

Sightmark Wraith.

Pretty good scope.  Digital NV... not thermal. 

On 9/22/2019 at 9:47 PM, Maksim said:

Sightmark Wraith.

Pretty good scope.  Digital NV... not thermal. 

Sightmark, really?  A lot of their red dot stuff is crap.

I’ll take a look at it.

8 hours ago, DirtyDigz said:

Sightmark, really?  A lot of their red dot stuff is crap.

I’ll take a look at it.

Yes, but higher end stuff is QUITE good.

And for red dots, the new stuff is pretty dang good... like the mini shot m-spec.