famous trails ft-300 (ariel) pump-type review

[tazorac]

although i am still planning on getting the d-300, i couldn't resist getting this nv scope, only 99$ (big 5 has good sales)!!!!! it requires no batterys for the tube (but one, very odd bettery for the ir illuminator). the shape of it fits in my have comfterably, and doesn't make me worried it would slip out of my hand. it seem solidly constructed, and overal good quality. the first thing i noticed when i took it out of teh box was that the front lens cover/daylight filter was rubber, not metal like it is on my night owl. this rubber was attached to the scope itself too, which is good and bad. the good is that you wont loose it, the bad is that it eliminates fine focusing in dailight, because if you try to focus it the cover pops off... i also noticed that if you dont take alot of time to put teh cover on, it can pop off- not good. also, to the battery for the ir iluminator. i tryed a grocery store, and they didn't have it, then i tryied a rite-aid, and they didn't have it, i will have to go to radioshack to get it apperantly, which isn't good. but thats where teh bad stops. with even one pump the tube goes to its full brightness, and it stays there for anywhere from 20 seconds to several minits (there isn't any pattern to how long it works, i pumped it 5-7 times and it worked for 20 seconds, i pumped it 2 times and it worked for several minits and vice versa, i cant figure it out! (if anyone has an explination i would love to hear it)) the tube is of good quality, slightly better then my night owl in terms of contrast and brightness, as well as details. the contrast is its best asset, it brightens lights more then darks which really helps. it doesn't have a buzz or whine while on, but every once in a while it will make an odd sound that sounds like two glass plates touching eachother or one vibrading a few times on a plastic surface (somthing to worry about?) i havent tested it during real night conditoins yet (just a dark halway), but i will tonight. so far overall this seems to be a great buy, and i will add on to this as i get more info.

[tazorac]

forgot to mention a few things...

the destortion on the is great! there is very little, and is hardly noticable unless your looking for it. also, an odd thing about it is that it doesn't have any markings saying who made it and the model number... and the cover says 'zenit NV' so i think famous trails may not actually make their own products, however, so far i think i would buy this again.

[tazorac]

okay, i've used it outside at night and i was amazed! the conditions were overcast, but i live near a city, near teh water, so tehre was alot of light bouncing off the clouds, they GLOW orangy-red across teh water (not directly abouve me, alot of the situatoins were shilded from this)! compaired to my night owl the famous trails ft-300 performed better in all curcumstances i could find. it was very noticabley better with image contrast, and overall brightness. the only thing my night owl did better in was close up clarity, i think becuase the front lence may be slightly higher quality. you could see ferther and clearer with it simply because of the contrast. i spent maby around an hour finding different situations. at the end i was walking back to my house and i noticed a white fuzzy round object that wasn't moving, i thought it was a cat (a cat had been walking around our house earlyer) i brought out my famouse trails night vision, and i could clearly see it was a cat. (as well as detail on its face ect. it got up a sec later, and i followed it as it waked down the street. after it was a good 50-70 yards in front of me i took the night vision away from my eyes, i couldn't see it- even though i knew where it was, WOW! cool! then i took out my night owl and fired it up, i could see the cat, but not nearly as well as i could with my famous trails! i folowed it a bit more then went back home. in the time it took to walk back home, get inside lock the door, get a glass of water, go downstairs, turn on my computer and write this entire review the thing is STILL glowing! i dont know whats up with it but it glows for maby 20 minits after you leave it!!! you jsut have to use it for a min then recharge it then it behaves this way, i dont know how it does it! this was a great buy! thats all for now!

[Guest]

