I Want to Rent a Night Vision Scope: Do I Go Thermal or Image Enhancing?

When you rent night vision goggles, scopes, or other night vision gear, there’s one basic choice you have to make right away: thermal or image enhancing? All night vision equipment – including thermal imaging scopes – rely one of these two types of night vision.

Here’s the breakdown on each:

1) Thermal.

Thermal night vision scopes produce shapes of color rather than exact, specific images. Thermal imaging works by capturing the upper portion of the infrared light spectrum, which shows up as heat instead of as light. Inanimate objects emit less thermal heat, making them appear different colors on thermal imaging systems when compared with life objects, such as coyotes, turkeys, and humans.

When you rent a night vision scope with thermal imaging, when you use it you’re essentially seeing the “heat” of living creatures. The lens of the scope focuses the infrared light put off by an object and then uses infrared detector elements to create a thermogram (a visual temperature pattern) which is translated from electrical impulses into an image. You then see the image.

2) Image enhancing.

Image enhancing night vision scopes produce the type of green image so popular in movies. Image enhancing scopes gather up any tiny amounts of light present in low lighting conditions and amp them up. Image enhancing scopes can even gather and amplify light from the lower portion of the infrared light spectrum, so when you rent a night vision scope with image enhancing properties, you can use it in even very low light conditions. For example, the NiteSite™ SpotterXtreme™ lets you see the animals you’re hunting at up to 500 meters.

Image enhancing scopes use a photo cathode to convert photons into electrons and amplify those electrons. In image enhancing scopes, the photons and electrons stay in the same shape, allowing the shape of the image to be created.

Since image enhancing scopes require a little bit of light work, they may need a little help in complete dark. This is why when you rent a night vision scope or goggles you may also get infrared illuminators. Some devices – such as the ATN NVM14 Device – have their own Infrared light-emitting source

Infrared illuminators send out infrared light so the scope or goggles can use them to produce an image. No need to worry, though: infrared light produced by these devices is not visible to the human eye.

Which One Is Right For You?

Both image enhancing and thermal devices can work. If you want to hunt and need to be able to find predators or targets in low light conditions at longer distances, you might want to rent a night vision scope. Even in camouflaged and low-light conditions, thermal scopes will pick up any targets.

In general, any time you need to be able to pick out live objects, rent a night vision scope with thermal imaging. It lets you distinguish even the best-hidden targets, making it ideal for:

• Hunting
• Tracking down predators
• Noticing poachers on your property
• Long-distance targets
• Gaming applications
• Survivalist and wilderness applications

If you need more detail because you want to take photos or observe wildlife, image enhancing the goggles may be a better fit. If you want to get evidence of poachers on your property, for example, you might want the camera package from Night Vision Rentals. With an HD Canon® Vixia HF G20 camera and a PVS 14, it can give you up to 10,000 hours of monitoring plus the ability to gather visual proof, even in very low-light conditions.

The good news is that with Night Vision Rentals, you can test out different scopes to see what works for you. When you rent a night vision scope with Night Vision Rentals, you’re getting professional and military-grade scopes – not just scopes that light up the night. We rent some of the same night vision scopes used by law enforcement and U.S. soldiers in the field, so you know the gear is rugged and reliable enough to stand up to even your most demanding applications.

Night Vision Rentals even makes it easy to rent your scope. Just find what you want on our website, tell us when you want the gear and we’ll mail it to you. When you’re done your adventure, just pop the equipment back in a box, throw on the pre-paid label and ship it. We only charge you for the time you have your scope in your hands. At Night Vision Rentals, we also test and check out all our equipment so you know you’re getting gear you can use in the field with no hassle. And if you have any questions, you can always reach us; we’re big believers in good old-fashioned American standards of customer service.