Let's explore the best night vision goggles for the money for those of you on a budget needing the ability to see in the dark without breaking the bank! Whether you're looking to spend in the $200 range, the $500 range or the $2000 range, we've got you covered.
Are cheap night vision googles any good?
Good news for those of you reading is that you can get really good performing night vision an affordable price and the technology of digital night vision has improved significantly in the last few years. Many digital night vision units are now very fast, they have excellent low light performance, they have wide field of views and are much closer in performance to analog night vision devices like the pvs14 and the higher you're willing to go up in price the better the performance gets. We're not saying that every cheap night vision device is good, but there are a handful that are very special and we've tested out a bunch and know what we're talking about.
How much should you spend on night vision googles?
This is a highly personal question and is very dependant on your intended use case and priorities. You should spend at least $150 and anything below that will most likely be dissapointing for most people.
Best Night Vision Under $200
If you want to spend less than $200 and get the best night vision goggles you can, the NVG40 digital night vison monocular. It comes in a bit cheaper than the Nightfox Prowl and Night Operators Max 2.0 and has awesome features video recording , digital zoom, very low latency and better low light performance than anything in its class. For a bit more you can upgrade to the NVG40 Pro which has a color sensor which is also a good option but the low light performance isn't quite as good but there's a video comparing the performance of those two sub $200 night vision devices.
Best Night Vision Goggles Under $500
$500 seems to be a sweet spot for digital night vision where the performance really starts to improve and devies are much less reliant on IR lighting. Devices like the the NVG50 and the NVG30, our two favorites in this price range, work very well with no IR lighting and are much more similar in performance to analog and significantly outperform the lower cost units and are what we consider to be the best night vision goggles for the money, hands down. The NVG50 is a new unit and offers a very slight advantage in performance and you can see how they compare in the NVG50 vs NVG30 comparison video. We recommend you go with the NVG50!
Best Digital Night Vision Under $2000
If you do have more money to spend and want performance that is really impressive ADNVs lineup is the best option on the market. Compared to the Sionyx Opsin, the ADNV G14SE absolutely destroys and this is the way to go for those of you with a bit more budget to spend.
