What is the difference between Night Vision and Thermal Vision devices?


Night Vision devices intensify/amplify existing light instead of relying on a visible light source of their own.

Night Vision electro optical devices relies on at least a very low level of light, which is less than the human eye can detect, in order to amplify it and produce a picture.

Equipment is sensitive to a wide spectrum of light from visible light to infrared.

The image intensifier tube installed in device generate an image from a very small number of photons such as the light from stars on the sky.

The image is said to become intensified because the output visible light is brighter than the incoming light.

However that does not mean that the light is enhanced but a frequency of the light is changed to the frequency that the human eye can see.

Therefore user looks  at the amplified electronic image on a phosphor screen, not directly through a Night Vision lenses.

The image produced is typically monochrome and often uses shades of green.

A Night Vision phosphor screen is purposefully colored green because the human eye can differentiate more shades of green than other phosphor colors.

Thermal Vision technology has a huge advantage over conventional Night Vision equipment and does not require any visible light to operate.

That also means the devices does not require Infra Red emitter so you can observe everything around and stay invisible

Night Vision will not work in complete darkness while Thermal Imaging will because Thermal Imaging cameras detect heat while low light Night Vision cameras have sensors which detect light. Thermal Imaging systems use sensitive to heat detectors for focus the heat/infrared energy emitted by an objects.  Therefore Thermal Imaging equipment can work both in daylight as well as in complete darkness as it is unaffected by light.

Thermal Imaging cannot see through glass, but can see in complete darkness and cannot be blinded by light.Thermal Image devices are precise advanced instruments, rich with features and technology that provides a best penetration through smoke, fog, dust, steam, bushes, tall grass and trees, etc. Thanks to uncooled detector the darkness, poor weather conditions, camouflage or bright lights not affect the sensitivity of these units.

The answers to this and many other questions can be found in the FAQ on our website.

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