....

Tagz.

....

.....

Nice thread idea.

Got my Nox18 (thanks JRH!) Monday morning. Haven't had a chance to spend a lot of time with it, but so far it's basically what I hoped the FLIR Breach would be originally. I'll be selling my Breach soon.

I don't have a bridge currently, and while I do have a PVS14 I just head-mount it with a Crye Nightcap. I never put much priority on being able to head-mount this, but I may keep an eye out on the EE for a used bridge and give it a try. I'm more interested in just using it as a scanner and some use as a weapon's sight.

I might get laughed at a little, but I'm looking forward to some time with this thing on a suppressed 452.

Like I said, very little use so far, but my initial impressions with my only previous thermal experience being with a FLIR Breach and an older ThermApp device:

Build Quality - So far I'm very happy with it. Nothing feels cheap, everything feels rock solid. I agree that the focus ring on the front is pretty tight, but as I'm getting used to it, I'm cool with it. Might be a bigger issue head-mounted or even weapon-mounted though? I don't know. I love that it comes with both a dovetail mount and rail mount from the factory. Kind of wish they'd have included a safety tie for the lens cover; no big deal, I can add one easy enough. Or does anyone know if there's a flip cover available?

Image - The image is phenomenal to me. Dial it in with the objective lens focus ring, and the clarity is amazing. Don't know what else to say, it's awesome.

Controls - I like them. I think a center button would have been more intuitive as an "enter" key, but I'm good with it as is, it's not slowing me down. The buttons don't feel cheap, but you know when you're pressing them. Good tactile feel to them too, you know WHAT you're pressing. That was a complaint I had on my Breach, the buttons all feel the same and they don't have a good feel to them when pressing. Really happy that I can toggle between white hot and black hot with a single button push on this, rather than having to dive into the menus like on the Breach.

Menu/Options - So far I'm not disliking much of anything. I think the menus are well laid out, logical, easy to use, etc.. I like the reticle options; I really had no idea it was going to have so many options. I like that I can turn off certain zoom levels and edge detect from the quick toggle buttons. I really only care about white hot and black hot, so it's nice that I don't have to toggle through options I'm not interested in.

Calibration - I have to get used to pressing the calibrate button now and then. My Breach auto-NUCs periodically. Usually fine, but sometimes it does come at an inopportune time, pausing the image for a moment. I like that the calibration on the Nox is super fast and easy, and that I'm only getting one when I decide to do it.

.....

Sighted the Nox in with the 452 tonight. First time with a thermal optic on a rifle, but I was happy with the results. Used half-inch washers heated up with a lighter, hanging from a string against a sheet of paper stapled to a pallet. One thing I thought was kind of neat that I hadn't considered; when I'd miss the paper, and even when rounds did hit the paper to a lesser degree, the pass-through of the pallet wood lit up bright from the friction.

Went for a stroll with it after. Took some pics, but the image looks better through the optic.





That's a duck at the edge of a pond:









Couple black hot distance pics. That's an old trailer (mobile home) out in the distance:

.....

Nope, for still images you don't need anything extra. You can take the stills with the native hardware and then I found on the NVision website they have image download software available. You just have to install and then when you plug the Nox into the computer it will read what's in the gallery and give you a method to download.

Very bottom of the page, or click the Downloads tab.

https://nvisionoptics.com/product/nox18/

......

I'll be interested to see what you come up with on that front. I'm probably not going to bother, but we'll see. The video isn't a priority to me, but it could be entertaining to have sometimes.

Any chance you could take some pictures or video through the eyepiece?

I'll give it a shot but I doubt it's going to turn out very good.

While I said the pics I posted were not as good as what I see through the optic, bear in mind part of that is because through the optic I'm looking at it close up on a much smaller screen.

Sure would like to see what a target at 100 yards and greater looks like with the reticles.  No zoom, and zoom.

......

......

Very recently got into NV and thermal and I gotta say, my new super powers are blowing my little mind.

All the tips above have been very helpful!



Three cargo ships at probably 25 (edit, more like 18) miles away;

This was through a light marine layer, could barely see them by eye.

A rat hiding under the kids kitchen set;


And our cat, the detail is nuts;

And to add something useful,
I'm running a Butler Creek Multiflex 21314 13-14 Eyepiece Clam on the back from amazon

And a Butler Creek Flip-Open Objective Scope Cover - 1.429"/36.3mm MFG 30070 Size 07 from Natchez on the front.

Nice, thanks for the info. I'm going to pick these up.

Anyone have any input yet on battery run times you're seeing with CR123s and the rechargeable 18650?

I burned through the CR123 that came with the unit pretty fast, but it was on and off so much I really have no idea how much time I got out of it. Running an Energizer Lithium CR123 right now.

What bridge are you using? I’ve still got the standard rhino bayo I’ll have to upgrade from.

......

......

