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u/Warm-Bet-9408

r/2011 r/NightVision r/photomarket r/steammachine r/Staccato_STI r/CanonR7 r/canon
▲ 4 r/NightVision

Nocturn Talon Broke 3 Days in. Raptor has Parasitic Drain out the butt.

Started my review of the Nocturne Talon and Raptor I purchased with my own money. As a Katana and Tanto Shill I was super excited. I’m currently extremely disappointed.

Let me start by saying I have NO skin in the game outside a half baked YouTube. The NVG business I do is not consumer focused. ANYWAY

Day 3 of review went to turn the Talon on and it would turn the IR on/off and not the Tube. No hard use. Only walking through the woods getting B Roll.

Sent it for RMA to the builder I purchased from. They tested my tube in another housing and it worked. Tested other tubes in my Talon, it did not.

There was a lot of chatter marks on my BRAND NEW M23s contacts. Something is wrong with the Pogos I suspect. Dealer I got mine from had 2/50 defective. (SO FAR I have had many customers in the past not use their units for the first time for years… sadly common)

—- Another issue is the battery cap reflects the IR kinda like suppressor shadow. Kinda gates your tube and makes the IR only work about 75% the way it should.

Contacted Jeff from Nocturn Personally who offered to call me. No response after sharing my contact info. So the saga shall go on.

* The Raptor *

I have now gone through 3 CR123s and have confirmed it has bad parasitic drain. Expect 2-3days of life if left in the unit.

I’ll try and rig up a meter to get exact drain rates or check day to day the 3v to see exact drain rates.

Not happy with that.

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u/Warm-Bet-9408 — 8 days ago
▲ 13 r/CanonR7+1 crossposts

Canon R7 - Is 24-105 RF L worth it?

I currently have a Cannon R7

I have the Sigma 17 to 40 for my daily driver

For my zoom I just have the 18 to 150 Kit lens.

However, getting through my drawer, I found a G7 X Mark three that I bought for $300 quite a few years back that has literally essentially never been used.

Found a local person selling the 24 to 105. That actually wants that camera and is willing to offer the lens and $300 for my G7 X and its accessories.

Is it worth the additional weight and reduced zoom range for the sharpness and F4? I’m seeing very mixed things.

In my head, it makes a lot of sense to have the 24 to 105 to kind of be my Zoom lens in my bag with the sigma being my walk around?

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u/Warm-Bet-9408 — 12 days ago
▲ 32 r/NightVision

Nocturn Talon and Raptor

So I finally got my Nocturn Industries Talon and Raptor in after quite a long wait.

Let me start by admitting I have sold quite a lot of Night Vision however currently I am not a public vendor.

So I have absolutely no finical motivation either direction. Rather I just want to share my experience as there is painfully little content about these that is not clearly coming from those with finical motivations.

TLDR

Good:
Weight and Size
Talons Programming is a Great Backup Tube Saftey

Bad:
Switches Suck
Status Indicators are not Visible if you push nods out (pretty normal though sadly)
Talon has no Retention Provisions
Raptor IPD Adjustment is a PITA
Manual Doesn’t Mention how to use Strobe Mode

So let me begin with today’s Initial Impressions:

Talon:

  1. There is no provisions for a lanyard or dummy tie. This is incredibly stupid and a MAJOR deficit. Dropping a powered on unit is the leading cause of tube death in my experience. There is so many places a simple hole could have been added and I am very frustrated having to rig up a tertiary retention system.
  2. The light pipe indicator requires you to have the tube almost inside your eyeball. Granted this is common I find it was low hanging fruit. The illuminator and Low power indicator are essentially invisible if you use glasses or a mask.
  3. The Knob kinda sucks. There is no tactile feel and it just doesn’t give you the FIZZ when using it. Also turning the unit on or off feels like it takes much longer than it should.

Also the gain control is the opposite direction of a PVS14. Left is increase and right is decrease? A fun way to piss away years of muscle memory.

Overall I much prefer the analog controls of the PVS14.

  1. The Battery Cap threads are kinda a PITA to get lined up properly. Doesn’t feel “good” by any means. Not pleasant at all to do in the dark…

  2. The programming Flip to Side and Flip to Off auto off really are nice especially when giving the unit out to inexperienced users. Makes me much more confident they won’t accidentally leave the unit on without knowing.

The programming would be a lot cooler though if it allowed flip down to turn back on without needing to press the dial on the Noise Fighter J Arm. Seems silly only their proprietary one works.

Before I forget!!!! NOCTURN REVISE YOUR MANUALS

These both have a IR Strobe mode the manuals don’t reference. Accessed by double tapping and holding the dial.

Raptor:

  1. The HARD IPD is not really an upgrade compared to the Katana. Perhaps I was the only person who really liked the “Soft Stop” system. However I know for certain I won’t be the only one that hates this current Hard IPD Stop setup.

The adjustment dial is actually inboard in a spot nearly impossible to adjust without moving the pod. Forcing you to move the pod, twist the knob and check over and over to get it right.

If you have OCD like me it’s a PITA. Especially considering every time you mount it in reality your ideal IPD setup will probably change slightly as helmets move.

The IPD process unlike the katana is a very big friction point.

On the Katana I would rotate the pods all the way to the dovetail after removing them each time resetting the IPD. Then simply rotating them into place set the IPD perfect every time.

Now every time I mount these I have an annoying “fight” with the stupid IPD set screw.

If you are less OCD than me you will probably set it once and be done. If that’s you then it’s not a big deal. For me though it’s a big friction point.

  1. Weight and bulk is insane again like the Talon. In the hand it feels awesome.

I was worried I would loose the awesome slim nature of the Katana. One of the best feature of the Katana was when the pods were rotated the bridge and battery were essentially invisible in your view unlike most units.

They retained that. So if you like to have nods mounted in mixed lighting conditions this setup like the Katanas is gonna be one of the best.

  1. The switch being the same as the Talon shares my same complaints. Just kinda feels like a cheap mushy button with no feedback.

Also gain directions are the opposite of what they should be in my opinion. Left to raise gain confuses me.

  1. Same as the Talon the status indicators are essentially invisible unless you touch your eyeball to the eyepiece.

****** THIS ISNT A REVIEW. I do not have enough time on either to give a full and proper review. It’ll probably take months to give truthful feedback. But I wanted to get some of this out there as people weigh options.

If you have the money it seems to be a nice step up from the ANVB but it’s too early to see if it’s worth nearly double the price.

u/Warm-Bet-9408 — 19 days ago