Differences Between Thermal And Night Vision Scopes

Hunting or low-light spotting, in general, needs precision detection and ranging. For this reason, professionals across industries stumble upon two popular choices: thermal scopes and night vision scopes. Both these scopes have their advantages and disadvantages, but there is a generational gap between the two. Thermal imaging is the latest technology, and it has quickly captured a huge market relating to imaging and detection. On the other hand, night vision was first introduced during world war II for low light sniping and enemy spotting.

However, with the advent of infrared scopes, the devices have improved a lot. Thermal binoculars and scopes now come with minimum limitations and can provide accurate results under extreme conditions. But, there is a price difference between the two scopes, so read this article further to know which scope will offer you a better value for money.

What is night vision?

Night vision is a very simple technology that takes your standard camera and performs a few tweaks in it to produce better output at night. Night vision cameras are also known as image intensifiers because they work on that principle. First, the camera reduces its shutter speed to allow all the visible light to get in. Then the detector intensifies the absorbed light and produces a fine image of an object in low light.

Now, the technology sounds impressive from its face, but its working principle is also its biggest disadvantage. The image intensifier cameras can only function if there is “some” source of visible light present. If the clouds come over and cover the sky and no celestial objects are present, the use of these cameras will get limited. Similarly, in camouflage situations such as fog, crops, etc., night vision cameras fail to provide the desired result.

What is thermal imaging?

Thermal imaging is a new age technology, and it has changed the way we look at low light imaging. Thermal scopes use infrared sensors that map the heat signatures of an object and compare them with the temperature of the surroundings. Then, it highlights the warmer object, thereby signifying a living or a moving object. The major advantage of thermal scopes is that these scopes do not require any sort of light to function. Thus, these scopes can provide precision images under all sorts of difficult scenarios like fog, dust storms, etc.

Since thermal imaging works on heat radiation, it does not matter if the night is cloudy or pitch dark. They need heat signatures of the project’s surface. All these advantages have caused various sectors to switch from night vision scopes. Depending upon the uses, these sectors can also choose from a variety of heat range. For example, the police department uses this technology in infrared binoculars to chase down criminals and find out their hiding spots accurately.

This has helped minimize the civilian casualties in hostage situations. Similarly, new-age cars use thermal cameras on the windscreen that projects an infrared beam to 3000 meters and projects the report on your screen. This technology is much more efficient in ensuring vehicle’s on-road safety because it has a wider peripheral vision which can alert you in advance about any animal or human that might cross the road all of a sudden. There are so many thermal imaging applications already, and the experts are exploring much more complex utilities. The only downside to this is that thermal cameras are new to the scene, and the technology is expensive to produce. Therefore, thermal optics are costlier than night vision optics. However, brands like AGM Global Vision are working to provide this technology at affordable costs.