We're proud to announce that we have substantially upgraded the way we capture and show through-tube photos beyond current industry norms.
Taking photos with a handy camera phone is what most night vision retailers do today and what we also used to do. While expeditious, this method has had limitations and caveats including:
- distracting IR light glare from the phone (visible via odd pink-coloured artifacts in the image)
- improper focus leading to fuzzy images and reducing the apparent size of factory dark spots
- artificial automatic sharpening, contrast and brightness adjustments, colour correction, and other artifacts applied
- lack of resolution and detail
- drifting white balance (causing large variances in hue and colour cast)
Continuing to push the boundaries of providing objective information and transparency in the night vision purchasing process, we are now combining some of the best image capture techniques with the technical sophistication of our Hoffman night vision test set. Using a high-end Sony A7S3 mirrorless camera with 16-35mm F/2.8 G-Master lens and a custom PVS-14 lens adapter, we are able to capture through-tube photos with precise repeatability, completely eliminating any variables via the use of fixed white balance, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, colour and picture profile, and focus. Each tube is loaded into our test rig and manually focused and calibrated before the image is captured. While this takes significantly more time and effort, the resulting images provide the highest levels of objectivity and detail. By leveraging the Hoffman zone chart, we are also able to show and verify the presence of factory dark spots in relation to zones 1 through 3. Better matched pairs of intensifiers for binocular NVGs are also now possible as the hue of each intensifier can now be relied upon as a selection criteria.
What does this mean for you, the consumer? This means that you are now able to examine and compare each of our tube photos without worrying whether the focus on the camera phone has drifted; or if the colour difference between tubes is due to the white balance settings on the camera drifting, and many other unknowns.
We believe night vision is a substantial investment for most, and by providing this additional level of due diligence, we hope that our customers can make the most informed purchasing decisions and have full peace of mind that what they are looking at on their screen is what they will receive. No surprises.