Yukon NVMT 4x50 Night Vision Monocular

If you've done your research you know how to interpret the technical specs. Here's what you can't know unless you handle the unit:- Ergonomically it is quite nice; holding the unit in your right hand puts the buttons (on/off and IR illumination on/off) right under your index and ring fingers. The unit is small, light and easy to hold.- The 12mm eye-relief functions as advertised; in fact you can get a slightly clearer picture if you hold the unit a little distance away. Thus it will work fine with eyeglasses (which I wear.)- The rear lens is pretty "stiff" when you go to turn it, so once you've adjusted the focus for your eye it won't go and un-focus itself at the slightest untoward bump, like some binoculars like to do.- The lens cap is excellent; it sticks in the lens very well, and won't come off too easily or by accident. There's even a groove on the left-hand side of the device that holds the lens cap in storage while you're using the unit, so you won't lose it. Both are very important as you don't want to expose night vision to bright light; bad for the unit.If you've never bought night vision before, here's what it's like to use the unit:- Field of view is pretty narrow - only 15 degrees, as the specs say, and that doesn't account for the fish-bubble effect around the edge, where resolution is not as good. The resolution, however, is sufficient to work as advertised. Tested against a treeline 150 yards away, I can attest it will certainly pick up a deer, or a man, or a coyote, quite easily. Positively identifying something as small as a coyote (as said critter, and not a dog, or a fox) might be trickier, but it WILL show you where it is. Thus, this unit is good for scanning a treeline out to 150 yards, but not for finding your way through a dark basement (for that you'd want a unit with broad field of view but smaller lenses, like a 2x24mm lens unit.)- Night Vision: very good. This IS a starlight scope, the claims are warranted. The IR illumination only added a very slight benefit scanning a treeline at 150 yards, but it was hardly needed. Any source of nearby light pollution, no matter how humble, has a drastic effect on what the unit can see - this includes moonlight. A bright security lamp that illuminates about 1/8th of my 5-acre spread in usably bright light effectively illuminates the entire 5-acres when using the Yukon scope on it. To the unaided eye, the illumination in said areas is a little worse then a half-moon night. In almost total darkness, far away from civilization, your results may vary - after testing, I would say the IR illumination is good out to 75 yards, conservatively. Remember that IR flashlights can be had cheap; including very big spotlight-width handhelds (for about 80 bucks,) which will likely be cheaper then paying a hundred or hundred-fifty for a similar scope with a more powerful illuminator.This can be attributed to the 50mm lens - it does NOT widen field-of-view, but rather light-capturing ability. The lens-cap has a "pinhole" in it, actually big enough to accept a regular wooden pencil, to let just enough light in for safe testing in daylight. With the lens-cap on the visible field-of-view through the unit is only slightly impeded - that's how narrow it is! The "intensifier tube" is only so wide. But the relatively wide 50mm lens pulls in a lot of ambient light to feed to it.Conclusions: this is a great unit for carrying around, and for looking at things at or over 50 yards away. It's not meant for close-in work, like a dense forest, or operating operationally in a terrorist-infested basement, if that's your need. At the price point I doubt anything will substantially outdistance this unit.

Lotsa things to think about... Buy it from Ace Photo Digital, there's no battery. In fairness, while the ad doesn't promise a battery, the fact that it is a specialty battery, it seems annoying that a battery is not included. So be warned; order a battery with this item. It appears not to turn off, but it actually does. A residual charge on the light-amplifier seems to keep it operating even when turned off. Eventually, the charge will bleed off, the unit will shut off. I discovered this when it continued to 'operate' with the battery removed. No drain on the battery... I think. Focus is hard to do... as described by other reviewers, but with effort and patience, you can do a resonable job. It seems to work better for me if I take my glasses off. So much for the cons... The light enhancement is impressive and works great considering the price. The IR improves performance significantly. Overall, it was more than I expected. I'd recommend it to others.

This was rated to be very good. This item sucks. Looks cheap battery cover is elementary school engineered.After I put battery in I tried to turn it on. Does not work. Tried 3 more new batteries, still nothing. After Tapping the on/off switch it finally turned on. So as usual with 90% of the stuff I buy on Amazon it does not work and after playing around I will get one that does. But when you leave on a hunting trip in a week there is no time to get a new one. Packaging was good.This item will be returned as soon as I get done with family emergency.Update: I did finally get it to turn on again. It has a bad power switch. I played with it and to get it to focus correctly I had to point it at the stars and focus it. Once I got that everything on the ground was pretty clear. I was able to see close to 100 yards away. with just the moon light. So if it works mechanically it is not a bad unit.

This is a good unit for generation 1 technology. The image is crisp and clear. There were a few blemishes on the intensifier tube, but nothing you would notice without looking for them. Easy recognition beyond 100yrds in minimal ambient light. When I say minimal, I mean a cloudy night, with no moonlight. In these conditions, without IR, the image is dim, but easily recognizable. I could make out the woodwork on my barn 50yrds out. Activate the IR and it looks like someone turned on a spotlight. The IR is ineffective beyond 80 to 100 yrds except for the eyes of animals. They reflect the IR beyond 200 yrds. Being the unit is 4X, focusing is required, but not a whole lot is required at distance, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 in" lens rotation for every 25yrds. N0T A CLOSE QUARTERS UNIT!!!! It's 4x, so I didn't expect it to be, but it's pretty good for medium range observation. I am completely satisfied with my purchase. It's probably going to be hard to find a better deal.

Item arrived looking good - for a birthday several days later. This allowed me to get a battery for it before the Bday.On Bday, it functionned pretty well - especially for first generation, but it did not want to "cut off". Tried holding the off button, lightly touching, double pressing, etc. Finally went off. By next day would not turn off at all - had to remove the battery - a little difficult because I think it is supposed to be water proof or resistant. Now comes on whenever battery is installed. I am wary of items that start out defective and have (with a fair amount of difficulty I might add) returned it.