Armasight Spark - Page 1

Posted: 7/15/2018 1:15:03 PM EDT

Just got a Spark and external illuminator to play around with. I gotta say that it's pretty impressive for the price. When mounted in front of a day scope, it appears that accurate shots at 200 yards would be easily possible.

I've been pouring over the specs for this thing trying to determine what calibers it would be rated for. Unfortunately, I'm not finding anything with regards to recoil tolerance. Anyone know for sure??

Posted: 7/15/2018 1:22:20 PM EDT

[#1]

Tag for answers.

I passed on a few good deals on one because I knew nothing about them at the time.

Posted: 7/15/2018 1:30:23 PM EDT

[#2]

I have one, impressive for what it is, it's shortcomings become apparent once you step up a generation or two.

I'm a firm believer that it IS better than not having any NV capability at all.

Posted: 7/15/2018 2:08:18 PM EDT

[#3]

I like it for the price . . . even better if it will handle .308 recoil. I didn't expect much for $500 but am pleasantly surprised so far. I'm old enough to be low speed/high drag so don't need milspec stuff. Give me a unit that I can use to whack the occasional coyote out to 200 and I'm happy.

Work just bought an Armasight CO-X gen 3. The SPARK doesn't come close to that but comparing a $500 unit to one costing 9 times that amount is pretty silly anyway.

Posted: 7/15/2018 7:51:00 PM EDT

[#4]

I've had one for a few years. Never weapon mounted it though I've thought about it a few times. My thoughts on it from another recent SPARK thread

I've got a SPARK CORE. It's probably top of the line as far as Gen 1 goes IMO. But I used to work on/with Gen3 binos for a living and while the CORE has great resolution it's light amplification sucks, and it has about 5 degrees less FOV than newer Gen night vision. 5 degrees doesn't sound like much on paper but in practice it's a huge. Save up the same 500ish the CORE costs a few times over and at least go Gen 2+.

You'll have to factor in the cost of a good IR Illumination with the cost of the CORE as the built in IR illumination is ok at across the room distances you need more for further than that.

If you have any specific questions about the CORE let me know and I'll answer as best I can. I've had one for about 2 years now.

View Quote

Everytime I get some overtime I'm putting back some of that money to put towards a Gen 3 unit.

Posted: 7/16/2018 9:41:12 AM EDT

[#5]

Gen1 looks so impressive, until you try;
Gen2 looks so impressive, until you try;
Gen3 looks so impressive, until you try;
4G looks so impressive, until you try;
Thermal looks so impressive, until you try;
Virtual looks so impressive, until you try;
...

OP's gonna find out one day his bank balance has never been the same since.

Posted: 7/16/2018 6:04:06 PM EDT

[#6]

Called Armasight today. They're reporting that the SPARK is rated for up to .308.

It'll work for now. I'm not interested in spending huge wads a cash for something I really don't need. Might be different if I was overrun with coyotes, hogs, or dirt bags but that's not the case at the moment.

Posted: 8/5/2018 8:30:15 PM EDT

[#7]

Anyone ever used their Spark CORE helmet mounted? I have used the Armasight skull crusher and it is... No Bueno. Have an Ops Core style helmet with NV shroud, but unsure where to get the mounting system I need.

joe

Posted: 8/6/2018 12:18:43 AM EDT

[#8]

The Spark is decent for the money. Amplification isn't much, but the center resolution rivals gen 3. When I owned one it seemed to have a small amount of fisheye and plenty of edge distortion, but would certainly be much better than no NV capability. They market it's ruggedness. Wouldn't think weapon mounting would be a problem...

Posted: 8/7/2018 11:45:17 AM EDT

[#9]

Quote History

Quoted:
Anyone ever used their Spark CORE helmet mounted? I have used the Armasight skull crusher and it is... No Bueno. Have an Ops Core style helmet with NV shroud, but unsure where to get the mounting system I need.

joe

View Quote

Here's mine on an Emerson (marketed to airsoft types) Maritime bump clone. I use this helmet pretty often and like it quite a bit and they now come in M/L and L/XL sizes.

I used a RHINO mount and a ARMASIGHT dovetail mount that works with the RHINO. Armasight is pretty proud of their mounts though. There's a company that sells on Amazon now that sells what they call the "JDAPT" adapter that sets you up for a J-arm in a good spot on the optic.

JDAPT on AMAZON

And the ARMASIGHT #37 MOUNT which I am currently using. on my Helmet.

I'd probably go with the JDAPT if I did it again (still might), because the #37 mount is kind of crap for that kind of money but is serviceable. I do need to get my counterweight back on the back.

Attached File

Posted: 8/10/2018 9:27:23 AM EDT

[#10]

Quote History

Quoted:
The Spark is decent for the money. Amplification isn't much, but the center resolution rivals gen 3. When I owned one it seemed to have a small amount of fisheye and plenty of edge distortion, but would certainly be much better than no NV capability. They market it's ruggedness. Wouldn't think weapon mounting would be a problem...

View Quote

Center resolution of Gen1's goes up to around 200 lp/mm if I recall. They don't have to deal with Fiber plate, MCPs or other related problems and can use electrostatic lenses.

I have a Gen1 somewhere with an 8mm screen and resolution somewhere around 130lp/mm.

If you have a PVS-14 and want to know what the spark core looks like, turn your gain all the way down to minimum, and ignore the outer third of the screen. It's still not quite that good, but it is close.

David.

Posted: 8/10/2018 11:27:04 AM EDT

[#11]

I hated my Spark. It was like having night adapted vision. That’s it.

If you don’t mind using an illuminator then it’s sorta, kinda, ok.

Posted: 8/12/2018 10:09:32 AM EDT

[#12]

Quote History

Quoted:
I hated my Spark. It was like having night adapted vision. That's it.

If you don't mind using an illuminator then it's sorta, kinda, ok.

View Quote

This is actually a key point.

Most Gen1 is worse than night adapted vision... That is, you can see more without it than with it after a certain point.

The noise levels in the SPARK are low enough that it is kind of like night adapted vision... Which means you can still see what you need to with it. Given then some use it as a shooting platform, that makes it pretty good for Gen1. System gain I would estimate at somewhere between 50x and 100x -

David

Posted: 8/12/2018 12:03:41 PM EDT

[#13]

Quote History

Quoted:
Most Gen1 is worse than night adapted vision... That is, you can see more without it than with it after a certain point.

View Quote

Just a while back bumped into my oldest Gen1 while searching for something else and just for the heck of it tried looking through it with a Gen3. Was kind of surprised that it provided no meaningful (or any) extra amplification that I could easily see, only that the view was magnified due to the Gen1 being 3x. So in starlight conditions it did show an image barely visible with a non-dark adapted eye, through Gen3 it was quite close in brightness to just looking through the Gen3 alone, but provided 3x magnification and a surprisingly good image despite there being then 4 lenses in between the world and my eyeball. That's not a Spark level Gen1, but Gen1 nevertheless.

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