Customer Reviews

Bushnell 2.5x42 Night Vision Monocular

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I live in a rural area on a horse ranch, bordering a few hundred acres of open space. I wanted an inexpensive device that would let me wildlife-watch without disturbing the scene, along with the slightly more practical coyote/stray dog check before I let my small dogs out in the evening.


The Good:

* For the money, this is an excellent device. Image quality is great for a Gen-1 unit, and construction quality is better than expected for the price point. The rubberized, water resistant covering & included carry case are nice touches.

* The built-in IR illuminator is tightly focused, and throws its light well. Out to 50' it provides enough light to be useful on the darkest nights, and eyeshine & reflective surfaces will pop out at significantly further distances.

* An unexpected bonus was how fun these are for stargazing! The slight magnification combined with light amplification really pulls the stars and planets out of the background. It's good enough to clearly see the fuzziness of the Orion Nebula as compared to the sharpness of a single star, for example.


The Bad:

* The brightness of the power and IR illuminator LEDs. They're really, really, bright. They're located the back of the device, just to the right of the eyepiece. A green power LED and a red 'your IR beam is on' LED.

They will consistently flash & shine in your eyes as you use the device. In my case, a simple strip of black electrical tape solved the problem, (there's enough light leakage that I can tell if the light is on or not) but it's a ding against the design that I have to even do so in the first place.

* The IR source presents a visible red light. It doesn't look like too much off-angle, but pointing directly at you, it becomes obvious. I could easily see my friend pointing the monocular at me from 50' away. It is possible to disturb wildlife with it. Again, this is easily fixed by adding a cheap IR filter, but I shouldn't have to do so.


The Ugly:

* The manual is relatively thick, printed on good-quality paper, and completely & utterly useless. It tells you how to add the batteries in several languages, and that's it. Not one mention of how to properly use the thing!

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Obviously, there are better systems available, but they are priced accordingly. And for what you pay for these, you get a large percentage of the expensive systems' performance. (Gen-1 optics, by their nature, suffer from pincushion and barrel distortion issues, and the light amplification provided is less than people expect off the bat; on a moonless night, Gen-1 would still be dark without an additional light source.)

Conclusion: A solid four stars. For hobby/home users like myself, who just wanted something to play & explore with, they're great fun without breaking the bank. More serious users will want to look elsewhere, but they already know that.

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A few hints to get the best use out of these:

* Look at a bright star in the middle of the field of view. Focus using the front ring until it is as sharp as possible. Then, while still looking at the star, rotate the eyepiece ring until the distortion is corrected. This will get you your best possible image for your eyes. Further focusing should be done with the front element only.

* The image is only sharp within the inner 40% of the field of view, with increasing distortion the further away from the center you look. The eyes' position relative to the eyepiece makes a big difference, and you may need a little practice to get the best look.

* Don't be alarmed when, after you turn off the device, it still appears to be on. The image intensifier tube takes a while to bleed down all its charge, so you can actually continue to use the device for about a minute or so after you've turned it off. This isn't a bug, it's just how these things work, so don't think yours is broken!

This device is great. It works well on two AA batteries. Focus and 2.5 power are good to have. Wide field of view. The only drawbacks, this is Gen1 and Chinese in origin. The IR LED will glow red when in use. Use a Surefire light with IR filter or IR LED flashlight for better results. Add a Tenebraex or Killflash filter for the large lense to conceal reflection and you are set. The optical quality and view through this is great for the price. I have used more expensive gear, but for the price this is one to get. It also has a tripod mount built in so you can use it for night spotting of animals. Has a built in light sensor to shut down in bright lights. The main lense cover is a bit cheap, just blue plastic over the main lense, but this is moved out of the way for use anyway. I keep thinking this will crack or break as the plastic feels cheap, but it has held up well and has rubber in many places to protect it. I shoved this up against a video camera lense and it worked very well. Highly recommended if you can only afford one device and a cheaper one at that.

Pros: Works great in low light, is very easy to operate, bang for your buck.
Cons: I didn't get it sooner.
Uses: Recreational- airsoft, animal viewing, other.
I live in the woods. It is very fun to watch the animals move about at night. I also play airsoft with it.

