I have found that using 2-3 clicks of the zoom (Right D pad button) sets the viewfinder to approx. 1 to 1 natural perspective, much like Gen 3 optics.   Does your setup function similarly?

Picked one up. Really freaking cool. With a cheapo 850nm 10 dollar light it is very easy to see in pitch black . Would be interested in a mounting helmet system. Will get some pics at some point and post them when I get some more time

Without damage to the unit. Can you run Nightmode during daylight conditions and under the sun? thanks in advance

I have had mine on during the day and did not see any problem.  The website does not mention it in their FAQ's or anywhere else for that matter.  I doubt it is an issue, but what would it accomplish?  Twilight or Day mode will give a much better scene rendition and pics or videos.

Edited: prelim comments and positive review withdrawn, unit stopped working, we'll see what happens

Any chance you could use a range finder with it?

I hope they make a gen 2 that is helmet mount compatible out of the box.

Just found out about this this morning, saw a guy on FB selling at the special price.

Are there no pics or experience out there of helmet mounting one of these?

I see no reason why it couldn’t be done. I lack the tools and time. It has a screw mount on the bottom and the image is upright when the camera is upside down.  What would be even cooler is if they made the app be able to stream to a set of vr glasses

Holy shiet. Just figured out that on the app you can make the live stream full screen in landscape orientation. You could simply mount the camera on top of a helmet and stream to a set of vr glasses on Android. I have an iPhone but this would be super cool

Chris Adams made a post yesterday about this. According to him they'll be making a head mount at some point. He's also now a distributor. Here's the text of his fb post:

"Hello Again! As I said earlier the posts are going to come fast and heavy for a while.

Two things I NEVER thought would happen are about to. First, I am going to say nice things about a digital night vision system.

Second, I'm going to try and sell you one. So buckle up buttercup because the world is about to change!

But first, a little super villain monologue. I've been in this business since 1994. Yep, almost 25 years. The first goggles I sold were PVS-5s and they were brand new. In this time I've played with several attempts at digital night vision. The first was the Aurora Tactical DNV. It not only didn't work, but it also had the charming inclination to melt/catch on fire while recharging. Since then I've played with systems ranging from $200 to $100,000. In fact we manufactured the mount for the really expensive one. And... they all sucked.

So one night I was poking around YouTube looking for videos of cats playing piano, and I saw a video for a system called the Sionyx Aurora Digital Color Night Vision Camera. I gotta be honest, my first reaction was to roll my eyes. But I watched the video, and it was cool. Then I watched a few more and I started to wonder how much they were doctoring these videos. Finally I contacted Sionyx and they were kind enough to send me a demo unit.

After playing with the unit I can only describe my reaction as "dumbounded." Like legit if this thing was any better I'd be telling all the other folks in the night vision industry to commit suicide. Don't worry, the system does have some limitations so only some of the people in the night vision industry should commit suicide. You folks know who you are.

Starting on the outside. If a PVS-14 and a small camcorder had a love child, it would be the Aurora. Things like the focus and diopter are manual like on a 14 because they have to be. I don't think you could put autofocus on something like this. The size is good and the unit is relatively robust. I did drop it onto my work desk from about a foot up and it was OK. I don't know that I'd try the shoulder height to concrete test on it though. Take a look at the pictures I took of the unit next to a 14. It's pretty much the same size. Oh and it has a 1/4-20 camera mount on the bottom, so you can hook it to a tripod or even to a PVS-14 weapon mount (it's not perfect but it works, zip ties might be needed). Wanna take night vision video of you lighting up your buddies?

So here's the good news. When it comes to the hard stuff, Sionyx killed it. The sensor really does deliver in very dark conditions. I've attached some pictures here of our storage room where I snap pictures through systems on a regular basis. Many of you are probably pretty familiar with it. First picture is of the room with the lights on via my mobile phone. Second picture is the lights off and door closed, also on my mobile phone. Yes, it really is that dark in there. It's pitch black to the naked eye. There is some light coming under the door though and it probably simulates 1/4 moon with clear skies pretty well. Next picture is L3 Gen. 3 White Phosphor. Sorry it's a little off center. Next to that is a Photonis White Phosphor ECHO tube. Ok, the next B/W picture is the Sionyx Aurora in night black and white mode. The final picture is in night color mode. YES! that is a color picture taken in the same environment as the picture that is pitch black and the ones through differing night vision systems. It's jaw dropping. I will say that when you're holding the unit the night B/W mode works to a lower level of darkness than the night color mode, BUT when you do have enough light to be in color mode that's the way to go.

Did I mention the Aurora can sense infrared? That's right folks, you can use your IR illuminators and aiming lasers to brighten things up when it gets really dark. The zombies will never see you coming.

So you can run the unit as a video camera with various settings that enhance/degrade low light performance. You can run it as a still camera as you've seen here, and you can run it as a monocular without recording anything. Oh and you can do it all at night or during the day. Yeah, it has day and dusk modes too.

