Vic's team delivered a care package today.  Thanks Kyle and Martin!



What are those on the bottom?



Full wring out and review to come this weekend by the Houston night shooting crew!

Wow!

+1

Dammit!  

If you have the HDNVG  filters on that then I will be really jealous...  Bummed out to read you need adjustable gain for them to work.

Looking forward to your review

I am so excited to see this, but I have not a clue what I am looking at
Sooooooooooooo fill a guy in

tag

Looks like dual adjustable gain Sentinels.......which would rock!!!!

I own BNVD-Gs and I can't see the appeal of the ANVIS units over them.

Waiting to read the review before I pull the trigger on these.

 

Those look really nice.  Even though I am not a huge fan of duals, I can't wait to check them out Saturday night.

power switch, battery compartment, and ir illuminator?

Oooooh. Me want. Jelly.

So, last night the Houston Hog Hunting crew went to the range and put several pieces of gear through its paces including my variable gain Sentinels.   I’m not going to attempt to provide an exhaustive review of monocular vs binocular systems but will offer a few observations based on my experience.   The other members can chime in with their assessments as they see fit.  

Conditions were a moonless, cloudless, cool clear night on the plains of Hempstead TX.  There was very little ambient light available and was truly a starlight evening.  Testing was conducted from 2000 to midnight after a sunset at 1900.   We evaluated the Sentinels using both a Crye Night Cap and my Team Wendy Exfil LTP.  Each was counterweighted for balance.  The mount used was a Wilcox G24 in each case.

For full disclosure, up to this point, I’ve spent all my NVG time under a hand selected NEPVS14-17 with a gorgeous tube so that is my basis for comparison.
Here are the new Sentinels.





The variable gain model improves on the base Sentinel design by adding independent gain adjustments on the bottom of each tube in place of the ABC brightness controls.   As with the other Sentinel systems, featured are independent interpupillary adjustments, a bright onboard dual power IR illuminator for near/far use, and it comes with both a dovetail and ANVIS ball style mount.  Power was supplied by a lithium CR123 battery, but the system is also compatible with battery pack use with the ball mount.   For the dual adj model, weight with the dovetail mount was 22.9 oz.  TNVC provided the FDE coating over the base black offered by Adams.  

The selected tubes were L3 Systems MX-11769s with some very respectable stats:
S/N: 28.3 / 28.9
Res: 64 / 64
Photo Sensitivity: 2352 / 2429
The tubes are very bright and clear with all blemishes  < 0.003” per the spec sheet.  The right tube had 3 tiny ones in the outer band of zone 2 at 130 ? 2 oclock and were only noticeable when you were actively looking for them.  The left tube was clean except for 1 in zone 3 at 730.  Together they produced a truly awesome blended image.  The dual gain adjustment made it possible to optimize the view for the actual conditions faced in a way the ABC can’t match.

A few personal observations:

Weight of the system on the head was obviously more than the PVS14 (23 oz vs 13 oz), but was not uncomfortable at all with the counterweighted Nightcap or Exfil.  Over the course of the night, the Nightcap was not nearly as comfortable as the Exfil due to the rigidity of a real bump helmet and a superior suspension system.  As Christopher Walken / Bruce Dickinson said, “You’re gonna want that helmet and counterweight”.  As much as I find the Nightcap handy, for extended use, it cannot hold a candle to the Team Wendy.

The onboard dual IR illuminators were a very nice feature.  The high setting was clearly effective out to 50 yards or so on this very dark night.  The low setting worked as all my standard PVS14 illuminators have at close range.

The G24 mount is fantastic for the dual tube setup.  The stowed position keeps them close to the head and out of the way.  I like my INVG mount for the single tube PVS14 for the feature to rotate towards the helmet producing a small footprint.  This is obviously not possible with the dual setup and the stowed position on the INVG is much more out in space and high with duals.




