Originally Posted by
Outwest
In Canada and an EMS role primarily. So the OEM's you mention are all pretty much the same?
Of course there are differences but some companies use the same tubes. Some OEM's do trade ins of other brands depending on the tubes in the trade in sets.
As a very general rule of thumb, and this is dumbed down, most of the US sets of the same gen/model are pretty much the same as far as a civvie is concerned doing ems work.
The main competitor/difference are the Israeli sets/technology. The Israeli nvg's (someone feel free to correct me) were the first to commercially use auto-gating as opposed to auto-gain as in the US sets.
I'm by no means an expert in the field at all, many more pilots with far more experience on NVG's than me.
My personal opinions are as follows:
- Auto-gated tended to work better in lit areas with a crisper picture, however I did notice I little streaking with say car headlights when you moved your head.
- Auto-gain, gen III or better I think had a better picture but were far more susceptible to exterior illumination and would gain down in well lit areas a lot more.
- green vs white phos, white gave a more crisp picture and a little better depth perception compared to green. Though the one con I noticed with white goggles was the time taken for your eyes to transition off goggles was a little longer.
Just my personal observations but take it with a grain of salt as everyone has their own opinions. It's a lot like finding the right flight helmet to fit you, ask 5 people and get 5 different answers.
Personally if I were in your shoes I would go for something like the Point Trading white phos set that avoids all the USA ITAR issues.
**edit: as for point trading I know they are approved to be used by CASA in Australia but I have no idea if they have transport Canada or FAA stamp of approval, so you would have to check on that.