Thanks for your expertise and advise.

Looking for something lightweight.  Ideally, lower magnification (2-4x) and decent quality.  Price point is $300 max.

Maybe a sionyx aurora?
hard to get something decent for that cheap I believe

Doesn't exist...

A Gen 1 unit like a Sightmark Ghost Hunter is probably your only option.  You'll need to rethink your definition of 'decent image quality.'

Came to post this. ANything else is basically worse than a $100 flashlight. The SiOnyx is $400 plus maybe $25 for a chinese IR flashlight and you're about as good as you're going to get until your budget passes $3k+ unfortunately.

For image intensifiers, you've got to pay to play... entry level has remained pretty stable at $2,000-3,000 for a Gen III if I recall correctly. Gen 1 night vision (the ~$100-200 options) are awful IMO, have terrible FOV and utterly rely upon IR illumination to be useful. The Aurora might be your best bet so long as you do your research.

Here's a great view of the Aurora to see if it fits your needs:


The price of thermals, however, has fallen considerably.  It used to be that a 320 res thermal would cost as much as a small car, $6,000-10,000+. I was excited three years ago when I found the FLIR Boson core for "only" $1,800, and now you can get that sort of resolution in a handheld water resistant package for $500 (down from $800)..

https://www.mesfire.com/Seek-Reveal-Fire-PRO

Not as good as night vision for identification and navigation, but for pure detection (depending on conditions), thermals are hard to beat.

Here's the same scene, for example:


Just depends on what your purpose is.

Regards

You can get a gen1 monocular, but you'll definitely want an additional IR light.  Gen 1 needs either full moonlight or extra IR illumination to see much.

For a bit more, the Sionyx is a better deal for most uses.