Customer Reviews

Night Owl Explorer Marine Pro Night Vision Scope

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

 

 

This thing delivers exactly what it promises: it enables one to see in darkness! Within a city you will hardly find a spot dark enough to fully appreciate the scope, but in the country side at night this thing is incredible. The built-in infrared light source allows one to see in pitch black. The image is monochrome (greenish) and is distorted towards the edges, sort of like if you are looking through a bubble. Even so, the effective viewing angle is wide enough for comfortable viewing. Also, I was quite impressed with quality of the optics: if you adjust the eye-piece to your eye, the focus ring allows to get a very sharp image from just a few feet to infinity! I found a minor defect, however: The battery lid appeared to not provide a good contact to the battery, so I had to tweak the lid slightly for the power to come on. The construction of the body and the objective's assembly, however, seemed smooth and very sturdy.

nice scope, feels hefty and appears to be well made. glass optics good light gathering abilities.large objective lense with nice metal screw on lense protector. Only drawback I found was the battery compartment was tiny and kind of hard to screw the battery cap on.

I have been using this scope on the beach at night to monitor sea turtle nesting. When up close, the image is excellent, but not so good for far away (more than 100-200 ft). Very easy to use, and the fact that it's waterproof is a plus (haven't dropped it in the ocean yet!). You can't really get a feel for how good the image is in a residential area, but out on the beach, with the moonlight, it rocks. Most of the time I don't even need the IR illuminator. To save power, turn it off, and it will still provide an image with the available light for almost 5 minutes. If you're looking to see things that are far away, this scope won't work well, but for things that are close by (say, from one end of the backyard to the other) it's a good deal. I put mine in a hard sided padded carrying case, since it gets bounced around on the ATV, and haven't had a problem yet

I ordered this product through Amazon and recevied it promptly. The product itself is robust and works very well. It is however, very difficult to get a good focus. I usually get good service/product when ordereing from Amazon but this time I was a bit dissapointed. I ordered a "new" unit and not a used one. The product came in an opened box with origianl product packaging missing. Obviously a used returned item. You would expect more when paying $276.00 for an item. I would have returned it but It seemed to work fine. I am happy with the product but unhappy with Amazon for sending me used goods and saying it was new.

Personally I think this night vision scope performs great. The first night that I got it I tried it out, and I am pleased with the visibility range and clairty for the most part the unit produces. As someone else said, it has a bubble effect where it has a clear picture, but its alittle bit hazy/distorted on the outside edges (which dosnt make much of a difference at all. It works good with or without the IR illuminator activated (the IR illuminator gives better/brighter picture out past 150 feet, and makes reflective surfaces such as license plates and nocternal animal eyes light up). The unit on a night thats not cloudy and the moon is out can see the advertised distance (600-650 feet) well enough to pick out details in the terrain and people/animals walking around.

Be advised that if you are looking for a night vision unit that can be used as an alternate to a flashlight, this is not the unit for you. Adjusting the two lenses (eye peice and main lense) is alittle tricky, espically if you plan on walking while doing so. The unit is also worthless for viewing anything closer then 10 feet. This night vision unit should be only used for viewing at a mid-range distance while standing still.

The good--you can see fairly well in the dark at very close range.

The bad--specs say 5x magnification...and it doesn't do anything like that. In fact, no zoom capability whatsoever. When I called Night Owl's support to ask about that, the support person had no idea what I was talking about. I phoned the next day and the next--the same person answered the phone every time and she knew NOTHING about the product! I wrote an email to Night Owl--no response. So this product DID NOT deliver (at least to me) what it promised in the specs and there is NO SUPPORT for it. Have returned and have no intention of going Night Owl again.

I was anticipating this night vision monocular to be great. I was really excited and anxious to get it. When I did, I almost puked with regret.

First of all, it's heavy and bulky, absolutely not comfortable to carry around for a long time. Second, the viewfinder is so small, it seems you're watching through a straw, LITERALLY. Third, it's almost impossible to focus on something. The central focal point is so small that everything around it blurs drastically. Fourth, the minimum focal distance is about 6 feet, anything closer doesn't focus at all.

Bottom line, paying $200 to look through a straw where everything is blurry sucks.

The worst buy i've done in years (and I've shopped a bunch). Seriously, I've never written a bad review on anything because I didn't think it was worth it. There's always a first. PLEASE DON'T BUY, YOU'LL THANK ME LATER.

This product does what it says. I use the camera adapter to attach to my Canon EOS-30D.

Well, for the price, you cant really complain. The only problem I read in other reviews and found true myself was the battery issue.
The battery does not fit, so in turn, it doesnt work. I had to rig it a little with wiring so the battery would fit inside and get a connection. Aside from that, the night vision is Gen1 and fine.
I probably viewed approx 35 yards without IR. IR is a big help of course...though it can be visibly detected if you are using it ( for those that use it for Paintballing,airsoft etc). But without IR, i was able to see fairly well in at night. It will come in handy for my camping trips and other outdoor activites.

You can read other reviews that describe the capabilities of this scope. I will not dispute them. It meets all my expectations. I have no problems with its features at all.
Except for this: The strap is very poorly designed. 1) It is too short. I cannot put the strap around my neck. Unlike other expensive devices, such as binoculars or cameras, the strap is too short to hang over my head. So, I cannot let go of it to grab a camera, for example. 2) The buckle is a cheap, trivial thing that does not hold the strap. The first time I grabbed the scope by its strap, the strap pulled through the stupid buckle and the whole thing dropped -- fortunately on my chair. One of the instructions in the user guide states: Do not drop. I would suggest this: either remove the strap altogether or pull out your needle and thread and sew the thing in place.
But, as I wrote above, it's a fine scope and it serves my every purpose: spotting raccoons trying to steal my goldfish.