850nm vs 940nm for night vision. Which one do you use?

[ImpactX]

Getting into night vision. So I see they make 850nm and 940nm on the same product. I did some searching youtube, videos and from what I can tell is. 850nm is brighter and shoot further. But have a visible red glow to the naked eye. The 940 is not as bright and is only good for short distance. But is invisible to the naked eye. That's all I can find on the difference between them. Or are there other pros and cons?..which one would you choose and why when getting into night vision.

 

[BlackICE]

If your after critters IMO they don't seem to mind the 850 (if the light is more than 20 yards away), and you get more range. If you are in a combat situation 850 can be fatal!

 

[JaceSpace1369]

Getting into night vision. So I see they make 850nm and 940nm on the same product. I did some searching youtube, videos and from what I can tell is. 850nm is brighter and shoot further. But have a visible red glow to the naked eye. The 940 is not as bright and is only good for short distance. But is invisible to the naked eye. That's all I can find on the difference between them. Or are there other pros and cons?..which one would you choose and why when getting into night vision.

Pretty much, if just for airgunning I'd likely stick with 940. Depending on the brand you'll get different ranges due to different power. I have a set of sniper hog lights with both 940 and 850 attachments. The 850 I can see 800-900yds while the 940 is 400-500yds

 

[nuclear]

I personally use the 940. I use it on my .177 alpha wolf the 940 has plenty of range for the type of hunting I do. My pard scope does an amazing job on picking up any ambient light so unless it’s pitch black I rarely even use my torch.

 

[Hal4son]

I'm running 850 but I'm not shooting rats at 10 yards. If I was, I'd probably be a 940 guy. Most animals at distance will not notice the red glow especially if it's already on when you swing onto a target. If you suddenly flip it on with it pointed at something and they are looking your way it may spook (depending on what you are shooting). Not all critters are wired with a hair trigger for spookiness.

Apparently I'm the only one on here who votes.

 

[athlon_oved]

If your after critters IMO they don't seem to mind the 850 (if the light is more than 20 yards away), and you get more range. If you are in a combat situation 850 can be fatal!

if the other person is using thermal, it don't matter which one you use. they both are going to be fatal.

 

[BlackICE]

if the other person is using thermal, it don't matter which one you use. they both are going to be fatal.

Even without thermal if your opponent has night vision you'll also light up like a Christmas tree with either 850 or 950. With the naked eye h 850 is visable, which is a bad thing.

 

[athlon_oved]

thermal is king. I haven't used any of my night vision stuff since I bought thermal a few weeks ago. it's the ultimate cheat code.

 

[BlackICE]

thermal is king. I haven't used any of my night vision stuff since I bought thermal a few weeks ago. it's the ultimate cheat code.

I agree but at a very steep price! Only the higher resolution models look any good to me. I tried some 256 models, IMO very poor compare to cheaper NV for target ID. They do let you see stuff that even in daytime seem invisible. I daylight I can see birds and lizard that to my naked eye are camouflaged.

 

[athlon_oved]

yup anything below 640 is not to great imho. i like the iray RH50R. the best bang for the buck, 640 resolution with LR and ballistic calc.

 

[BlackICE]

yup anything below 640 is not to great imho. i like the iray RH50R. the best bang for the buck, 640 resolution with LR and ballistic calc.

That must be a nice thermal but over 5K! That cost more in a Schmidt and Bender scope!

 

[ssgmac]

Getting into night vision. So I see they make 850nm and 940nm on the same product. I did some searching youtube, videos and from what I can tell is. 850nm is brighter and shoot further. But have a visible red glow to the naked eye. The 940 is not as bright and is only good for short distance. But is invisible to the naked eye. That's all I can find on the difference between them. Or are there other pros and cons?..which one would you choose and why when getting into night vision.

It depends on the purpose of the night vision. If I'm going to war, I'll take the 940. For Pest Control, I'd go with the 850. It's most likely that the pests won't be able to see it.

