Budget Night Vision — The Perfect NVG Setup for Civilian Use
I’m by no means military or law enforcement. The use of night vision goggles or a night vision setup (NVG setup) is not for the purposes of my profession. That said, I’ve always loved the ability to see in the dark (regardless of whether it’s for defensive purposes or to survey my property to see the animals that lurk in the night) and who doesn’t want to pick up a pair of night vision nvg. But for a while, I’ve been searching for budget night vision.
If you’ve ever went on Google and looked at night vision, you’ll quickly find out that unless you have money that you’re willing to set on fire, night vision goggles are probably not in your budget. And that’s fine. Let the cool guys do the cool guy things with their tubes.
Buying a pair of EOTech Ground Panoramic Night Vision Goggles at over $40k does not exactly fit into my budget when these aren’t something I’ll be using frequently enough to get my money and use out of them.
That said, I found what I believe could be the best budget night vision setup, and it involves the use of Nightfox Red Digital Night Vision Goggles and an Olight Baldr IR Weaponlight as your NVG setup.
Disclaimer: I purchased the Nightfox Red Digital Night Vision Goggles and Olight Baldr IR with my own money. These products were not supplied to me by Nightfox or Olight, they did not pay me or compensate me to speak about their night vision nvg products, and the opinions on these products are solely mine and my personal experience with this budget night vision setup.
Table of contents
Budget Night Vision with the Nightfox Red and Olight Baldr IR
To start off, I’m going to lay the framework and tone of this article on my NVG setup. If you expect the performance of real night vision nvg (NVGs with tubes) that you see the military using, you will be disappointed. The experience is night and day in comparison (pun intended). The good news is that you can use the Nightfox Red and Olight Baldr IR to get a similar experience without paying thousands of dollars for an NVG setup.
In all honesty, unless you need them in a law enforcement or military application, there is zero need for you to spend thousands of dollars on high-end night vision goggles.
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Being able to see in the dark is a cool feature to add to your home defense or preparedness, but you should also look to spend your money in other areas before considering even looking for budget night vision.
I spoke with quite a few people in the industry and some ex-military (I won’t get into who they were or what branch, I’ll just say they are some incredibly badass dudes), and they agreed that it makes zero sense to blow your money on an NVG setup for my application (your mileage may vary). They mentioned that going the route of digital night vision maybe be a much smarter and more practical way to go for an NVG setup. I showed them the Nightfox Red and Olight Baldr IR, and they mentioned for the applications I would use them for, they would make for an acceptable budget night vision setup — albeit very basic, to say the least.
Why Would You Need a Night Vision NVG Setup to See at Night?
Now, if you’re one of those people reading this who says, “You’ll never need night vision.” Save yourself the pain and agony, and just go read a different article. But if you’re looking for budget night vision, this night vision NVG setup may be the solution you’ve been looking for.
The question asked by many is, “Why in the world would you need night vision?” The simple answer would be “To see in the dark” — duh. Again, if you don’t have the disposable income that you’d like, do not even consider budget night vision. Go spend your money on guns, ammo, food storage, prepping supplies, and firearms training courses.
But for those of you who are looking to take their home defense and preparedness to the next level and have a few hundred dollars you’d like to part with, this (in my opinion) is a great budget night vision setup — using the Nightfox Red and Olight Baldr IR.
Why would I want budget night vision and the ability to see at night? It’s easy, I like to have all the advantages. I’m not planning for the lights to go out, but if you listen to some experts, our energy (including the power grid) isn’t exactly in a good spot, and our grid is a major target to those who hate our country.
If I want to be able to move around my house or outdoors without giving away my signature with a white light (in the event someone is trying to break into my house, SHTF, enter whatever reason you wish here), night vision would be ideal.
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Think along the lines of a bad situation taking place where someone wants to do me or my family harm. I can see the person in the dark who intends to do harm, but they can’t see me. See the advantage?
Add in an IR laser that can be mounted to a firearm, and you just took your advantage up several levels. An IR laser allows for a laser to be shown but only to those who have a night vision NVG setup and is invisible to the naked eye.
Let’s look at each component of this budget night vision setup.
How Good Are the Nightfox Red?
Granted, these are not military-grade NVGs, but the overall quality of the Nightfox Red (now the Swift model) is really impressive as a budget NVG setup. The image you see on the screen is clear, and I’ve had no issues seeing everything on my property as well as my neighbors (around two acres of ground) in the pitch dark.
For those curious about whether people can see your night vision, the Nightfox Red uses two covert 940nn infrared LEDs that do not give off any signature. You can manually focus the unit to your eyesight, and it utilizes an extra wide field of view. Additionally, if you’re looking for added features, the Nightfox Red budget night vision can record 1080p video and audio if you put in a micro SD card. Best of all, it’s USB rechargeable, so you don’t need to worry about batteries.
