Like the title says I own a surplus Zeiss Orion 80/I (Fero Z51) which works great.  The only drawback is it is very bulky.

How does the surplus night vision at Apex stack up?

Night Vision, ATN Night Spirit 2, GEN 2 3x Scope, USED $449.75

Night Vision, ATN PS-14, CGT Monocular, USED $799.95

BLACK FRIDAY! Night Vision, PS-14, Gen 2/CGT Monocular, USED *Good* $699.95

Worth the money or junk?

If they are worth the money which optic listed is best (or the better buy)?

Also - keep in mind - Apex raised the price on all of these after the sales took off (likely from the post in this forum). That Night Spirit 2 was originally $399. It was a pretty solid deal at $399, given the pictures of the devices/tubes I saw in the thread about them. I'm not thrilled that they increased the price, after sales did well. Were it me, I would save your $ and shop eBay or some other Black Friday sales for a real Gen 3 device.

These are pretty decent for a scope. I have one of those Night Spirits 2 (acquired from ebay for ~500 bucks), so the Apex price is a tad better. Stock they will outperform any single stage Gen1 by a long shot... but the kicker is that at just 449 bucks, the Night Spirit 2 Intensifier Tube can be modified for increased gain which will make it a lot better than stock; night and day difference... (I am sure the PS-14 has a similar tube inside and I bet it can be made even better as well) The optics are fairly decent as well, at F1.2 on the main lens.

But to try answering your question, and considering the Fero is a Gen1 cascade tube IIRC which has very good light gain, I think the size/weight reduction alone is worth it... but I also think you'll like other features like ABC or BSP, like when you look at bright scenes the scope reduces the gain to protect the tube... probably a lot less distortion than the Gen 1 scope...

You can look at the thread for the Apex Bringback Scopes or the Modifiy EPM66G tube gain, you'll find some info on these scopes there.

I think stock light gain on most of those Gen2 Russian scopes is in the 20,000x ballpark with S-25 Photocathodes.

Hope this helps.

G.

I have the ps14 and its not bad but its my "walking around" set up. Understand that this is used generation 2 bring backs from Afghan or Iraqi. I will tell you after playing around with gen 3- I would save my money and shoot for a pvs14 which tnvc has on sale or a used one off of the ee from someone with good ratings.  I have also been looking at the pvs14 from tac cord who has a post in the ee under night vision. If you go back a few pages in this section there is a 15-16 page thread on the apex bringbacks and I have a short review with pictures in it of the ps14.

I think everyone understands that the PVS-14 are a heckuva lot better than these... no surprises there, and at 2000+ dollars it better be... right?

However, I recently discovered that the gain on these tubes can be cranked up quite a bit... as I've done on my own Night Spirit 2 and where it showed some dark contours before, now its renders a well lit scene... If you could take a look at the EPM66G thread mod on how I did it, I am sure these PS14 will match the Gen3 in terms of light gain after you crank the gain... granted, the photocathode is not as sensitive in the near IR,  won't have uber-resolution to match nor the SNR to go along, but I'd say that for 449 the Night Spirit with increased gain will handle 99.9999% of Outdoor conditions... and even indoor it holds its own now.

G.