I have very, very faint chicken wiring on my high spec L3 WP tubes. It's really only noticable in higher lighting conditions or with IR flood from an illuminator. Should I be concerned? I tried google searching on Arfcom for "chicken wire" but couldn't find much info on it in the context of NV tubes.

@TNVC

from TNVCs website FAQ

Chicken Wire
An irregular pattern of dark thin lines in the field of view either throughout the image area or in parts of the image area. Under the worst-case condition, these lines will form hexagonal or square wave-shape lines.

Fixed-Pattern Noise (FPN)
A faint hexagonal (honeycomb) pattern throughout the image area that most often occurs under highlights conditions. This pattern is inherent in the structure of the Microchannel plate and can be seen in virtually all Gen 2 and Gen 3 systems if the light level is high enough.

Kind of.

Chicken wire is normal, but if it's visible, then it's often an indication that there's too much light.

If it's present at lower light levels, then you could call TNVC, but generally it's not an indication of any faults. It's just how they build the screens and usually isn't visible under normal use.

David

What you're seeing is normal under high light conditions.

Yeah it's a faint hexagonal pattern. These are filmless tubes. So I guess it isn't chicken wiring per se, but honeycomb according to TNVC's definition. It's generally very faintly visible across the whole image in high light.

Its the same thing in every NV optic in high light. Its normal. I have never seen a PVS14 that would not exhibit the same FPN in high light.

I never noticed it before in my green tubes - I don't know if that is a product of the environments I happened to use those in versus these new WP filmless, or if the filmless tubes are somehow more sensitive? Either way, I'm glad it's not a sign my multi-thousand dollar pair of wizard eyes are shitting the bed

Supposedly the fixed pattern noise is a little bit more noticeable through the L3 filmless tubes but if that is the only downside to 30+SNR/72+ screen res, well sign me up!!

I have an ITT PVS14, green phosphor, unknown specs but very clear tube. I have only seen the FPN one time and it was when my idiot hunting partner doused me with white light. I haven't been able to replicate it since.

I have some DTNVGs in the mail on their way to me now, those are L3 WP Unfilmed. Tubes are 34.5/72 and 33.9/72. The through the tube shots I was shown for my purchase don't show any FPN on the tester. So I'm hopeful it won't be present. However, it won't be a huge deal if it is. Like was stated, I see it as the price of admission. But, in all the photos I've seen it in, it has always been against plain backgrounds. White walls, white clouds, etc... As soon as the same tube is shown against something that is worth looking at it fades into the scene and I can't see it anymore. So I don't see it as an issue.

ETA: Yes, now that I have my DTNVGs in hand, I do indeed have FPN. Really it doesn’t bother me at all. I’ve noticed it a bit the past few nights, but we got 10 inches of snow over the weekend, so the entire background is white. On another note, these DTNVGs are awesome, and the unfilmed white is incredible. With all the snow I can see up under all the canopy in the woods, pretty amazing really. I’ll be interested to see how it all looks when the snow is gone, but I really like the white so much better than the green. And the duals vs the mono I had is everything I hoped it had been and more. Shooting the RMR pistol is just like the daytime.

My L3 green tube has iit.

This is my understanding.

Honeycomb pattern correct? If so, completely normal.