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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Sionyx digital color night vision camera--legit alternative to a PVS-14? (Page 6 of 121)
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One option for mounts that you guys are ignoring is splitting a Wilcox Bridge. Basically, one guy will have to buy the bridge and either the dovetail bridge base UNV $135 or the bayonet version TNVC $55 (depending upon what mount each user has) and then split the cost between you two.
So you could potentially cut your cost for it down to $300-375. |
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I'm really interested in one of these but has Sionyx made any mention of a dedicated clipon or scope model? Everything inside this unit Sionyx is off the shelf parts. Nothing proprietary, Sionyx just assembles them, not make them. Which means that somebody else can/will put it together too with a more suitable software (reticle, xy coordinates,...) and a better eye relief lens if Sionyx doesn't move on it. Sionyx knows this, it will not let the inertia it has built up go wasted. A weapons sight/headmount is coming, guaranteed. |
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I've noticed that the unit doesn't need super-bright lights: too much illum washes things out.
Was your photo sequence three different levels of output? One looks super white, obscuring what it's aimed at, whereas one is softer, allowing more contrast and clarity because it's not overpowering light. When I first started using this, I thought the more IR the better, but my DBAL on high basically is like looking into the sun. Once I dialed the output down, it became more useful. Similarly, I've got a Surefire M600 KM2 (white & IR switchmode light) that's good for close-in viewing, because that has a softer, wider beam than my Streamlight IR torch, which is amazeballs at long distance but overpowers things close-in. TL/DL: Cheap IR flood-to-spot adjustable torches will probably work great with this, sub-100 yards. :) On separate note, I finally got around to trying it with an ACOG *behind* it tonight. I'd previously used a Trijicon MRO red dot and an Aimpoint ACRO red dot in *front* of the Aurora, and that really works good. Putting the camera behind the optic wasn't as easy (all that diopter adjustment, multi-focus, light transmission sandwich, etc.) but worked okay. The rail mount is extra long for a reason (it keeps the battery door closed from popping off under recoil) but that also complicates rail real estate for longer scopes or shorter carbines. It seems best setup right now is to just run a red dot in front of the unit. |
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Quoted: I've noticed that the unit doesn't need super-bright lights: too much illum washes things out. |
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@kel
"The rail mount is extra long for a reason (it keeps the battery door closed from popping off under recoil) " have you seen this happen? I am about the pull the trigger on the shorter rail mount. I suppose I can just use some extra eletrical tape or stretch a cut section of inner tube... |
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Quoted:
Everything inside this unit Sionyx is off the shelf parts. Nothing proprietary, Sionyx just assembles them, not make them. Quoted:
Everything inside this unit Sionyx is off the shelf parts. Nothing proprietary, Sionyx just assembles them, not make them.  They DO design and make their own sensors, and have been doing so for a while for non-commercial users (gov, etc.). No dog in this, but I looked up a mess of sensor patents that SiOnyx has when I first wrote a review on the unit. https://www.sionyx.com/sensor-products.html The Aurora is just their first swing at a commercial product for civilian consumers, but yeah, I'm sure if they see there's enough people duct tape and baling wire these things to AR rails, we'll see the good-idea-lightbulb pop on and they'll meet a demand for more dedicated gun/helmet setup in the future.  RE: @ar15joe Quoted:
"The rail mount is extra long for a reason (it keeps the battery door closed from popping off under recoil) " have you seen this happen? I am about the pull the trigger on the shorter rail mount. I suppose I can just use some extra eletrical tape or stretch a cut section of inner tube... I was going to buy a shorter mount as well, but emailed SiOnyx about it first - glad I did - they got back to me with that answer. So I designed one up that's shorter, lighter, takes up less rail space while cantilevering the camera farther back towards the eye, and has better port door/cable access. When it gets off the 3D printer, I guess I'll toy around with it, but that's just hobby level stuff to scratch my own itch on this (I'm not producing/selling them or anything.) |
not mine
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Just got mine today. I have only messed around with it for about an hour in 1/2 moon overcast sky. I am very impressed so far. This is not my first NV optic, but it is better than expected and better than any NV I have seen in the $1000.00 and under category by a very large margin. Indoors with no or very little light it's a no go, But an IR Illuminator should fix that. For $599. shipped I am happy
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Quoted:
Just got mine today. I have only messed around with it for about an hour in 1/2 moon overcast sky. I am very impressed so far. This is not my first NV optic, but it is better than expected and better than any NV I have seen in the $1000.00 and under category by a very large margin. Indoors with no or very little light it's a no go, But an IR Illuminator should fix that. For $599. shipped I am happy With the addition of color though, it adds a lot more identifying information to the eyeball than just the mono-shade of green or WP. It makes up for the lack of intensification a little. |
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Quoted: Well... I mean, they're parts off of SiOnyx's shelf, sure. They DO design and make their own sensors, and have been doing so for a while for non-commercial users (gov, etc.). No dog in this, but I looked up a mess of sensor patents that SiOnyx has when I first wrote a review on the unit. https://www.sionyx.com/sensor-products.html The Aurora is just their first swing at a commercial product for civilian consumers, but yeah, I'm sure if they see there's enough people duct tape and baling wire these things to AR rails, we'll see the good-idea-lightbulb pop on and they'll meet a demand for more dedicated gun/helmet setup in the future.