okay, i've used it outside at night and i was amazed! the conditions were overcast, but i live near a city, near teh water, so tehre was alot of light bouncing off the clouds, they GLOW orangy-red across teh water (not directly abouve me, alot of the situatoins were shilded from this)! compaired to my night owl the famous trails ft-300 performed better in all curcumstances i could find. it was very noticabley better with image contrast, and overall brightness. the only thing my night owl did better in was close up clarity, i think becuase the front lence may be slightly higher quality. you could see ferther and clearer with it simply because of the contrast. i spent maby around an hour finding different situations. at the end i was walking back to my house and i noticed a white fuzzy round object that wasn't moving, i thought it was a cat (a cat had been walking around our house earlyer) i brought out my famouse trails night vision, and i could clearly see it was a cat. (as well as detail on its face ect. it got up a sec later, and i followed it as it waked down the street. after it was a good 50-70 yards in front of me i took the night vision away from my eyes, i couldn't see it- even though i knew where it was, WOW! cool! then i took out my night owl and fired it up, i could see the cat, but not nearly as well as i could with my famous trails! i folowed it a bit more then went back home. in the time it took to walk back home, get inside lock the door, get a glass of water, go downstairs, turn on my computer and write this entire review the thing is STILL glowing! i dont know whats up with it but it glows for maby 20 minits after you leave it!!! you jsut have to use it for a min then recharge it then it behaves this way, i dont know how it does it! this was a great buy! thats all for now!

by the way no ir was used in any way here, unless it was to aid in getting a better fucus (i only did this maby twice) i still dont have the battery for the famous trails ir

[Kalua1969]

That self-powered unit is pretty much the same as an old Gen. 1+ of mine (Tasco NV150-L).... http://www.nightvisionforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=449

I experienced that same oddness of inconsistant viewing times, but in my case, I'm pretty sure it was due to extreme humidity. When I tested it out while here at my home in Hawaii, I would get perhaps 15 to 20 seconds till it quickly faded to black. When I'm at my regular home in Vancouver, WA I'd get close to 5 minutes on one squeeze.... *huge* difference.
My assumption was that the extreme amounts of moisture in the air would lessen the piezo crystal's effects in producing a strong charge (that's also probably that sound you hear when you squeeze the handle down... the crystals are being compressed together). The air in WA is much drier, therefore, the crystals were not moisture-saturated.

As far as tubes go, they're all Russian surplus stock. These are packed and marketed by different companies... which is often the reason why you'll sometimes see the very same scope offered by two or three different companies using different model names. My Tasco scope is the exact same design as ones sold by Newcon and Famous Trails.

________________

~Brad
http://www.nightvisionmall.com
http://www.opticshq.com

[Guest]

That self-powered unit is pretty much the same as an old Gen. 1+ of mine (Tasco NV150-L).... http://www.nightvisionforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=449

I experienced that same oddness of inconsistant viewing times, but in my case, I'm pretty sure it was due to extreme humidity. When I tested it out while here at my home in Hawaii, I would get perhaps 15 to 20 seconds till it quickly faded to black. When I'm at my regular home in Vancouver, WA I'd get close to 5 minutes on one squeeze.... *huge* difference.
My assumption was that the extreme amounts of moisture in the air would lessen the piezo crystal's effects in producing a strong charge (that's also probably that sound you hear when you squeeze the handle down... the crystals are being compressed together). The air in WA is much drier, therefore, the crystals were not moisture-saturated.

As far as tubes go, they're all Russian surplus stock. These are packed and marketed by different companies... which is often the reason why you'll sometimes see the very same scope offered by two or three different companies using different model names. My Tasco scope is the exact same design as ones sold by Newcon and Famous Trails.

________________

~Brad
http://www.nightvisionmall.com
http://www.opticshq.com

i think mine is alittle different then yours, mine doesn't have a big lever, you would have to look at it for a sec to realize it was squeeze powered. http://www.onlinesports.com/pages/I,FMT-103007.html my expeareance was in seattle, wa. (not too far away) it rained last night, so that might be why, but sereously, one squeeze and your set for the rest of the night! it was amazing! but this morning it was back to a min maby! odd... by the way, do you have a link, or could you tell me how the piezeo crystrals work?

[Kalua1969]

Ahhh... a fellow WA resident. Howdy neighbor!

Actually, the only difference is your housing, but the internal tube and piezo compression mechanisms are basically the same. Piezo-generated power has been around for a long time in all kinds of stuff (like your old quarts crystal wrist watches). Here's a quick link on piezo crystal technology...

http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Piezoelectricity

Oh, just to let you know, I received the Infratech unit this afternoon. I plopped in a battery and powered it up with its daylight cap on. The image is sharp (virtually no geometric distortion), but the tube is obviously of lower grade when compared to my AN/PVS-7 Delta. There are about 6 or so tiny black spots, but I really don't see it as being a problem (considering that it only costed $500). Other than that, the unit is well-built and solid. I'll give her a quick test later tonight and see if I can post a review here tomorrow.

