There is a small innocuous little device at SHOT Show called the Noctis Pathfinder. It is a thermal fused digital night vision viewer. Yes you read that right, fusion. It shows both thermal and night vision.
Thermal fusion is the best of both worlds. Proper thermal fusion is the combining of image intensification (night vision) with heat detection from thermal devices. Take a look at my DIY Thermal fusion article. While these methods work they are not true fusion. Real fusion like the COTI is expensive and trying to DIY thermal fusion is not cheap since it requires a thermal device.
Welcome to the Noctis Pathfinder.
Sensor: Multispectral Visible/LWIR 280×210 pixels, 9Hz(IR) Field of View (deg) 12 x 9Display 400 x 400 Color OLEDEye Relief 25mmDigital Zoom 2X, 4XUSB Interface USB Type CInternal Storage 16GBPhoto Recording Bitmap, JpegVideo Recording Raw, MpegBluetooth YesAccelerometer YesGPS OptionalBattery Built-In Rechargeable Li-ionBattery Life > 4 hrs Continuous OperationDimensions < 2 in x 3 in x 6 inWeight < 0.5 lbsWaterproof Rating IP66Mount 1/4-20 Tripod Mount AdapterHuman Detection Range > 300 mHuman Recognition Range > 150 mHuman Identification Range > 100 m
The specs claim it can detect up to 300M but ID a person at 100M. I assume this is referring to the thermal as those specs are not used for night vision. Noctis claims that their Pathfinder is a digital night vision device. I have my suspicions that it is just a CMOS senser without an IR filter so while it can see infrared light, it won’t amplify light like the SiOnyx Aurora.
Hopefully we will get to review the Noctis Pathfinder and see if it is a great bang for the buck or if it is just a digital toy. Check out Noctis’ website for more information.