Jon's Tech-Talk
I Bought a Gen2 Night-Vision Scope
(posted Aug 27 2025) - Back in 2000 I bought a Russian surplus starlight scope (Gen 1) for a couple hundred bucks. Played with it a lot while walking my dog around the Arrow Head Lake forest preserve (about 1400 acres) in the evenings.
The thing weighed over 2 lbs and to be honest it had really poor resolution and ghosted a lot when you panned too quickly. I believe it used a CCD image intensifier popular in the 80's -- so not exactly cutting edge.
Jump forward to 2025 and the age of cheap night vision seems to have arrived. For about 100 bucks I ordered an NK008 (Chinese made) night scope that is small, light, and really seems to work great. It uses a low-light CMOS sensor that gives very good color images through a variable focus 25mm diameter objective lense (I opted for a 50mm focal length version that produces a x4 optical magnification on the sensor). I also opted for the 940nm IR flashlight so there is no 'red light' visible at the source. It's a 3W unit that can reach out a couple hundred yards if necessary.
As with all newer units it can record video and take stills in 1080 HD. The target reticle seems accurate and the unit is housed in an aluminum case that has a usb charging port for the battery and a 32GB microSD card for recording (there is even a Microphone).
Here is an example video using IR to watch my dog on a moonless night (around 2:30AM) in our dark backyard. Distance ranges from 60-100 feet with no digital magnification being used (target reticle is turned off). I highly recommend this little night-scope; and it is rated for attachment to any picatinny rail on rifles up to .308 calibre.