My husband was so happy with this gift he used it in he garage first then turned the lights on and it stopped working for a minute. But after reading the instructions he got it working again. Just make sure not to expose the uncovered lense to direct light and you will be fine.

When considering night vision for any reason I needed to consider a few things and cost was a big factor.
For casual viewing in the yard and / or star viewing I have found this unit is surprisingly good, for the cost it operates just fine and is better then I expected, much better.
Another thing I considered was the battery replacement and this one is easy as can be, no exotic power cells that can only be found on-line just 2 plain old "AA" and it's up and running for a long time.
So far I have hour after hour after hour on the same two batteries I started with. (removing them when not in use)
Most other units I looked at were not so friendly in this area, many require batteries you'll never find in the neighborhood CVS or supermarket; that is a large factor to be considered, what will you do when you can't find batteries anywhere except on-line and end up waiting for 10 days to get them, that takes the fun out of it fast.
All in all this has surpassed all my expectations and I can even take respectable digital photos through the lens with surprising results. It takes some patience to do but it works well and produces fairly good images.
Someone in the yard at night..., an animal perhaps? This will to get the image, it'll take a bit of practice and the right camera but I found this one works just fine.
So far all around I'm very pleased with this purchase and I do recommend it unless you need a higher end unit but for the average Joe for casual applications this is smart purchase for a low cost.

This product is about as good as you can expect for the price and being a Gen 1 device. It's larger than I expected, a little larger than a small camcorder.
It needs a little bit of light to function well. If your eyes adjust to the dark, what you can begin to see, this device brightens up a good bit. What is still too dark is also too dark for the device. It's good at showing detail in dim scenes. It's also good in places where there may be a bright area (where you can see) right next to a dark area. Your eyes have a hard time adjusting to the dark area with bright lights near it. This device allows you to look into the shadows and dark areas and see things your normally can't (of course, don't point it at the bright lights...) The manual says you shouldn't point it at anything brighter than 1 lux for very long. That's about a full moon, maybe a little brighter.
The IR light works well out to maybe 50 to 100 feet. It's pretty bright on closer objects. Much further out it doesn't help much. As mentioned in other reviews, it's also really bright if you're looking right at it. If you put something in front of it, you can see the red light shining on it for about a foot. I've considered getting a filter for it, but am not really sure where to look. Some people suggested using primary red and congo blue stage lighting gels, I may do that eventually. I tried a floppy disk, and it helped, but it also made the IR light a lot dimmer for the night vision.
Once focused, the image on the device is very sharp. It's distorted around the edges as with any Gen 1 device, but provides a very clear image in the center. I think the 2.5x is a good balance for providing a good angle of view but some magnification also. It's not great for things closer than 20 feet or so, or things over about 200 feet away.
When I first turn it on, there are some bright flashes and such as the manual says may happen, but those disappear quickly. The image also kind of flickers, flashing a bit brighter sporadically. Not sure if that's normal, but it's not really that big of a problem.
Especially in really dark places (where it's not much good anyway), and also a bit in brighter places, you can see what looks like static in the image. After you turn it off, the image remains for a few minutes before fading away. I found that once you turn it off, the image quality is actually better at first. The static clears up and you get a pretty clear image.
The battery compartment can be tight. I have some normal alkalines that went in fine, but I have some rechargeables that are a bit larger that got a bit stuck in there.
I was able to line it up on a chair with my DSLR camera and got some decent shots (a little blurry from movement and static), though it's really hard to point it where you want it and have it stay still in the right place. I needed about 10 seconds to get enough light for a good exposure at ISO 1600.
It's no high end device but it's still functional and fun to play with. I hope to get some good time using it this summer.

The lens for this monocular is badly fisheye, resulting in dramatic and unnecessary distortion. Plus, the magnification is mediocre. We ordered the Yukon Spirit 4x50 at the same time, and though it's not perfect, we prefer -- and are keeping -- that one.

My son-in-law wanted this type product. I selected this for him. He loves it, so it must be good. He is a professor and very discerning.

At first I was way bummed...couldn't get a clear pic, but after making a couple of adjustmets I'm super pumped. I just wanted to look around the yard and have on hand for that "bump in the night." Very happy.

Gotfor my 12 year for Christmas and don't want to let him use them. They work great. can see all animals in the yard at night. Great buy for the price