SGT-150P StarGate Night Vision Scope

i freakin love this thing. first and foremost it works. i thought i would be getting a couple of seconds of usable viewing time per squeeze and then it would die out to nothing... not so, one squeeze is enough to bias the tube and give a nice bright viewing field for quite a long time, i usually either am done looking around or get bored looking around before the light starts to dim i have counted for 2 min before getting bored of counting. and if it dose start to get dim just release the handle wait a second or two and depress again and bam ... full charge brightness. the true dimensions of the unit are 6 1/4 in long x 3 in high with the charging handle extended x 3 3/4 in wide with the IR illuminator attached / and 2 3/4 in without. it fits great in my hand and i can maintain a solid grip on the unit when in use. i thought that it would be a big hunk of plastic but was very happy with the compact size. the next point i want to make is that the picture of this unit online makes it look like plastic, its NOT. the unit is made out of metal including the charging handle and i feel like i could run the unit over with my car and it could still function. seriously it is not cheaply made. it functions great in ambient night time light and even better with IR illumination. the objective lens in the front and the viewing lens in the back have a rubber covering giving good grip for adjustment of the focal points. the focus works by adjusting the front lens for large adjustment and the rear lens for fine. it has a lens cap with a pin hole in it for use in moderate light conditions. it comes with a case and a manual. oh and did i mention that it never needs batteries if you use it without the illuminator, oh yes never. i have taken this unit camping, on hikes, played a night game of air-soft where i dropped it in knee-deep snow and played with it in my house more times then i care to mention (super fun). it also is really fun to have a friend ask for a flashlight and hand the a night vision unit. this unit is going into my shtf supplies for sure. this is a first generation night vision unit it will not work in total darkness(no ambient light of any kind) without an IR illuminator. it also has a slight fish eye effect where the sharpest focus is in the center of the field of view and then it starts to drop off as you look to the edge. this is true of most gen 1 night vision units that i know of. the only down side i can think of with this unit is that the illuminator takes the cr123 batteries, i hate cr123 batteries. why cant manufacturers stick to the common types. i consider that a bad part of the illuminator not the night vision unit. as long as you understand that this is not the latest piece of high tech gen 4 gear but a simple cut and dry gen 1 nvu that never needs batteries and needs manual focus you will get what you expect and more that you pay for in my honest opinion.

The truth... I bought this thing on a whim. I wanted a 2nd unit to go along with another night vision unit, (a rifle scope) so that I would not have to hold the rifle up to scan around the field. This was not my idea, another Amazon customer made comment of the issue in another review. The other "reason" I chose the Newcon was, and I admit this is corny... the product has the word "Stargate" in it. Ok, don't hate me just because I'm a Stargate fan :)When the Newcon SGT-150P arrived I expected a "toy" but what I got turned-out to be a solid, well made, nicely designed tool. It's entirely made of metal with the only plastic/rubber parts being the ring covers for the user adjustments and the front lens cover. Even the mount for the wrist strap, which is not a plastic strap but a piece of almost paracord, is a steel 1/4-20 threaded "camera style" mounting point. The thing is a handful of quality!This thing does not use batteries. That being said, it is going to be ready any time you pick it up. You will not have to worry about leaking cells or finding the right cells before going on a trip. Just grab it and go outside. The included illuminator does use a single CR123 cell and I will speak of this in a moment.When you use the Newcon, you squeeze-down the wing-like lever until it's against the body of the device and hold it there. I think there is a piezoelectric charge generator in there that provides the high voltage required to bias the image tube. The voltage bleeds-off very slowly and the image is intensified for as long as you continue to hold the lever down. After several minutes, you will begin to notice the reduction of the brightness of the image, simply release the lever and again, squeeze it down. Do not "pump" the lever as if you are charging a battery, you get nothing for your effort and the Newcon will get mad at you. :)This system works great and is easy enough for small hands and people with slight muscle strength.There is a tiny hole in the front lens cover allowing use in bright areas, but the gains provided don't outweigh the losses in image quality... under these conditions, just use your own eyes. With the cover removed, and in an area where you can not make-out the details or in situations where the contrast is so great that you can't figure out what's in the shadows, the Newcon SGT-150P really starts to show it's stuff! It's amazingly bright and with the slight magnification and controlled field of view, you can easily look past the stuff in the foreground into a dark area and see what's lurking there. The image quality is "normal" for 1st Generation night vision devices with the expected "fish bowl" distortion and un-even focus. The image center region is sharp and you can easily read things like license plates and people's expressions from a respectable distance... don't expect a television-like night vision image, this thing is the real-deal not a green filtered camera image. If you need supplemental light and you don't want to use a visible light source, such as a flashlight, the (included) infrared illuminator easily fills-in and provides more than enough "brightness". It attaches to the Newcon using a "hot shoe" like on a camera flash. The illuminator uses a single CR123 cell. Considering the brightness of the Newcon, you won't be using the illuminator often enough to worry about keeping a bunch of expensive spare batteries around... just remember to turn-off the illuminator when you are not using it.Please forgive the lengthy review, I found this thing to be much better than I expected and wanted to say stuff about it!

I saw a lot of negative reviews for this but I don't see why. First off its not going to have fantastic visual clarity for the little that this cost. I didn't buy it for superior vision. Though I believe that its quality is real good. I bought this as a backup to the battery powered unit I already have. The visual on this is really good and it doesn't take any batteries. I used it with only low ambient light and it worked fantastic.

Couldn't see anything. New out of the box this item was totally worthless. All I could see was green. I could not make out ANYTHING. I returned it a month ago and have yet to receive my refund.

Received item and tested to find that it did not function as the manual stated. called the Manufacturer and left a message. two days later a return call prompted me to send proof of purchase as well as double verify unit issues. I was told that at my expense i would need to return the item too an Ohio address using a given return authorization number(RMA) and it would be transferred to Canada for further investigation and possible replacement, however the spokesman stated it would take an unspecified period of time. I am out the money of purchase for the item and now unsure what will happen and how long of a wait it will be. The company did say they do not send out damaged items and that it must have happened during the shipping. They seem to want to do the right thing since it will not stay powered up for more than 10-15 seconds. Time will tell. Other wise the product seemed to be well built and carefully thought out.

Should've saved my money for at least a 2nd generation.This device works OK, and doesn't require batteries (at least for the intensifier--the illuminator still requires a battery), but unless you're searching for something around your feet, well, you might consider spending a but more.