Hey all - great idea, SkyPup. Got my Chinese ebay filter yesterday, and I've had only a limited opportunity to experiment. It did make the image noticeably darker, but my tube's specs aren't going to win any prizes. Since many of you all have a much better idea of the specifics of how this filter affects PVS-14 use, I'm going to ask some questions for my benefit as well as newcomers to the thread.

How exactly does this extend the window of NVG use at dawn and dusk? I realize that it blocks most visible light, but doesn't the sun give off a ton of IR light as well? I would love to use my 14 in a greater variety of lighting conditions but I'm not sure what to look for to be sure I'm not causing too much wear on the tube. If it matters, my 14 is autogated and has manual gain. The filter did considerably reduce the appearance of lights, and it did almost totally eliminate visible light shadows, which is interesting. I guess in a way visible light is a bonus as NVGs then magnify the light they cast on surroundings, but this wouldn't be relevant when using NVGs away from sources of artificial light. At the same time, perhaps protection from visible light is worth the loss of visible light amplification.

Could you all that understand this far better than me kind of sum up the pros and cons of using this filter, as well as conditions under which you would and wouldn't use it?

Also, my chinese filter was matte silver, but I took the sharpie to it and now it doesn't stick out so bad.

Also, kinda unrelated, but am I right that the gain setting has nothing to do with the tube but only with how bright the image is in the eyepiece? So basically the only purpose of manual gain is for you to lower the brightness to where it's comfortable?

Seriously, this is a great find, SkyPup. Thanks for y'alls input in advance.

Negative on these filters. Picture showed black, no mention of silver anywhere in the description, I received silver and the seller in hong kong is being alittle bitch about it. He is very apologetic but he keeps repeatedly asking me if there is any way that I can keep them and he give me partial refund. I said no, I want black ones so I would like a full refund. He doesn't get it, now he wants me to send them back to him. I said I'm only sending them back if he pays the postage because he is the one that chose to substitute somethign different. He is going to shit a brick when he finds out USPS postage to hong kong is $35.

I tried to take some photos tonight, but I learned I suck at taking NV photos. With my NEPVS-14 through the filter, a red 5mW laser is much crisper and has almost no bloom with a dot size of about 3" at 25 yards. With my .1 mW laser there is considerable bloom with a fuzzy bloomed dot size of about 18" at 25 yards. If you are looking for precision and you don't mind a unaided eye visible laser dot, I would without a doubt go with the red laser and the filter. IR laser bloom sucks if you want precision.

With an illuminator, the IR laser dot is much much more precise than with no illuminator. In fact, I would say that to effectively and precisely use a IR laser, a IR illuminator is almost mandatory in order to tame the bloom. I have a Surefire V2 Vampire IR handheld and a Inforce WML weapon mounted IR light and both do not wash out the .1 mW IR laser at ranges out to 50-75 yards. Like I said above, it actually makes the IR laser look much better and drops the dot size down to 2"-3" in size with no bloom. I have not tried the .1mW at farther distances with a IR illuminator, but I can tell you that without the illuminator I can easily see the dot on the neighbors house at over a quarter mile away. At that distance it would be useless for aiming, but you can still see it. The photos of Skypup's that you referenced look very similar to my setup at closer ranges without a illuminator. If he took those same photos with the illuminator on, at least the .1mW IR laser would look very crisp and precise. I don't have a .7mW so I can't say what that would look like.

Sorry if I confused you with my above post. I assumed you meant to use the red or IR laser without a IR illuminator.

I don't use mine w/o the filter anymore, it just confers too many benefits to not use it. I do wish that someone made one that would sit flush with the objective lens housing though. Essentially, a LIF only w/ 720nm filter. Going to google it, maybe someone does make them somewhere...

so is there a version that will fit my 25mm and 75mm c-mount lens?

even better would be a filter with a coating to reduce glare.

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Where do I score one of these for a PVS-7/PVS-14?

Thanks for the info. I just ordered one to try out.

I think filter threads 30.5mm is the proper size. The 30mm will screw in just don't strip threads. I have a 30.5mm ordered will post how it fits. The 30mm with 3.5x lens has worked loose several times.