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Posted: 12/8/2007 7:51:17 AM EDT
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Last night was my first outing with the PVS-14 and about six inches of snow on the ground. And wow, was it neat. Conditions were perfect for a winter night. 32 degrees, no wind, and no precipitation. The sky was overcast, no moon, not a star to be seen, and yet the snow provided so much reflection that the green tint was nearly gone from the picture. It was genuinely like watching a black-and-white movie with great resolution. I tried using Da Torch several times, but it was really overkill. I finally just resorted to using it for eye sweeps. Navigation in my woods was very easy and I could find and follow deer tracks without any trouble at all. In fact, they stood out with greater clarity than in the daytime, because the depressions show up as little black spots in the snow. For those of you with helmet rigs, I've discovered that if I take all the pads out and put a stocking cap on, I keep my melon warm and it provides a great, cushioned fit. Any other snow prowlers out there? |
I bet if the moon was out a bit, you would be turning that gain way down!  Looking through NV in the snow in the conditions you mentioned is actually eerie looking! You might want to snap some pics. Since my local mountains JUST got dumped on last night, I've been wanting to snap some pics with a D-760 as well. Vic |
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Yeah, well...the picture thing is going to take some practice and trial-and-error. I had the gain practically down to nothing. In the woods, I would turn it up a bit, in the clear, I would turn it way down. I was able to see farther last night than ever before, and the clarity was amazing. I'm wondering what it's like when the snow is actually falling. 
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Like a unit with a very bad signal to noise ratio!!
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Normally, most of the great outdoors reflects only 18% of the ambient light that hits it. Light meters in cameras are even calibrated to this standard. Snow is much higher as is sand (sand not as much as snow but still quite reflective). The cool thing is that even under very dark conditions these environments make your gear work better. IPSC_GUY SIERRA II ALPHA |
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