_______________

~Brad
http://www.nightvisionmall.com
http://www.opticshq.com

[Guest]

Ahhh... a fellow WA resident. Howdy neighbor!

Actually, the only difference is your housing, but the internal tube and piezo compression mechanisms are basically the same. Piezo-generated power has been around for a long time in all kinds of stuff (like your old quarts crystal wrist watches). Here's a quick link on piezo crystal technology...

http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Piezoelectricity

Oh, just to let you know, I received the Infratech unit this afternoon. I plopped in a battery and powered it up with its daylight cap on. The image is sharp (virtually no geometric distortion), but the tube is obviously of lower grade when compared to my AN/PVS-7 Delta. There are about 6 or so tiny black spots, but I really don't see it as being a problem (considering that it only costed $500). Other than that, the unit is well-built and solid. I'll give her a quick test later tonight and see if I can post a review here tomorrow.

_______________

~Brad
http://www.nightvisionmall.com
http://www.opticshq.com

haha, 'howdy!' by the looks of it (or maby you could test it out), will it mount to any head-gear, especially the d-300's? btw, thancks for the link, wikipedia didn't have a link, and i googled it and it didn't work!

[Guest]

Ahhh... a fellow WA resident. Howdy neighbor!

Actually, the only difference is your housing, but the internal tube and piezo compression mechanisms are basically the same. Piezo-generated power has been around for a long time in all kinds of stuff (like your old quarts crystal wrist watches). Here's a quick link on piezo crystal technology...

http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Piezoelectricity

Oh, just to let you know, I received the Infratech unit this afternoon. I plopped in a battery and powered it up with its daylight cap on. The image is sharp (virtually no geometric distortion), but the tube is obviously of lower grade when compared to my AN/PVS-7 Delta. There are about 6 or so tiny black spots, but I really don't see it as being a problem (considering that it only costed $500). Other than that, the unit is well-built and solid. I'll give her a quick test later tonight and see if I can post a review here tomorrow.

_______________

~Brad
http://www.nightvisionmall.com
http://www.opticshq.com

is night vision mall, or opticshq in washington? do you have a store?

[Kalua1969]

To my knowledge, the D-300 and the Infratech unit bodies are quite similar in both size and shape. The Infratech model has a mounting hole in which you can mount it atop a camera tripod, and possibly the D-300's headgear (you'll have to ask Michael about this to confirm).

Nightvisionmall and OpticsHQ are based in California. I merely help Michael and Felix (owner and webmaster) out here in the forums with answering basic NVD questions, product recommendations and such.

______________

~Brad
http://www.nightvisionmall.com
http://www.opticshq.com

[Guest]

To my knowledge, the D-300 and the Infratech unit bodies are quite similar in both size and shape. The Infratech model has a mounting hole in which you can mount it atop a camera tripod, and possibly the D-300's headgear (you'll have to ask Michael about this to confirm).

Nightvisionmall and OpticsHQ are based in California. I merely help Michael and Felix (owner and webmaster) out here in the forums with answering basic NVD questions, product recommendations and such.

______________

~Brad
http://www.nightvisionmall.com
http://www.opticshq.com

oh, okay, i dont think i will get those, but its somthing to think about, i look fowerd to your review, i am going to go to a field and test my night vision in more varying conditions tonight. its clear up here too, so i will get to see it with more ambiant light! i look foward to your review!

[tazorac]

hey, me again, just got back from a big field/ park area. i was surprised on how much farther you could see with this in some situations! the image again contrasted better then my night owl but you could only see a little farther, but alot easyer. however there is one thing the night owl is better in, thats teh ir iluminator. the ir iluminator on my night owl is a narrow beam, it was able to cast across the field, although at this leingth it didn't really help. on the famous trails one the beam was wide, and although it went very far, the night owl's one worked alittle father. me and my dad were both using them at the same time, and he had the ir on alot, so i got to see what both ir's were like through the same tube. however, the famous trails one was good becuase it brightened the whole screen, not so with the night owl unless you got really close.