I've greatly enjoyed this unit in the few days i've had it. - Sightmark Ghost Hunter 1x24 Night Vision Goggle Kit

This is the first NV unit I’ve owned but I’ve researched the subject and knew that a Gen 1 unit was probably my best bet. I have about 5 wooded acres with more surrounding it. I’m impressed with the unit under moonlight and even going “non-covert” with the IR illuminator is very useful. The headband is ok for comfort but not the greatest and not terrible either. At this price point, I’ve got to make some allowances for shortcomings but Sightmark seems to have come through with a sturdy little scope. Made in RUSSIA! Other than ammo, this is going to be my first experience with that.

Doesn’t seem to have many specks or blemishes in the tube, lens focuses easily. When power is first turned off, the tube still has enough charge on it and visuals are good enough that you might not be sure that you turned it off. For that reason, I’m pretty strict about covering it up before getting in light and even pulling out the AA batteries when done using it. Lens cover is purposefully given a pinhole aperture for power up in daylight, and amazingly, one can see through that pretty well if you desire to try it. The triangular carrying case holds the head strap and scope with a shoulder strap. It works for me. Be advised, it is not waterproof, water resistant or anything like that. Advertised to work ok in cold but manual advises to give it 1-2 hours to warm up before powering back on to avoid condensation short outs.

As expected for a 1X, Gen 1, it is a little blurry and fish-eyed around the perimeter, but nothing that bad. For use with IR at close ranges, you’ll forget about that. The red glow from the IR will be pretty pronounced like a small red LED when seen from any distance. Again, not a big deal for my use, night woodlands observing. I'll try a separate long range IR illuminator and see how that goes. I also have a Sightmark red dot sight with NV settings on the reticle. Interestingly, it can't pick it up in that mode, but regular red dot is way too bright. Not what I bought it for anyway.

Now I’m addicted to this NV stuff and want to get more stuff with perhaps higher magnification.