Like I said, on the hard stuff they knocked it out of the park. On some of the details I really wish they had talked to me, but they didn't know me back then so I do have to cut them some slack. First thing I don't like is the eyepiece. It really is more along the lines of a camcorder eyepiece. 7-10 mm eye relief. I would have called out a 25mm projecting eyepiece. They are going to come out with a headmount which may be OK and a weapon mount which is going to give more black eyes than Tyson, though it might work well for Airsoft and Air Riles. Just gotta figure out the reticle system. There are also some "features" that if they had just left them off probably would have been better. There is a phone APP to connect your unit to your phone and view/control it remotely. My understanding it is works pretty good with iPhones and *some* Android phones. I can tell you that my Motorola and the camera are NOT friends. So what do I do? I either pull out the microSD card and transfer stuff the old fashioned way, or plug a micro USB cable into the camera and offload to my PC/MAC. The pics shown here were transferred in that manner. It's not the end of the world, but it is a little annoying when a feature I didn't know I needed doesn't work.

You might notice I didn't post any videos here. Why? well frankly I didn't have time to come up with any interesting content, BUT if you go on YouTube and search for "Sionyx Aurora" you will find tons of cool videos. Some are from Sionyx and some from various other people. I'd post some links but it wouldn't be cool to post other people's work to sell something.

So what are the limitations? When it gets really dark night vision still wins. Also, because of the eyepiece you would have a hard time running and gunning with this thing even on a helmet mount. Yeah, and I can't wait to see that weapon mount and its affects on peoples' eyeballs. This unit is PERFECT for recording cool stuff at night, surveillance (a couple law enforcement agencies are already majorly on board), boating, taking really low light videos in COLOR, hunting videos, airsoft videos, and about a million things we haven't thought of yet. Oh and it's PERFECT for export. That's right baby it's EAR99. The number of places I CANNOT ship these to I can pretty much count on one hand. We ship Italia!!

I liked the product so much I became a distributor and here's something cool. Through thanksgiving the manufacturer is allowing me to sell these babies for $639 as an introductory price. After that they are going to to $799 and if they catch me advertising them for less than that I lose my dealer incentives. So seriously the day after Thanksgiving this product is going to set you back $799.

So yeah, I'm gonna say it. You need digital color night vision and for this price you need it now."

I've been playing around with the WiFi link to my iPad Pro 10.5" for a while and don't find the lag to be much of a problem.  After you realize it has about an 1/8-1/4 of a second delay for viewing, it becomes no big deal.  You need to remember to turn off Bluetooth for the best and most consistent link, but I can walk 20'-30' away with one wall in between and it stays connected.  It's nice that you can alter some of the settings from the remote display also, especially the exposure boost/cut.

I have mentioned they manage to pack a remarkable amount of features in this device that are relatively easy to set up and use.  I'm hoping to have this thread stay active as I'm sure others will find details I've missed.  I am still amazed daily about the capabilities and quality we're getting for the money.

For those on the fence and arguing the PVS-14 is the only way to go, stay tuned.

Have you tried mounting it on a rifle?

I looked through my aimpoint compm2 the other day and looked through my scope last night. seemed to work fine with night vision mode. will try to get pics at some point

How did you mount it?

no mount,  just looked through it all poverty like. I am just saying it should be possible as long as the camera can take the recoil, which I think they say it can.

No, I haven't found the mount I need for my Eotechs to align. The camera does have an indexing orifice for quick mounting center line alignment though, so they seem to have thought that through.

They claim recoil up to and including 5.56 is OK. It seems that they specifically included a shutter setting that is triggered by recoil somewhat certifies that they expect this to be used by sportsmen and hunters. There is a video on YouTube capturing some twilight and night fire shooting. They shot both IR illuminated and natural night light. The group that uploaded it goes by "Shwat". I found the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUdJx91G870

Awesome post, kel! Many thanks.

seems like an easy 3D printed part can resolve the canting issue?

I got an email yesterday from SiOnyx with a link to their manual for the Aurora camera.  This has been a long time coming, but it looks decent.  It's in PDF format.

SiOnyx Aurora User Manual

interested

Edited: prelim comments withdrawn, unit stopped working

Deal Alert - just ordered a Sionyx for $639 through Adorama AND got $15 cash back and I think another 2% back via CouponCabin
No referral link as Coupon cabin does not pay for referrals

Total possible price -
$639 - $15 -12.78 = $611.22

You bastards always end up costing me money.

Best place to buy? Through this guy Adams or Amazon or someone else? Concerned about long term support for the system..

Okay,  for those of you that have a PVS14, how do you compare the two?  Ive read one post where they compare it to a GEN 1 plus?  Is it that bad on it's own?  I've seen some YouTube videos that make me think a lot different.  But I have owned 2 PVS14's and know what they can do.  I'm trying not to spend $2000 again if I don't have to on a used PVS14.  But if the Sony is that far off, let me know.  