I am going with the short mount and stretch a section of inner tube over the eyepiece/body and then insert a piece of black foam under it to fill the gap. I think that should work to guard against any recoil issues with extra benefit of more sealing / weather protection RE: @ar15joe I haven't had it happen, but that's just a .22lr (M&P 15-22) I've got it on. .22LR impulse may not be enough to shake it loose, but 300Blk and 556 may. I was going to buy a shorter mount as well, but emailed SiOnyx about it first - glad I did - they got back to me with that answer. So I designed one up that's shorter, lighter, takes up less rail space while cantilevering the camera farther back towards the eye, and has better port door/cable access. When it gets off the 3D printer, I guess I'll toy around with it, but that's just hobby level stuff to scratch my own itch on this (I'm not producing/selling them or anything.) |
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Quoted: Sounds like your user name... Seems like a stretch but it’s your world, I’m just living in it
Maybe you should work on keeping your word and giving us details about this new product that you said you would in NOVEMBER vs wasting time playing forum sleuth. I’m just wondering, at this point, how you’re going to blow it. Not a shot at you. Every company does it. It’s obvious what everyone wants. A small, lightweight lam with a decent ir illuminator for a decent price. Which one are you going to miss on? 
Just like red dots. And LPVO’s. And a million other products that immediately come to mind. Companies come close but always fuck up one big part of it. |
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Quoted: Drawing parallels between a junkie name, hinting I’ll do anything to obtain NV, and a name basically saying night vision for you!!! Night vision for all!!!! I sell nightvision!!!!! Seems like a stretch but it’s your world, I’m just living in it
Maybe you should work on keeping your word and giving us details about this new product that you said you would in NOVEMBER vs wasting time playing forum sleuth. I’m just wondering, at this point, how you’re going to blow it. Not a shot at you. Every company does it. It’s obvious what everyone wants. A small, lightweight lam with a decent ir illuminator for a decent price. Which one are you going to miss on?
Just like red dots. And LPVO’s. And a million other products that immediately come to mind. Companies come close but always fuck up one big part of it. 
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How about that night vision stuff eh 
As I mentioned on page 1 of this thread. Worked with so many digi systems, but I really want to see how this unit handles differential lighting conditions...Going from dark to high light at night. The "Supervision" (aka Stupid Vision many called it) had intense white out while going from a dark side of a house then to a bright porch light section. I've yet to see this tested and many other digi plagued functions over the years. Either way, we are on some of our own work with this unit.
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| Hello, yes I did respond for SiOnyx and the name is not meant to hide anything. We're a small group and answering all the various forums (this, FB, Instagram, etc.) can be overwhelming. We'll do our best to respond quickly and as completely as we can in this forum. If you have marketing questions, send an email to [email protected]. If you're a customer, [email protected] If you're planning to be a Shot Show, stop by to see us and talk. It is our 1st year exhibiting so the show only allowed us to be in their NEXT exhibition area booth N261. We may also be in some of our retail partner booths but that is not confirmed at this point. We will have our bundled kit there which includes Camera, 940nm IR Illuminator, pic mounts for both, batteries, chargers, SD card in a small waterproof case. If you're interested in heading out after show hours to give it a try, we might be able to arrange that as well. |
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Quoted:
Hello, yes I did respond for SiOnyx and the name is not meant to hide anything. We're a small group and answering all the various forums (this, FB, Instagram, etc.) can be overwhelming. We'll do our best to respond quickly and as completely as we can in this forum. If you have marketing questions, send an email to [email protected]. If you're a customer, [email protected] If you're planning to be a Shot Show, stop by to see us and talk. It is our 1st year exhibiting so the show only allowed us to be in their NEXT exhibition area booth N261. We may also be in some of our retail partner booths but that is not confirmed at this point. We will have our bundled kit there which includes Camera, 940nm IR Illuminator, pic mounts for both, batteries, chargers, SD card in a small waterproof case. If you're interested in heading out after show hours to give it a try, we might be able to arrange that as well. |
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NV4U2
Just a little advice- I would familiarize yourself with the forum rules concerning promoting your own products. If you have questions, I would contact one of the mods. You can run afoul of the rules pretty easily. Sometimes there’s a fine line between answering questions and promoting your products. All this is subject to judgment which is how folks usually get into trouble. The other thing you might consider is becoming a “sponsor“ which allows you to promote as much as you want. I have no idea how much this would cost, but it might be worth it to You as my guess is you have a potentially very large market here. |
