NNVT image intensifier tubes - Are they worth it?
North Night Vision Technology, a subsidiary of Norinco, is a newcomer in the image intensifier tube market, however provides extremely competitive prices on IIT's worldwide.
Currently, NNVT manufactures Generation 2+ intensifiers in a multitude of formats, such as MX10160, MX10130, MX11769 in 16mm and 18mm configurations, with the most common of which being MX10160 18mm.
All of our NNVT options are MX10160 format, with an 18mm output screen.
So, how do they compare?
Whether Green Phosphor, or White Phosphor, NNVT holds up considerably well in comparison to Photonis, Katod or Ekran, whom all manufacture Gen2+ tubes.
Their failing point is their Modular Transfer Function, which in summary is their contrast. Photonis image intensifier tubes boast great low light performance, even on their lower end ECHO tubes solely due to their higher MTF values.
This is not to say that, due to M.T.F being worse that you are better off purchasing Photonis, it is mainly to say that you will pay for marginally better performance when buying an ECHO tube. Gain, SN/r, Resolution and EBI are all very similar across the board for the varying FOM ranges. Therefore, purchasing a 1600FOM ECHO Green Phosphor tube, will yield very similar results to a 1600FOM NNVT-5/4 tube. It is important to note that specifications vary from every intensifier, as no two are made the same.
NNVT intensifiers are based off old Photonis XD4 and XR5 technology, which may indicate their performance not being quite on par with ECHO or ECHO+. But, it is extremely important to take into consideration their price compared to their performance. At about 2/3 the price of an ECHO IIT, you can purchase an NNVT IIT which will produce 3/4 of the performance.
Thank you for reading, and thank you everyone for your continued support. We are very excited to announce that this week marks our release of our full binocular builds.