Eyes have two types of receptors . They are known as rods and cones. Rods pick up black and white. Cones pick up color. Nocturnal animals have way more rods then cones. Therefore, they won't likely be able to see the visible red color of the 850.

You may have heard people talk about dogs being color blind. It's not that they don't see color. It's that they have more rods than cones so the color they see is kind of bland. It's not as rich as the color we see. What they gain for the loss of color is excellent night vision.

Our cones are basically useless at night without the aid of man-made illumination. And the way the rods and cons are distributed is that the cones are concentrated in the center of our vision and the rods are off to the peripherals. That's why when you try to look directly at something at night , in the darkness , you can't see it, but when you look away, you see it in the corner of your eye. So I guess what I'm saying is that the trick to getting around in the dark is to not look where you're going LOL

 

[Richieg]

It depends on the purpose of the night vision. If I'm going to war, I'll take the 940. For Pest Control, I'd go with the 850. It's most likely that the pests won't be able to see it.

Eyes have two types of receptors . They are known as rods and cones. Rods pick up black and white. Cones pick up color. Nocturnal animals have way more rods then cones. Therefore, they won't likely be able to see the visible red color of the 850.

You may have heard people talk about dogs being color blind. It's not that they don't see color. It's that they have more rods than cones so the color they see is kind of bland. It's not as rich as the color we see. What they gain for the loss of color is excellent night vision.

Our cones are basically useless at night without the aid of man-made illumination. And the way the rods and cons are distributed is that the cones are concentrated in the center of our vision and the rods are off to the peripherals. That's why when you try to look directly at something at night , in the darkness , you can't see it, but when you look away, you see it in the corner of your eye. So I guess what I'm saying is that the trick to getting around in the dark is to not look where you're going LOL

Coyotes will see the 850.

 

[BlackICE]

Coyotes will see the 850.

I don't know, it may be true. I sometimes use and always on 850nm 15w spot light mount more than 30 yards away pointed to the target area. If it is always on and doesn't move the critters don't care. I do notice when you are moving a rifle light around sometimes the critters may get spooked. They may not see the light to well, but may notice something changing in brightness.

 

[ssgmac]

Coyotes will see the 850.

But they're not entirely nocturnal. What would they be called? Omniternal? They are amazing survivors though aren't they? But they still don't see colors as rich as we do. And we don't see colors anywhere near as rich as a chameleon does. Supposedly they've got the best color vision when it comes to richness of colors.. Isn't it weird that there are colors that we don't know about right in front of us

 

[ssgmac]

I don't know, it may be true. I sometimes use and always on 850nm 15w spot light mount more than 30 yards away pointed to the target area. If it is always on and doesn't move the critters don't care. I do notice when you are moving a rifle light around sometimes the critters may get spooked. They may not see the light to well, but may notice something changing in brightness.

That's interesting. I think when you're on high alert like that you do notice subtle changes in your surroundings especially when you have different , more acute senses available to you.

Dogs are a trip. I had a female Doberman Pinscher who was able to predict my son's seizures. I know they train dogs to do that, but she did it naturally. The training is probably the part where they alert a human when they sense a seizure. And I know they can smell, or somehow sense pain in others.

When I would get home from work, my dogs would always give me a good sniffing, and wherever I have the little pain , they would stop and give me a lick right where it hurt, then go back to sniffing. And that little lick felt like relief.

 

[dizzums]

ive done alot of experimenting with both .. for all practical purposes within air gun distance there is 'no' difference in the amount of illumination youll get - battery quality and condition will effect it more than wavelength .. that said, a 940 is a no-brainer .. its much more stealthy, the glow from 850 is 'very' visible and a wary critter will get savvy to it alot quicker than 940 ..

 

[ssgmac]

Coyotes will see the 850.

It just occurred to me that they use ir lasers to cut metal. I'm wondering if the coyotes see it or feel it some other way. I really doubt they see it when it's at a color wavelength we don't even see.