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Posted: 1/31/2023 9:50:29 PM EDT
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I was in the market for another set of NVGs and saw the Photonis Vypers were getting some good reviews. They're articulating duals with a cosmetically different Nocturn Katana housing, Carson glass, and Photonis tubes. This is my first time buying from Robert and with dealing with Photonis USA customer service. Robert had the cheapest price around, so I sent him an email the Wednesday before SHOT. Got a reply within 15 min. He advised not in stock but 1-2 week lead time due to SHOT show. Satisfied with price, I placed an order and was willing to wait. Robert emailed two days later on Friday to tell me that my unit was ordered and enroute from Photonis and would reach him the following Monday (16th). Robert was always insanely quick and thorough with his comms during the entire buying process and shipping process. My Vypers then shipped from JRH on Tuesday and arrived to me on Thursday (19th). I got them and was super happy with them and was surprised at how well they performed compared to my Elbit setup. I got a follow-up email from Robert about a week after I got my Vypers, asking me how I liked them. I told him I was very satisfied, and mentioned that there was a fiber or something inside the right tube that might have shifted during shipping, and that there was some slight photocathode staining in the bottom right quadrant, but none of that affected performance, and that I send my units to be cleaned and purged every year anyway, so it would be taken care of then. Robert asked for pics, so I sent them. Robert forwarded the pics to Photonis, and Photonis offered a pre-paid UPS label for me to send them back. I've been super busy with training at work, so I figured "screw it" and sent my Vypers to Photonis on 1/26. They received the unit on 1/27. I get a call yesterday from Phillip at Photonis and he explains that the fiber was a tiny plastic sliver from the threads of the housing that might have shifted during shipping, and 100% it would not gone out had it been seen on their Hoffman machine during final inspection of the unit. Phillip also said that the photocathode staining in the bottom right quadrant was in-spec, however they wanted me to have a spectacular tube, so they matched and installed a BRAND NEW tube that is damn near spec for spec to my left tube. He said they then cleaned, re-purged the system and re-collimated the unit on their Hoffman, and said they would be going out next day air to me. Phillip also said if I ever had any questions or needed anything in the future, to call him at his direct number which he gave me. Today they arrived, nicely packaged in their factory case, with a new spec sheet for the new tube. Phillip wasn't joking. The left and right tube are damn near 99% a copy spec for spec. Both tubes are spotless. No specs or peppering I can see at all. Total turnaround from shipping to back in my hands from Photonis was Thursday (1/26) to Today (1/31). I'm pretty damn happy with both the service I got from Robert @Lowdown3 and with Photonis USA. The fact there was nothing wrong with my tube but they replaced it because they felt the photocathode staining was "ugly", is amazing. This is the right side tube before they replaced. You can't even really see the photocathode staining. Fiber is visible just below 9 o clock - Attached File |
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Quoted: I was in the market for another set of NVGs and saw the Photonis Vypers were getting some good reviews. They're articulating duals with a cosmetically different Nocturn Katana housing, Carson glass, and Photonis tubes. This is my first time buying from Robert and with dealing with Photonis USA customer service. Robert had the cheapest price around, so I sent him an email the Wednesday before SHOT. Got a reply within 15 min. He advised not in stock but 1-2 week lead time due to SHOT show. Satisfied with price, I placed an order and was willing to wait. Robert emailed two days later on Friday to tell me that my unit was ordered and enroute from Photonis and would reach him the following Monday (16th). Robert was always insanely quick and thorough with his comms during the entire buying process and shipping process. My Vypers then shipped from JRH on Tuesday and arrived to me on Thursday (19th). I got them and was super happy with them and was surprised at how well they performed compared to my Elbit setup. I got a follow-up email from Robert about a week after I got my Vypers, asking me how I liked them. I told him I was very satisfied, and mentioned that there was a fiber or something inside the right tube that might have shifted during shipping, and that there was some slight photocathode staining in the bottom right quadrant, but none of that affected performance, and that I send my units to be cleaned and purged every year anyway, so it would be taken care of then. Robert asked for pics, so I sent them. Robert forwarded the pics to