Rich Peet wrote:
> A prior member of this group will be doing the formal review of
> different units and I will try and post his review when done. It was
> my first chance to play with this techy device.
I'll look forward to that. Most of the info out there is so full of PR
hype as to be not much use.
> The generation 3 night optics binoculars are really amazing. Not
> something that you want to use anywhere near street lights or even
> tail lights of cars. My conception of them before starting was that
> these were all about infrared spot lights and the optics picking up
> what was illuminated. Boy was I wrong. The best set which was a
> ~$2,400.00 US pair and it has no illumination device at all. Looking
> with them was like using standard binoculars but at night, but
> everything was "daylight" in black and white. Actually green and
> white. Somethings were different in that leaves were much whiter,
> eyes much darker, and stars could be seen through the clouds.
>
> The $150.00 generation 1 monocular was bright but the center of focus
> was small and made it difficult to seach a landscape for unknown
> targets.
The inexpensive ones are usually equipped with very cheap plastic lenses
out in front. I got one of the slightly higher quality generation 1
units recently off Ebay. That's the ATN MO-4 model, a mono scope.
Generation 1 has half the light sensitivity of Gen 2, I'm not sure what
the jump is to Gen 3. My Gen 1 has a built in IR illuminator I can
switch on. That's good to about 150'. I also got a IR "flashlight" which
uses 4 LED's separately. That gets me out to about 250'. Without IR it
takes a reasonably bright night, either good starlight or some moon to
make out much detail. As the unit has automatic brightness control I
found that using it in darkness without the IR for a little while it
would bring the brightness setting up a little. Without IR, I can make
out deer out across my front field, see trees, bushes, fenceposts and
such like. It's not like daylight in the Gen 1, though it would be on a
moonlit night.
The ATN MO-4 uses a standard "C" mount glass video lens, probably some
security camera lens. And like you found it's not sharp full field,
although mine is not bad, about 85-95% of the field will focus at once.
That "C" mount also allows me to use a doubler, making the scope either
3X or 6X with it's original lens. And I have lots of choices in quality
video and movie lenses if I care to spend the money.
A owl would be extremely easy to see with the IR illuminator from
considerable distance due to the eyeshine. Much more difficult to make
out without the extra IR. I've followed my cats around at night to
practice on. With the IR, at any distance I've tried and when the cat
turns toward you it's two bright beacons. I bet frogs would work like
that too, though I have yet to try my new toy on frogs.
These things are so sensitive that there are warnings about turning them
on in daylight or indoor illumination. It's not just a matter of bright
to you, but you can burn the tube's screen. Mine has a lens cover with a
small pinhole in it that will allow use in daylight, that's primarily
for accurately focusing the eyepiece before use.
> I understand that the government paperwork is deeper than buying
> firearms right now for these devices but they are finally available
> in quality. I will get to spend another 12 hours with these devices
> this weekend and really look forward to using them to get outstanding
> sound recordings as I should know when the owls start to think that
> we are getting to close. I won't have a chance to see and comment
> what a frog looks like with them as it is still snow here but I bet
> it is nice.
Go on Ebay, you can get all generations if you have the money. The jump
in price is high. I'd love to have one of the Gen 3 devices, just as
soon as the price gets down to a few hundred bucks. I got the Gen 1
because I did not want to waste much money. I paid $200 on ebay for
mine. But, they do work. Not as well as the movies, but could be useful.
There was no special paperwork for mine, I'm pretty sure none for any of
them, anyway nothing on the ebay auctions I read. And you can get a Gen
3 riflescope off ebay if you have the money. Maybe a problem with the
most recent generations in exporting them. These are rarely the military
models, there are civilian models. My guess is the military may be using
something above Gen 3. You do want to avoid the really cheap ones due to
the poor quality of the optics and such like.
I figure mine is going to be more useful for examining a habitat than
the frogs themselves. When I'm out at night and come up with a whole
bunch of frogs calling somewhere I did not notice in the day. It will be
nice to see what's out there.
Walt
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>From Tue Mar 8 18:23:27 2005
Message: 8
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 16:34:40 -0800
From: Jeremiah Moore <>
Subject: Re: Opening "AIFF" files in Pro Tools and other MIDI programs
ProTools Free most certainly supports AIFF files. Try "import and
convert" under the region menu (right side of the screen, in the
ProTools edit window, not in the menubar but in the window).
To export to AIFF, use "export selected" also from the region menu.
-jeremiah
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jeremiah lyman moore | san francisco | sound+media |
http://babyjane.com/timeweb/
http://northstation.net/ organic, mechanized, organized sound
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