"Night Vision" IR Binoculars

[guerrichache]

I’d like to solicit opinions from anyone who’s used IR night vision binoculars for recording observations of animals made in nighttime lighting conditions.

I was surprised and intrigued to learn that there are consumer-grade binoculars that actually use active infrared, with several hours of battery life and seemingly decent image quality, not only to view nighttime scenes but also to record photos and video. I would have expected such devices to cost as much as a high-end professional camera, but I was apparently quite wrong; many of them cost less than half the price of an Olympus TG-6. They’re still pricey, but for years now I’ve been spotting animals in pre-dawn hours and struggling to get photos or videos of them, so I’ve been debating getting one for myself as a Christmas present.

Have you ever used one of these devices for nighttime animal observations, and what was your experience like?

[opisska]

I have an active near-IR monocular, but I barely use it. Passive (thermal IR) is far better for finding warm-blooded animals and for ID/records, the monochrome image with limited detail from the active IR is not sufficient for many species anyway, so I need visible light photos - so the active IR does not really find a purpose.

I am still keeping it because one day, we want to visit the Petrel colony on Madeira, where visible light is not allowed :)