The Nightfox Red, in my opinion, is an excellent addition to budget night vision, and it even comes with a head strap — no need to purchase a bump helmet or similar to mount it on, and it allows you to mount the Redfox Red directly to your head rather than having to hold it. This frees up your hands to pick things up, grab items, or to hold a firearm.
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My only complaint is that I wish the buttons were silent and not “clicky.” I’m nitpicking here, but I also want to provide some constructive criticism of the product.
Being that these aren’t the highest quality and aren’t several thousand dollars, you’re going to want to get a laser to go along with it if you want to use this as a budget night vision setup with a firearm.
If you hold your firearm out in front of you like you would during a normal presentation, the IR in the Redfox Red will bounce off of the firearm and splash out everything else, not allowing you to see anything else in front of you or down range. You’ll want an IR laser and to keep the firearm just below eye level so that all you pick up is what’s in front of you along with the dot from the IR laser.
Which leads me into the final need for a budget night vision setup.
Should You Use the Olight Baldr IR Weaponlight on a Pistol or Rifle?
I searched high and low for a quality IR laser for a budget night vision setup and came across the Olight Baldr IR. What I like about this weaponlight is that not only does it have an IR laser to use with the Nightfox Red, but it also has a 1350-lumen white light that can be used without a night vision NVG setup.
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Why do both matter? If you have the Nightfox Red on, you have the ability to use the IR laser to aim. If you don’t have night vision on, you can use the white light. This provides you with the best of both worlds for your budget night vision setup.
The white light on the Olight Baldr IR will run for up to four hours, while the IR laser can last up to 80 hours. There is a toggle switch on the back of the unit that allows you to switch back and forth depending on your needs.
The Olight Baldr IR is compatible with a GL rail system or a standard Picatinny rail (allowing it to go on a pistol or rifle). To activate the light, there are two pads on both sides of the light to actuate the Olight Baldr IR on and off. You can press and hold for a momentary use or tap once for a constant on.
Is This NVG Setup the Ultimate Budget Night Vision?
Personally, I think so. Again, for a few hundred dollars, you can get an entire night vision NVG setup without needing to drop thousands upon thousands of dollars for nods. Is it a top-of-the-line military-grade setup? Nope. But I’m also not doing operations or have the need for an expensive NVG setup — hence my budget night vision setup presented here.
If you have a different NVG setup for a budget night vision setup, feel free to reach out to me and let me know what all you are using, I’d love to hear it.
Added Components to the Budget Night Vision Build
There are a few things I’ve added to my budget night vision build that doesn’t really fit the “budget” narrative, but if you want your setup to be more comfortable, I’ve found this to be an awesome option. What am I talking about? It’s swapping out the Nightfox Red headband for the Crye Precision Nightcap.
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The downside with the Crye Precision Nightcap is that from what I’ve found, most places no longer carry it and you’ll have to go to the Crye Precision website in order to get yourself the Nightcap. It’s not a cheap piece of kit but the comfort compared to the stock Nightfox headband is night and day different. It’d highly recommend picking up the Crye Precision Nightcap for your budget night vision or any NVGs you have if you didn’t want to go the route of getting and wearing a helmet (whether ballistic or a bump helmet).
The mesh lining on the Crye Precision Nightcap is soft and breathable, the chinstrap locks the Nightcap in place and prevents movement that can cause you to lose visual using your budget night vision, and the padding inside protects your forehead from your budget night vision digging into it with the mount.
Speaking of mount, you’ll need to purchase a mount that is compatible with the Crye Precision Nightcap. Full disclosure, you’ll have to cut your Nightcap in order to put a mount on it. While not difficult, it’s simply time consuming if you want to go this route and make your budget night vision more comfortable and stable. I went with the Wilcox L4 Lightweight Three Hole Shroud (WLS). I simply cut the three holes out of the fabric in the Crye Precision Nightcap, screwed the Wilcox down, and was ready to move forward with the next essential piece of the budget night vision build. A mount.
For the mount, I purchased an Aluminum NVG Helmet Mount. I didn’t want a plastic mount as I don’t believe it would hold up as well. All I needed to do was attach the mount to the Wilcox on the Crye Precision Nightcap, screw on the adapter that’s on the Nightfox Red, and I was ready to roll. With a little adjustment of the Crye Precision Nightcap to fit my head exactly how I want it, I was ready to don my new budget night vision setup and go forth into the night.
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And as always, go out and get the proper training needed to be proficient with your firearm(s) and EDC gear. I am not an instructor or tactical ninja, and I don’t pretend to be one on the weekends. I’m simply someone who seeks knowledge, improvement, and proficiency when it comes to self-defense and the ability to protect my family and those around me. You are your own first line of defense, seek the training of a certified and experienced instructor. And if you are in the market for a budget night vision setup, go ahead and pick up the Nightfox Red and Olight Baldr IR. You’ll thank me later.
Update: The Red model has been discontinued and the recommended model is the Swift model.
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