CarsonMiniAura Digital Night Vision Monocular (NV-200)

This tiny itty-bitty Gizmo works better than some of my expensive N.V. devices. 5 stars is solid. I've bought 2 more since my first one, as gifts for my other 2 brothers. Like me they could not believe something this small worked like it does. After you get it focused for your eyes it is actually amazing how far and how well it works. No extra I.R. light is needed. It works fine as is. It fits in a shirt pocket. Amazing really. You cannot go wrong buying one. I've had mine #2 years now and still working like new. Unbelievable. For $100 you will be absolutely blown away how good this works. I love mine. Absolutely a steal. I may get another to put in the car. 5 stars you'll be amazed. It is actually amazing.

I had a gift card and always wanted to buy this thing. In short I would have gladly paid full price.I had a gen1 device about 10 years ago.... this thing blows that out of the water by 1000%. The picture quality is about what you get from a modern baby monitor.Pro's:-uses typical batteries and not the expensive CR123 or whatever that my gen 1 needed-picture quality is exceptional compared to my old gen1 device.... not even close. Larger field of view, no distortion at the edges. The old gen 1 device I had was literally looking through a tiny hole with massive "fish eye" effect. This has no fish eye and can scan larger areas quickly.-Super light compared to the clunky gen1 device I had, powers instantly, you can't accidently fry a tube if a car drives byPro/Con:-1:1 magnification. I personally like this but some might find this to be a con. My previous NV Gen1 device had a 3-4x mag.... didn't care for it since it reduced the field of vision greatly for how far you could actually use the device.-Its extremely small. I was surprised even after reading all the reviews. Its tiny! I like that compared to my Gen1 device which took like two hands and a backpack to carry (like the size of a old school camcorder).Con's:-The IR is visible, and usually needed. its not always needed if there is enough ambient light (i.e. suburban environment). I'm not trying to use this as a self defense / mil style application so if the red dot happens to be spotted I'm not worried. The spotter would have to be fairly inline with the device to spot it. Its not super bright but would be noticeable at closer distances and if it was very dark.-You can't see through windows.... I think this is very typical for any NV. My GEN1 device always had window glare whether trying to see out of a window from your house to spot something in the backyard, or trying to look through a window from a distance (i.e. backyard / into your house). Again I'm not trying to use this thing as a survival tool, or anything pervy so I'm not really that concerned and I'm not convinced that higher GEN devices can do this effectively all the time.-I wish the IR emitter could be dialed back a bit (i.e. lowest setting could get lower).-I do have 1 horizontal line through my display.... very not noticeable or annoying but its there. Again, picture quality is completely insane compared to my old Gen1 device.completely satisfied for this price.

INFORMED REVIEW:Im calling this an "informed" review due to the number of reviews i have read on this monocular and similar products. Now that i have it and have used it, i can compare that to what ive read. From what ive read, alot of people want much more out of night vision, at this price point, than is realistic. Now, hold your horses on that thought, this little monocular is fantastic by any measure. For 95 dollars i am now able to see up to a hundred yards through my yard with great detail. And i asked myself the important question i think many of us on here wonder when looking for night vision devices. "Can I use this to see people or animals a solid distance in front of me, in complete darkness, with enough detail to make our who or what they are, and what they are doing?" Yes. Yes,yes,yes. Anyone who says otherwise has gotten a defective unit. Because for 95 dollars im able to use this stupid thing to pick out the details in the bark of a tree a solid 150 feet away from me. That is p-lenty enough for me. Now im not the owner of a large rural property, in which a more powerful device would be needed. Im in a suburban area with a fairly large yard, enough for this small device to show me whats going on at night, and i am usually able to scan about 1000-3000 square feet of space in front of me at any given angle of view. Thats assuming i can clearly see about 20-40 feet wide and about 100 deep.Additionally, this thing performs wonderfully in tight spaces, so that review about it not being suited for attics and crawl spaces, they are completely wrong.Remember, this thing fits in my pocket without much trouble at all. So all in all, this device is very effective for how cheap and small it is. It has a surprisingly solid construction of what appears to be ABS plastic and hold three normal AAA batteries. I love that. My only question is how battery life holds up, but since it runs off AAA it can be replaced and as much as I need can be carried on me at any time of course. So it's designed for you to keep powering it wherever you need it really.This appeared to be cheap and dodgy when i ordered it. What i got was far from that.This monocular is seriously worth the money. 9/10