NV Noob here, other than using them in the military.   I've saved my pennies and am ready to jump into the darkness.  I've had my sights set on the PVS-14 for some time, but now I'm really liking the Sentinel.  I've read the pros and cons between monocular and binocular, but honestly can't make up my mind now.  Looking for help, suggestions, hands on experience, etc.  Price set aside, which one would you go with?

Also, how much better is the white phosphor?  worth the extra $$??

If you have the money go with duals hands down. As to the white phosphor, I think they are worth it but from what I’ve been told it sounds like you want to get a good set of L3 white phosphor because of the high specs on them. I’m saving for whites now to replace my green tubes in another year I hope. My only time with the whites is limited to the few sets we have at work and just don’t have enough of them yet for me to be blessed with a set of my own whites yet.

I had considered the sentinel but went with RNVG as I don’t really have a need for the ball mount and they are a little tougher than the sentinels or so has been said.

Don't forget with the PVS14 you have manual gain where as with sentinels you don't.

Is that a positive or a negative?

Depends on who you talk to. In my opinion you want to have manual gain. Many people on here will tell you they don't care they don't have it. Many of the dual systems don't have it. I'm getting DTNVGs and they don't have it. The reason I like it though is I like to be able to turn down the brightness a bit so my eyes don't get fatigued as quickly by looking at such a bright light. Having said that, if you can afford a dual system, get a dual system. If you want gain, look into the BNVD-SG. It's a badass system. If you can afford white, go with white. If not, the green is still EXTREMELY good and you will be more than happy with green.

BNVD-SG at TNVC

I like manual gain and have bnvd’s with single gain. I usually turn the gain down because it cleans up the image.

OP what are you trying to do with them? Your use case will help advisement

I have a PVS14 in green with manual gain and for me it's better suited for my use. If your trying to stay in the shadows and take advantage of the dark a single monocular is the way to go.  Reading lighting conditions so you can stay in the shadows is a big plus IMHO. Is it possible to look under duals or flip one up to do the same things yes it is, but if you have a lot of things going or under a high stress situations you may not utilize darkness as well as you should. Another advantage is being able to use a red dot on my unaided eye and should the lighting scenario change my dot will still be visible. If I where considering duals with manual gain I would look at the MOD3B manual gain, they're a little heavier, but you have the advantage of a dual battery system, able to hand one off to a buddy, or weapon mount one. As another poster stated using green with a manual gain cuts down on eye fatigue I've looked through WP NODS and while it was different I couldn't justify spending several hundred more over a green tube.

Well, nothing specific really.  Bump in the night, camping, force multiplier for me.

If money isn't a concern between the two, get the binos. I think the Sentinels are awesome and would recommend them. I haven't used manual gain on binos, but I see no need for it. Plus, you would have to be using both hands to adjust each eye... The 10160 tubes work very well with automatic brightness control, so I would go without manual gain.

The years I’ve been using the anvis I’ve never once thought I wish I had man gain. Probably won’t care to need it on the rnvg ether.

Manual gain on binos is not necessary, it's just a nice feature to have when configured correctly. (single gain knob that controls both tubes.)

On a goggle like 31s, it's nice to have the gain feature because it can also be configured as a mono.  Much like a pvs-14, you can occasionally benefit from manual gain by somewhat "matching" your actual eyes night vision with that of the tube that is covering your eye.

Being able to adjust the gain is also a nice feature to have in a goggle because it helps to "clean up" the image on those really dark nights.  You lower the gain to eliminate a lot of the scintillation/ noise you get.

Again, not needed IMO, just a nice feature to have.

I'm another NV noob who just got my first ones about a month ago.  Been out for night strolls 3 times with them on the beach in as dark an area as I could find, only one place I was would I call truly dark though. I got MOD3's in filmless WP with manual gain (dual).

My noob perspective advice is:
1) If you can get binoculars, DO IT.  I like the ability to use a monocular as an option if needed, but I would NOT want to be stuck with mono only for any kind of movement.  For just observing, not so bad but moving without depth perception was quite an uncomfortable experience.  I can see why people say it gives them headaches.  Of course you say you've used them in the .mil, you probably already know how much you like/dislike mono (I'm assuming you used PVS-14s).

2)  I like the WP, it looks really natural.  In photo comparisons online it looks much clearer with better contrast.  I have not looked through anything else personally though.  IMO, if it won't break the bank, go for filmless WP, but it's not as big a deal as bino vs. mono.

3) Gain - it's kinda nice to be able to manually adjust, but I find myself kind of wishing I had just gotten auto.  Again, I haven't actually used any NVGs with auto-gain so I don't know how 'transparent' it is to the user or how I would like how it adjusts itself.  If I had to do it again knowing what I know now, I'd probably opt for saving the extra $500 and just get the auto gain version.  Single gain would be a pretty nice feature over the dual, would take a lot of the annoyance out of adjusting and having to match both eyes.

Thanks for all the input.  Got some decisions to make.

Okay, another question:

With the Sentinel, can you, if you needed to, get a good sight picture with an AR?   If I'm out and about wearing my goggles, and want to take a shot, can you easily?

Requires a little rifle/gear modification like Augee said. But it definitely can be done.

Augee helped turn me on to the idea of shooting passive under NV with a microdot raised up an extra half inch. It's cool to be able to do so. But you really do need to train with the added holdover. I set up a gun for this purpose, and during a recent carbine class struggled with the amount of holdover needed for very specific shot placements in CQB (i.e. headshots on a bad guy when a hostage is involved).

I think it depends on your uses.  Im going to offer a different opinion here - for my purpose I actually prefer a monocular to a bino setup.  I use my NV for hog hunting.  I like to have one eye free so that I have an eye adjusted to darkness and the other eye looking through the NV.  The eye using the NV is all but useless in the dark until it adjusts.  This is very helpful if you need to constantly see up close (think 2-3 feet) and don't want to use a visible light or adjust your focus every few minutes.  There are products like the Phokus hoplite that help with this if you want to go that route but you lose some light and still have to flip it up and down every time you want to use it.

Now if you are using it for other uses or that doesn't matter to you then binos are the way to go.

Best thing i can say is to try out both set ups and see what you like.

That's why you buy a MAWL when you get your NV. Point the laser and pull the trigger.