The dual system produced a fantastic blended image (really breathtaking).   Using the dual gain feature was great for balancing the image between the eyes and also adjusting for ambient light changes to maximize contrast while minimizing scintillation.  Because of the darkness of the night we chose to test on, some scintillation was evident.  Being able to turn down the gain a bit was definitely helpful.   Depth perception is greatly improved with the dual tubes as evidenced by easier movement across uneven terrain with little extra effort on my part and easier hand/eye coordination.  I noticed fewer distractions caused by transient lighting conditions over the night as well as less eye strain than with my PVS14 which I owed to the tug of war my brain plays resolving the image between my NVG vs unaided eye.  It is really amazing the difference in this factor with the duals.  No doubt this effect can be overcome with training under goggle, but for folks not putting in the hours to train extensively I think the duals are easier to use as most everything mirrors what I do during the day.

Clear cons are weight, bulk, and cost.  Another negative effect I noticed was less awareness on my part of shadows created by transient light sources as everything was a nice consistent green image all the time.  When using my PVS14, my unaided eye still picks up many details and it might translate into making it easier to stay concealed and using the shadows with the monocular vs the duals.

All considered, I am very happy with the Sentinel system and will continue testing with it as well as my PVS14 system.

Owning a set of Sentinels with ABC, I've found I missed the gain adjustment I had on my Mil-issue PVS-14's. I added a Matbock Tarsier Eclipse to each tube for the added depth perception increase, and one of the fringe benefits is also the ability to "regulate" gain to some extent. Definitely an accessory I wish I'd had in the past.

TD, my assessment of your Sentinel system is substantially consistent.

The nice tubes are well matched with regards to SNR, PCR, Halo, and Res, and are both quite clean with the noted tiny dots in zone 3 that are only visible when looking specifically for them with a discerning eye.

It was pretty dark out as indicated by the fact that we were all adjusting the gain down a bit on everything variable to take the edge off the slight scintillation…..using a handful of 27-30 SNR devices.

I only ran your Sentinels for probably 30-40 minutes, but feel like I was able to get a decent feel for them considering past experience with NODs in general.

For reference to others, my mounting platform was an OpsCore Base Jump using an INVG and no counterweight.  With the pair of eyecups installed, and against my face, there was no issue with stability or balance.  The humidity was comparatively low for our area, so fogging wasn’t an issue, but I expect that it would be under less favorable environmental conditions, and that another means of stabilization besides the eyecups would be more appropriate in general.

Another member recently loaned me an MA bridge mount to try out, and the Sentinel is noticeable lighter in overall weight versus a pair of -14s on the MA bridge.  Granted the devices don’t flip-up or release independently with the Sentinel.

All of the controls were totally intuitive, other than that one can go active with the internal 2-stage IR illuminator without having to pull on the selector switch as with a PVS-14.

The independent IPD adjustments worked great, and it became immediately evident that my eyes are further apart than TD’s.  

Analogous to the “full disclosure” comment, I have tried several different types of binoculars over the years, and still prefer a monocular for how my eyes/brain work.  It really boils down to how an individual perceives overall SA.

The variable gain Sentinel is definitely a top shelf piece of gear for those who prefer binoculars though.

Thanks for the write up. I ran some sentinels this weekend at the Noctober event. I have a problem with my brain not wanting to convert the images and the dual tube systems made life a fuck ton easier. Depth perception and having both eyes seeing the same image instead of just one was incredible.

I also got to put on the 18s/panoramic and I had the most awesome boner the rest of the night. </a>" />

Thats an Adams Industries product (not TNVC), I have had my set for about 2-3 months now... they work real nice!

Great review, thanks. It made it just that much harder to resist purchasing a set of these. Haha

Guys, can you tell me what is screwed into the objective lenses of the Sentinel?

I believe it's a Wilcox sacrificial lens

Should I start polishing my tools now so they look good on film ??

Wilcox sacrificial objective lens covers.


The housings are by Adams and the tubes, build up, and coating are by TNVC.  My order was handled by TNVC start to finish and I couldn't be happier.

Jealousy, I has it!

Woah!!!! Sweeeeeeet...

Used it quite a bit this weekend while out trick or treating and the more time I spend with the duals, the more the addiction grows.  I love this setup!

A few pics with the Team Wendy lid.  The G24 mount is perfect for duals.  I still like my INVG for the PVS14.

Team Wendy LTP, Wilcox G24, Sentinel DG, M300V, Ops Core Counterweight, Princeton Tech Switch MPLS, Manta Strobe

May try out the AI SAM mount to compare to the others if I can find one at a reasonable price.

I have an AI SAM and it's nice I prefer it over my INVG for Sentinels.