Photonis, and Photonis offered a pre-paid UPS label for me to send them back. I've been super busy with training at work, so I figured "screw it" and sent my Vypers to Photonis on 1/26. They received the unit on 1/27. I get a call yesterday from Phillip at Photonis and he explains that the fiber was a tiny plastic sliver from the threads of the housing that might have shifted during shipping, and 100% it would not gone out had it been seen on their Hoffman machine during final inspection of the unit. Phillip also said that the photocathode staining in the bottom right quadrant was in-spec, however they wanted me to have a spectacular tube, so they matched and installed a BRAND NEW tube that is damn near spec for spec to my left tube. He said they then cleaned, re-purged the system and re-collimated the unit on their Hoffman, and said they would be going out next day air to me. Phillip also said if I ever had any questions or needed anything in the future, to call him at his direct number which he gave me. Today they arrived, nicely packaged in their factory case, with a new spec sheet for the new tube. Phillip wasn't joking. The left and right tube are damn near 99% a copy spec for spec. Both tubes are spotless. No specs or peppering I can see at all. Total turnaround from shipping to back in my hands from Photonis was Thursday (1/26) to Today (1/31). I'm pretty damn happy with both the service I got from Robert @Lowdown3 and with Photonis USA. The fact there was nothing wrong with my tube but they replaced it because they felt the photocathode staining was "ugly", is amazing. This is the right side tube before they replaced. You can't even really see the photocathode staining. Fiber is visible just below 9 o clock - https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/241023/20230119_212900_jpg-2693145.JPG Thank you for your review and thank you for your business. Very much appreciated. |
Wait, what great customer service from JRH/Photonis all from a unit that was built/dropped shipped by the manufacturer and not built in house???? Preposterous  There's a reason why Robert/JRH has been in business for so long and this is just one of many shining examples.
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Quoted: Wait, what great customer service from JRH/Photonis all from a unit that was built/dropped shipped by the manufacturer and not built in house???? Preposterous There's a reason why Robert/JRH has been in business for so long and this is just one of many shining examples.Great point. I know some vendors (cough.. cough.. a well known Houston NV company) that can’t be bothered to do any customer service and just tell customers to call the manufacturer if there is a problem. Awesome to know that JRH isn’t one of them. |
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Quoted: Wait, what great customer service from JRH/Photonis all from a unit that was built/dropped shipped by the manufacturer and not built in house???? Preposterous There's a reason why Robert/JRH has been in business for so long and this is just one of many shining examples.We like to give customers a lot of options. The Vypers are built by Photonis. The Vypers are also now available in a limited run of Green phosphor for a little less money as well. RNVGs and Katanas and all of our PVS14s are built in house here. This allows us to do more hand selection (at no extra charge) and we always have units of these flavors in stock ready to ship out the same day they are ordered- Unfilmed, Thin filmed, all white phosphor. Whether a unit is built by us or another manufacturer, we will do everything we can to get you taken care of if an issue arises. |
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Quoted: Been thinking about a set for my wife, but I just can't seem to mentally get over auto gain... I like having the ability to fiddle with the gain. Am I a luddite?  I've been running Katanas for over a year now, coming from single gain binos. There are times when it's full moon, no cloud cover, out in the open where I wish I had manual gain on them. But a lot of the time I don't miss it. On the Echo tubes (Vypers) it isn't a significant difference IMO. That being said, if they were offered with manual gain that would be a bonus as well. |
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Quoted: Fuck no brother, I gotta have manual gain. If you don't need it, good on ya, but I do. That's why it's great to have choices. JRH is definitely kicking it up a notch or two. And he's got some great vendors/suppliers such as Photonis and NI behind him. Agreed on all counts. As for Photonis- people can talk shit about Photonis tubes all they want. But their CS is phenomenal. My buddy had an emission point pop up in his L3 tube DTNVS about 2 weeks ago, and while it's covered under warranty, L3 told his dealer it'll be 45 to 60 days before they even look at the tube, and it'll most likely be lasered out, which sucks because his tubes had zero spots. In the meantime he's without his DTNVS for at least 1.5 months at the very least. Now the L3 tubes are obviously better than Photonis tubes, but damn it feels good to not just be a number with Photonis. Customer service is the selling point for me when I'm looking to spend money. Neither @Lowdown3 nor Photonis USA failed to deliver. Whatsoever. |
