Ah, a joke. I thought he was using some 3rd world nation stuff with radioactive issues or something, lol.

It's a multi-level joke. Shitty gear gets you killed. OP knows his gear is sub-par, and could very well handicap him. It plays into the "It's your funeral" meme used here on arfcom.

Generation 1 night vision is perfect if all your targets/opfor have is a flashlight or candles. It's the best thing you've ever seen if you never look though anything better.

Generation 2 night vision is perfect if it's all you can afford, and your targets/opfor are without NV. You'll be incredibly happy with it so long as you never look though anyone's gen3.

Generation 3 is such a wide variation of quality that you could get a dogshit device, or you could get something that's unreal. It all depends on when it was made and what quality of IIT is in it. I've looked through some thinfilm IITs that are super clear, crisp, and detailed, and then looked through some filmless that put those to shame. On the same turn, you can wind up with some thick film IITs made in like 1994 that are barely better than the current crop of european and russian made generation 2. Gen 1 and gen 2 users are easy to pick out when you're behind high-end gen3, because they need so much more supplemental IR to operate under NV.

Here in the US, if you can sock away 2k over a couple months, do it, and get a gen3 device made in the past decade. Don't throw your money into the campfire on gen2. If you're OCONUS, please continue using flashlights because you'll make easier targets for us.

ETA: As someone pointed out, thermal is out there too. There's only so much you can do to hide heat.

Ah, great reply. Thanks.