The weight penalty on the 18650 seems worth it, not sure on runtime yet, but way longer than the CR123. It sucked down one CR123 in the first night before I changed to the 18650 and I've been running that sporadically for 2 weeks now with only one bar loss on the battery bar.

Not sure if it was added to the tip list above, but there is a spot in the system menu, I think, to tell the Nox that you're using a 18650 vs CR123 for better battery status.

......

Yup. D14. Feels super well built.

Though I will echo the dude above and what TNVC_Augee has said else where, my brain can't sort out the two images. I've got the Nox on my right, dominant eye and I can't dial down the brightness enough to not totally wash out the PVS14.

Granted, with the detail of the Nox it kinda feels like the PVS14 is just along for the ride anyway.

Think my eventual use case will be DTNVS/COTI for larping with the Nox handheld to verify that the COTI blob was or was not the mountain lion that passes thru every so often.

......

......

Yeah, I think that's the biggest issue with the bridge setup, my noodle neck. I still need to try it on my helmet setup, but with a Nightcap and not enough counterweight, it was sketchy.

I did snag a COTI from eurooptic when I saw the price drop, thats what got me started on the thermal train. The COTI/PVS14 was a huge jump in confidence over the straight 14, but there were still a few times playing the "false positive or lion?" game. Think the Nox will help there!

I case you can't tell, I'm not scared of the dark, but I am
terrified of 200 pound kitties, haha.

At least they are a good excuse for new toys!

......

I use a cell phone through the eyepiece of my Trijicon MKiii. I would love to see what the Nox looks like if anybody can do something similar.

Oh, I've got the nightcap setup in a get home bag with the 14.

The bump setup is pretty gtg


Just for whatever reason the bridge setup and the bump haven't crossed paths yet!

Had the "rough luck" (for my wallet) of seeing a bunch of things come into stock at the same time I wasn't broke. Still sorting through and getting set up.

.....

One thing I will say I dont understand about the Nox18 is the two outline modes.

Maybe just because I think I've only tried it during the day, but its a total hot mess.

Makes sense on the COTI, but is there an actual use case for outline on a dedicated thermal scanner?

Come to think of it, need to check the manual, wonder if you can lock out those modes. Annoys me to have to run through em if I switch from white hot to black hot.

Yeah, you can set it so they aren't part of the toggle lineup. I turned them off as well, no use for them. Plus I really like how when they're locked out you just get a single button push to quickly toggle between white hot and black hot.

You can do the same with the zoom levels. I'm going to lock out 8x at least.

I'm really pretty happy with the menu options and settings on the Nox.

......

Horse's mouth!
Thought I had read that, wasn't sure if it was the Nox or Coti. Haha.

Will try tonight.

Think the next thing I'll want to play with is video recording.  On the admittedly super low chance of running into a giant kitty, having the option to record video of it would be awesome.

Wanted to double down on this, loving the Nox18. If my worst complaint is there's a few options I don't use, that it by the way let's me skip, woe is me.

......

"Look at the detail on that cat as he gets closer! Oh yup, he's not stopping..." cut to black

Not a bad idea on the on the will, I'll have to show the wife how to pull video for insurance purposes at least.

I did order the predator precision DVR so we'll see how that works with the nox. Granted... think I need to find my usb cable. That I mananaged to misplace after like 2 days.

Despite only being like 30 miles from SF, CA, we're oddly isolated here in the redwoods. Very low chance of running into anyone in the steep ravine we live in, so I'll hustle around with a 9" MCX "pistol"  in 300BO with a Perst-3.

Now if only we didn't live in CA and I could own a suppressor to actually shoot in my back yard...

.....

Yup, same page. Our area is so steep, sketch, and densely canopied there's not even too much of a worry around illegal pot grows.

Granted, for the headache it would cause around here to shoot a mountain lion, even if for some reason it came after me, I'm hoping the COTI/Nox gives me enough of an early warning to just head back up the hill and go to bed early.

Sheriff: "Why were you even out at 1am, in the woods, with a rifle?"
Me: "Testing out my nods, thermal, helmet, plate carrier, and comms, sir."

~next day, front page news~

"Crazy miltia groups slay mountain lions in SF bay, BAN EVERYTHIN NOW!"

Hard tangent off topic, so here's a picture of some cows? Maybe? At super roughly 1000 yards?
3 of em to the left and up from reticle.

I gave it a shot, but it didn't turn out well. The downloaded image looked cleaner.

Just now took a couple of comparison pics with my Nox and Breach in town. Raining right now a bit.

Breach:



Nox:



Breach:



Nox:

Thanks again for this tip. I picked up the size 07 objective cover at a LGS today. Fits perfect.

@GreenMushroom  I was afraid I wouldn't be able to focus the objective with the cap on, half expected I'd have to pop it off to adjust. But actually I'm able to turn the ring with the cap, and it actually adds just a slight bit more leverage making it easier to focus. At least that's what I'm seeing with mine.