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NV4U2 Just a little advice- I would familiarize yourself with the forum rules concerning promoting your own products. If you have questions, I would contact one of the mods. You can run afoul of the rules pretty easily. Sometimes there’s a fine line between answering questions and promoting your products. All this is subject to judgment which is how folks usually get into trouble. The other thing you might consider is becoming a “sponsor“ which allows you to promote as much as you want. I have no idea how much this would cost, but it might be worth it to You as my guess is you have a potentially very large market here. The above, and, not to let anything get under your skin. This was the place where a dude sawed a perfectly good lower into 1/3rd pieces because...reasons, I guess? Everybody's a critic, and some of those dudes are off their meds. Kudos to your company for putting something out there. I read the spec sheet, and skimmed the warranty, and I would just say that even though numbers in and of themselves aren't magical, having some proven shock/vibration testing, whether IEC or MIL-STD 810, would probably help to convince the mil/leo and hunting/sporting/armchair commando crowds. Nobody "plans" to drop their $800 toy into the drink, but even boaters and hunters get butter fingers, and it only improves intent to purchase for the "more demanding" crowd (whether they leave mom's basement or not). Maybe that entails a complete re-design, or maybe the time isn't right because it's expensive to test, but...maybe down the road? If it were my company, I would also look into a bunch of accessories, like comes with the various GoPros. Then your different user segments could just use a drop-down menu and select their "kit" when they buy. Make it easy for them to stay on your page and put that little bit of extra margin into your pocket. Maybe the next iteration around, I would change the battery type, or go to a remote battery pack entirely. I think the advantage of an external pack is scale-ability; if you went to a device with 2 x 18650 cells internal, and then a cable and pack with 4-6-8-whatever cells, and a vehicle adapter sold with one of your kits, that let's the user decide what amount of weight/bulk is worth the run-time they want for their application. Are you asking customers to fill out warranty cards, or are they responding to e-mails, or what? In other words, there are 10-15 people here (including me) who love running their yap about this stuff, but what are your actual paying customers telling you? Anyway, excited to see how this goes for you, good luck! |
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@GTLandser
The Aurora was primarily designed to be an action camera, and while we don't claim to compete at the same performance level of Gen 3, the performance of our color sensor has been attractive to many in public safety & shooting sports markets. From a technology perspective, our sensor sees well into the NIR spectrum. This allows the camera to capture full-color images in extreme low light conditions with the IR Cut filter in place. In the full night vision mode, we remove the IR Cut filter giving you visibility into the 1100nm range (can see 1064nm laser designator/marker). Both our color and monochrome sensors have been benchmarked by govt./military suppliers and industrial users. In support of this growing interest, we are building our list of influencers/reviewers and professional users in this market and we are listening to what they tell us. The camera and mount have been successfully shock tested (thousands of rounds) by a high profile "military" supplier. It is water resistant IP67 and there are videos showing the camera being used snorkeling (without any additional housing) and river rafting. But as you say, a completely "waterproof" rating would require a redesign of the housing. Understand your point on accessories and we’re working to address that. Most action cameras run about 2 hours (continuous), Aurora is spec'd to that. You can operate Aurora with an external battery pack plugged in, great for its time-lapse operation. Part of the design consideration was to try and keep the camera as small and lightweight as possible so some design trade-offs were made. As an example, night vision sensitivity could probably increase by 2x if we put an f1.2 lens (currently f1.4) on it. But the size and weight would increase to a point where we felt it would be too much for the action camera category. |
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Not sure if this will cowitness properly but I suppose I can add a riser under it. Not QD but it's probably the cheapest and lightest option? https://i.imgur.com/hi0NhQe.jpg I mounted it on the front of the Leupold and it works great but zooming in to 6x of course just zooms into the pixels. At 1X it is pretty near perfect. Mounted behind the T1 it seems to suffer from a super tight eye box. Not really practical that way. I think I'll stick to using this as a monocular in conjunction with my Pulsar Thermal XQ38 Trail mounted. |
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We picked one of these up to try out in the pig killin’ fields.
Note: The Aurora is an additional tool for us in addition to digital NV, thermal riflescopes and spotters and PVS14. More to follow as we compile the footage and the videos get put together. The first run of videos were under clear skies, low humidity, full moon and low cut fields - this would be considered optimal conditions. That said, after 10 hours hunting (spot use of the Aurora as a spotter and filming shooter sets) I would say I was impressed with the utility and function of the unit for the cost. We will need to run through this all over again with little to no moon. I’m not expecting great performance in that test but again knowing the capabilities and limitations is where this is important. I’ll see if my hunting buddy has an account here to post his thoughts : below is a placeholder until the videos are done ;) 
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As an example, night vision sensitivity could probably increase by 2x if we put an f1.2 lens (currently f1.4) on it. But the size and weight would increase to a point where we felt it would be too much for the action camera category. Well worth the weight. |
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You should consider doing that for your next version, I'm sure most guys would gladly take that f1.2 lens for 2x increased light sensitivity at the cost of a few ounces more. Well worth the weight. Quoted:
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As an example, night vision sensitivity could probably increase by 2x if we put an f1.2 lens (currently f1.4) on it. But the size and weight would increase to a point where we felt it would be too much for the action camera category. Well worth the weight. EDIT: Hey, didn't somebody say the lens part of the assembly was swappable? |
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Can anyone comment on how well this camera works in the daylight? Curious if it would be considered a decent daylight camcorder device as well. Thanks! |
[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Sionyx digital color night vision camera--legit alternative to a PVS-14? (Page 6 of 121)
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