I do not remember off top of my head exactly what the increments are on the Manticore / how many “steps” it has, however, I would certainly say it’s got a more than sufficient adjustment range to fine tune to your liking.

While I understand why it may seem preferable to have a theoretically infinite level of adjustment on a rotary knob, in practical use, IMHO, you may be overthinking it, and e.g., the AN/PVS-31A has a rotary gain dial, however it too is adjusting in “steps,” you can feel the detents “click” as you spin the knob, which I’ve never heard of being a major issue in actual use. In actual use, most people adjust the gain a lot less than they imagine they will, as the tube ABC actually generally works pretty well (I’m sure someone will be along to say “nuh uh, I use mine all the time”—again, I am generalizing, there are of course exceptions).

The Manticore has a similar number of “steps” as the AN/PVS-31A, and again, should not really be an issue.

Beyond that, a lot of folks seem to dislike the idea of buttons and prefer knobs, however in some ways, buttons can actually be more durable and reliable than knobs—when it comes to damage to NVGs, probably one of the most common issues we tend to see are broken or non-functional knobs, because they tend to stick out and are usually rotating on a fairly thin / delicate axle, if the goggle is going to sustain impact damage (e.g.,) knobs and switches can often take the brunt of an impact.

Buttons are also fairly common on a lot of devices, including the GPNVG, AN/PSQ-36 FGE, and ENVG-B, not to mention most MFALs, etc.. If anything, my main “complaints” about the button design is that I don’t love all of the buttons being right next to each other and similar in size and shape, and the fact that you can’t simply “crank” the gain if you need to rapidly adjust (instead you need to press-press-press-press), however these are relatively minor issues, and nothing that I would consider a show-stopper / deal killer for the Manticore, especially given the relatively low cost compared to goggles with similar feature sets like the L3Harris BNR (BNVD-1531) and ESA F5032 (AN/PVS-31D) when at non-clearance pricing.

As far as rigidity / optical pod tension—the Manticore has user adjustable tension built into the arm/bridge interface, which means that not only can you adjust it to make it as a “rigid” or loose as you want it to be, but it can also be re-tightened at a user level if it begins to loosen over time through use.

The Manticore obviously is a fairly new design, even relative to Nocturn’s previous and well known offerings like the original 3-D printed Katana, and production units have only just recently begun rolling out to dealers (most previous units have been pre-production samples and T&E units), so it’s unsurprising that there’s not a whole lot of good information out there on them.

Meanwhile, the DTNVS-MG is an update to the already pretty well-known DTNVS, so there shouldn’t be a whole lot of surprises for most folks already familiar with that design.

While the dual-function (press and turn) knob function can look / sound fairly complex when written out on a sheet of paper, but is actually fairly simple and intuitive to use, and not terribly dissimilar from the knob function on the AN/PVS-31A and BNR. The biggest difference is the “press-and-hold then turn” for power-on, as opposed to just “press” for the L3Harris systems, but once you learn it, it’s honestly not that terribly complicated, and since it has independent tube cut off / shut off on stow, unlike the L3 goggles, it is less critical that you can cut the goggle on instantly, because you don’t have to shut the tubes off to run it tubes folded in the deployed position, they will automatically shut off when folded up, and automatically turn back on when brought back to an “in-use” position.

Otherwise, once on, gain knob works exactly how you’d think, double tap for illum (same as BNR). Triple-tap to go into “program” for the illuminator. Off, again, pretty simple, press and hold, and when the light pipe lights up, let go.

We have both available for both new builds and conversions / housing swaps—we just haven’t had a chance to get them listed on the website yet (very soon), we’ve been preparing a lot of new releases and announcements that will be rolling out here soon ahead of the summer months.

~Augee