I don't own one yet, but, from all the videos I've seen, it looks more like Gen. 2+.

I concur.

I think a lot of industry "insiders" were blindsided by this thing, it really just came out of the left field, from a couple of guys who are not, and have not been, a part of the night vision/tactical crowd.

Some Adam guy may have said it best a couple of posts up, that if this thing is "any better" than it is, a lot of dealers and manufacturers might have to go kill themselves because they've just been put out of business by an $700 DIGITAL replacement for PVS14s.

For most us, this thing is great news.  For a few, this has been nothing short of a nightmare.

Oh well, business is business.

so with this..do we still need IR illuminators and how does IR lasers work on it?

Same as a PVS14, I believe.
Really dark, sure.
Want to aim something through it, yeah.

From YouTube, it seems that an IR illuminator really clears up the image. Although, it does give you that odd alien world IR color look. Pretty cool actually.

@spyhawk
The video says cheap IR illuminators (sub $20) work very weill with this unit
however, I'm leery of many of these being UnSafe for eyes??
Which cheap illuminators are eye safe? I have heard you can suffer blindness from being exposed to those that are not eye safe - and you are not even aware of it happening....until it is too late

IR has to be of a certain intensity to be dangerous, doubtful these flashlights will do it. But I've heard that the Chinese IR has sulphur and lead in the beam, so don't shine it in your mouth.

The future is digital, but the tech hasn’t caught up yet. Carrying a big set of delicate tubes on your face will go away as soon as it does. It’s not that far away. Digital signal processing gets better and more power efficient every day.

At some point, you’ll have sensors (head/helmet mounted, probably multiple, linked sensors) that display to a set of lightweight goggles, probably linked wirelessly with some kind of ultra-wideband signal.

Absolutely correct, sir, I would not risk it, AT ALL, with any of those $20 ebay specials.  Just get something quality from Ultimate Night Vision or TNVC and rest easy.

Ok..I'm convinced .so where's it cheap to buy.?
Links please.

Sir, have you read the 3 pages in this thread before you posted this?

Did you know those guys who put this thing together are able to do so with only $400 worth of parts and sell this at a profit for only ~$700?

They're offing gen 2+ performance and gen 5,6, or 7 capabilities (reticle, headmount, color nv, daytime operation, zoom...) for less than $700, imagine what they can put together in 2 years with a budget of ~$2000 or even $2500.

The future may be digital, but it certainly has arrived.  There will be a lot of rearrangement on the deck of NV industry in the next 2 years if these guys are not put out of business.  We are staring at the future through this thing right now.

Same here, seriously considering this unit.

For some reason pics in this thread are not viewable.

I’d like to see the view mounted behind an Aimpoint Pro or equivalent.

Or mounted behind a Razor 1-6.

@equilibrium1
which cheapo 850nm light are you using? email link or post? Is it eye safe?

@usaday
Ruh Roh? how long have you had it? Where did you get it from?

@zhass
@Jozsi
sign up for Couponcabin and get cash back and then click through that site to get to Adorama.com
search for Sionyx
you are welcome

Well guess we will see if the company stands behind their product. You dealing with the manufacturer or place of purchase on this issue?

I believe it either comes with reticle options or is a software upgrade away from such options.

You don't need to mount it behind anything to degrade the sight picture, just mount it and shoot with whatever reticles they'll put in there.

How are these working with full power IR like peqs and dbals? Will it see the hillstop lit up see thr ir pointer?

Does not have its own reticle.

"A custom designed mount firmly attaches the Aurora to any Picatinny rail allowing hunters to mount Aurora stand alone or in front of their existing day scope. When extra illumination is desired, an Infrared (IR) illuminator, matched to the Aurora field of view is included. The light from the IR illuminator is 940nm and entirely invisible, allowing hunters to remain stealth while stalking their prey. Two 32GB microSD cards, extra camera battery, 12VDC and AC battery chargers, USB cable, and lanyard complete the package in a sturdy, waterproof case."

These are available on eBay for $639 today..
Minus the 15% off deal eBay is doing that's $543.15 shipped!!!

You MUST use the most up to date eBay app to get 15%

eBay deal (Goes live 8am-8pm ET)
Sionyx eBay link

Happy spending..

Here's a link to one of the ones I've been using for the past few months.

Amazon 850nm IR Flash Light

If you are concerned about possible vision loss, I'd say just don't stare into it while it's on.  I think most security cameras put out a lot more IR with cheap LED's than this is capable of, and the $200 Tier 1 "Operator" versions sold by specialty sites do also.  My computer monitor, the sun, and IR saunas are also very strong sources, and I have never heard of vision loss attributed to the IR from those type of devices.  But I could be wrong.

Ordered.  Thanks for posting.  Been following this thread for a bit.  BTW  shows only 1 left in stock.