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Not sure if you know, but using an IR illuminator is like a very bright beacon to anyone using IR (in passive mode) or Night Vision. It kinda defeats the purpose, if you are trying to be stealthy. Many of the low end commercial Russian scopes have poor optics & very pronounced "fishbowl" distortion. The binoculars & goggles have the same issues. A proper gen1 cascade tube is too long & too heavy for binoculars or goggles. That pretty much why the MCP was invented so they could do away with a 3 stage tube & still get good performance. Another issue with commercial Russian Night Vision is that the tubes seem to go bad very fast or if exposed to bright lights.
The only Russian commercial Night Vision I would even consider is the squeeze Piezo ones that don't use batteries. That would great for an emergency, but would still be very limited. Pretty much without IR all the commercial Russian Night Vision does is tint what your eyes can see into green. If you have good eyesight & know how to properly use your cones & rods you can see just as well. They work good for detecting other people using IR at night.
Unless you find a noob you will probably have a hard time getting $100 for a used mono. There is a lot on Ebay & they seem to go in the $50-$60 range. I've bought a few things like that for around $40. You might get lucky if you take pics showing that the image is free of any dark spots, as many of them have those.
If you don't care about using IR, get a good quality US or Israeli IR mono or goggles. They are high quality, have far less fishbowl distortion and have very good resolution. The PAS-6, SU-49/PVS-5/NVG-5151 are high quality IR units that can be found cheap. You can also make some IR "grenades" to illuminate an area you want to look at without lighting your self up. You could use some bright IR LEDs with a delay timer, kinda like the US military "firefly" IR strobes that attach to a 9volt battery. Flip the switch & throw one into the area you want to see. If someone is out there using Night Vision a bright IR light close will cause blooming & gating in their unit.
The only Russian commercial Night Vision I would even consider is the squeeze Piezo ones that don't use batteries. That would great for an emergency, but would still be very limited. Pretty much without IR all the commercial Russian Night Vision does is tint what your eyes can see into green. If you have good eyesight & know how to properly use your cones & rods you can see just as well. They work good for detecting other people using IR at night.
Unless you find a noob you will probably have a hard time getting $100 for a used mono. There is a lot on Ebay & they seem to go in the $50-$60 range. I've bought a few things like that for around $40. You might get lucky if you take pics showing that the image is free of any dark spots, as many of them have those.
If you don't care about using IR, get a good quality US or Israeli IR mono or goggles. They are high quality, have far less fishbowl distortion and have very good resolution. The PAS-6, SU-49/PVS-5/NVG-5151 are high quality IR units that can be found cheap. You can also make some IR "grenades" to illuminate an area you want to look at without lighting your self up. You could use some bright IR LEDs with a delay timer, kinda like the US military "firefly" IR strobes that attach to a 9volt battery. Flip the switch & throw one into the area you want to see. If someone is out there using Night Vision a bright IR light close will cause blooming & gating in their unit.
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