Hey friends!
Welcome back to the blog. Today I’m back with another review, and in this one, we’re going to be looking at something which a lot of you were intrigued by when you saw it on my socials a couple of weeks ago - The helmet-mounted Night Vision Goggles by Nuprol from Extreme Airsoft.
The Helmet Mounted Night Vision Goggle from Nuprol is a single monocular digital Night Vision device designed to be used in helmet mounts. It has 3 directional adjustments enabling it to fit the users' line of sight. This unit comes with a FAST Railed Helmet.
Let’s chat about the features: it has an x1 Optical Zoom, x2 / x4 / x6 digital zoom, 3 IR settings, a minimum focus distance of 20 cm, an IR wavelength detection of 850 nm, a camera resolution of 1920 x 1080 HD and a screen resolution of 1280 x 780. It has a HUD (or Head-Up Display) that displays a directional compass (a cool feature, but more on that later), the unit's Wi-Fi connection status, what IR setting it is on, the time, and its battery status. On the back of the unit, there is a 3-button command panel that allows the user to turn the unit on, operate its menu and choose either the black/white image or green overlay option (which can help improve the image contrast).
It comes in a pretty understated box - a small, square brown box with the design printed on the front. The box inside is padded and comes with everything you need to get started except the 18650 Lithium Battery but these are easy to obtain from any vape shop (or if you have a vape that uses this type of battery already, feel free to use that!). Setting up the NV on the arm is fairly simple - it has 6 small screws that secure it to the arm, once these are installed it is secure and can then be inserted into the helmet mount. All of the adjustment points are independent and move as such.
Once the battery is in, it can be powered on. When it powers on, it displays a white/black ‘welcome’ screen, and then the HUD loads in. As it is digital night vision, it functions differently from standard night vision that has an intensifier tube. In standard night vision, the available light is collected through what’s called an ‘objective lens’ and it then focuses the light through an intensifier tube to convert the energy to electrons. Digital night vision, however, processes and converts the optical image into an electric signal instead of using a highly sensitive CCD (which stands for Charge-Coupled Device) image sensor which is similar to what is found in digital cameras. The device then transfers this electrical signal to a microdisplay, which is a type of LCD flat-panel display screen in which each pixel is controlled by between one to four transistors. The image first displays in black and white but you can use the directional buttons to swap to the green overlay which gives it the green night-vision look we know and love.
It has options to digitally zoom from x1 to x2, x4 & x6, and when you are transitioning to darker areas, where there is less ambient light (such as going into a room from moonlight) the device automatically increases the brightness to compensate when the built-in IR illuminator is not activated. However if you pre-select one of the 3 IR settings, it will help improve image quality even further. In the menu, the user can control the WiFi connection, date/time Setting, the auto power OFF setting, language options, LCD brightness, reset the settings to default and also view the software version number.
I found it pretty easy to adjust the arm and set the unit up for my own eyes. When it was in place, I could loosen it off just enough to move the unit up to its stored position and back down to my eyes. It is easy to use the basic features - you simply push the ‘on’ button and you’re good to go. The image that it produces is clear but does have some noise - the edges and textures of objects can be seen clearly so your environment is easy to decipher. It was really difficult to get a picture that does the display justice. The noise can be reduced by using the IR illuminator, which has 3 settings to choose from. Just like traditional night vision, you can’t tell the difference between colours so telling teammates apart from enemies isn’t the easiest of tasks if they are only differentiated by coloured tape, so like most NV gameplay scenarios it’s a shoot first, find out later scenario. As it is digital night vision there is a lag between the picture displayed and what’s going on however it is minimal and not something that hinders play.
If I had to compare it to traditional night vision I would place it somewhere between Gen 1 and Gen 2 because whilst it does have noise, it is still a pretty clear picture that improves your vision and situational awareness in low light environments. I think for a price point of £599 it is really reasonable for the unit, mount/arm, and the helmet. I think it would be a great starter unit for someone who is interested in exploring the world of night vision. I am a big advocate of investing in NV if you play a lot of 24-hour games/milsims because the night portion of the event is a big chunk of it and having NV opens up gameplay options. One advantage of digital NV is that it isn’t affected by being exposed to bright light like non-autogated NV is, so if someone shines a really bright torch at you, you won’t have any blem issues.
So what don’t I like? The railed helmet is by far the worst part of this product (sorry Nuprol!). It is made from a shiny polymer which gives it a very cheap appearance and the foam on the inside resembles that of a bicycle helmet. That being said, it does function as intended so although I’m not personally a fan, it does its job. My only other gripe with the product is how it mounts. But as with the helmet, it does function as intended. I think it would be awesome if this unit was compatible with other arms and mounts! Apart from those little issues (which aren’t really issues, just personal preferences), I believe Nuprol has done a pretty good job with this piece of kit.
From Extreme Airsoft, the Helmet Mounted Night Vision Goggles by Nuprol retail for £599 and include everything you need to get started except the battery which is fairly easy to obtain. These aren't on the Extreme Website yet, so call the store or pop in!
Post sponsored by Extreme Airsoft. Save 5% on any purchase using the code 'femmefatale21'
Originally published Thursday 3 March 2022
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