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Quoted: That's pretty amazing. They should sticky this shit for everybody who gets on here and says "I found this groovy dealer who saved me 5 bucks" (and then disappears when you need help). Props to JRH and Photonis. This is exactly why I recommend someone who has been in business for at least as long as their warranty period. |
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Quoted: Agreed on all counts. As for Photonis- people can talk shit about Photonis tubes all they want. But their CS is phenomenal. My buddy had an emission point pop up in his L3 tube DTNVS about 2 weeks ago, and while it's covered under warranty, L3 told his dealer it'll be 45 to 60 days before they even look at the tube, and it'll most likely be lasered out, which sucks because his tubes had zero spots. In the meantime he's without his DTNVS for at least 1.5 months at the very least. Now the L3 tubes are obviously better than Photonis tubes, but damn it feels good to not just be a number with Photonis. Customer service is the selling point for me when I'm looking to spend money. Neither @Lowdown3 nor Photonis USA failed to deliver. Whatsoever. We had one L3 Harris 20UM WP UF tube last year that we got in that showed a weird emission point. We sent it back and had it back to us in a short while. I honestly didn't track the time, but I would say it was around a month. So they might have just over estimated the turn around time for your friend. I'm sure this also varies on their work load at the time, etc. Thankfully we caught the issue with the tube here while testing the unit it was going in, so it hadn't shipped to a customer yet, so the only ones waiting were us. Another customer had a weird issue come up in an Elbit thin filmed WP tube about a year into owning it. We got it back here and was able to find almost a perfect match in inventory and just replaced it so the customer wouldn't have to wait. Nice guy, he was like "I really like that tube, I'm willing to wait for Elbit to fix it." We pulled his build sheets and data sheets from the first one, realized this 2nd one was slightly better and told him "this one is a teensy bit better, we are going to send you this one to save the wait." He agreed it was a little cleaner when he got it in. No one really wants to wait on stuff, sometimes it's impossible not to have to, but we do everything we can to keep that from happening. Elbit replaced the first tube in about a month and a half or so. Having a decent quantity of tubes in stock allowed us to find him someone else that was slightly better than what he had, where he wouldn't have had to wait for replacement. Less PITA for the customer and less PITA for us. |
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And, not for nuthin', it's good to have vendors that actually want your bidness, vs being a side show for a big .gov contractor. While I would like nothing better than having the latest and greatest, if I'm nothing more than an afterthought, and have to wait in line behind "REAL" end-users, then maybe I would consider someone with this kind of CS, who actually puts me first in line. Sometimes I sorta get tired of being a red-headed step-child. I know other folks here have gone to great lengths to get this stuff in our hands, and we do appreciate that, but the MFG's they have to deal with don't seem to give a flying fuck about us. And maybe in their eyes, they see no reason to (or due to .gov restrictions are discouraged from doing so). OK, cool, but we have other choices now. You have other vendors that would love to crack the civvy US market, and treat you accordingly, as shown here. As to the difference in performance, vs availability/wait times, not to mention price, this is all up to you. |
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Robert has been my go to guy for a long time now for the same reasons as OP and others have stated, and will remain so. He's a solid no-BS guy In 2019 he quoted me 12 weeks lead time on my BNVD-ULs which was fine for that time, only to shock the hell out of me when 1 week later they arrived at my house a whopping 11 weeks ahead of schedule (wow!)...but unfortunately they arrived the day after I got on a plane to Oman for work  I was on a 12 week contract that was supposed to keep my mind off waiting for the BNVDs, but nooooooooooo, he had to ship so far ahead of schedule that all I could do was have my son send me photos of them every day til I got home  That was 4 years ago and since then I have put a shit ton of miles on my BNVDs blasting pigs all over Texas. They've never had any issues and have been rock solid, and so has all the other gear I've bought from him He's a great guy 
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