In the last year there have been several night vision enhancement devices or focus enhancement devices which have come to market. Given the expensive price tag associated with Night Vision Devices, it is reasonable to only desire the best capability and durability available in an enhancement device.
Recently I had the opportunity to run Matbock’s flagship Tarsier Eclipse night vision focus enhancement device in southwest Texas during several evenings outdoors with various lighting sources from natural ambient light to artificial sources. This opportunity was extremely beneficial because the terrain was completely unknown to me and the necessity of simultaneous focus at varying distances was essential for both target recognition and safety while walking through fields and thick brush without the use of white light.
For my own edification, I also took advantage of this opportunity to use the Tarsier Eclipse on one tube while equipping the leading competitor’s enhancement device on the other tube. The Tarsier Eclipse proved far superior at varying distances without requiring readjustment or mechanical movement once focused initially.
After my trip, I made contact with the guys at Matbock in order to dial into some of the feedback from guys I knew were running them during pre-deployment work-ups over the course of the past 9 months. The latest version of the Tarsier Eclipse has been with various units, but a particular group of SOF operators has been providing feedback to Matbock along the way. This unit has been in a variety of environments including mountainous, arid climates with dust-like sand as well as roughly 30 hours of saltwater underwater diving operations.
To this point, the only negative feedback provided by the unit stemmed from the diving evolutions in which the unit reported an increasingly difficult action of the iris. A couple of drops of lubrication easily remedied this and quickly restored the action back to new conditions.
In the last few days Matbock reached back out to say the unit using them during pre-deployment work-ups provided the Tarsier Eclipse’s back to them and each was sent back to the iris manufacturer. After breakdown and examination of all the parts, the iris manufacturer reported the following:
– No dust / debris inside the housing
– No signs of rust or pitting
– Minor scuffs on the Corning glass sacrificial lens (nothing that would impede vision or clarity)
With a couple drops of lubrication, the units were put back together and “like new”.
-AV
www.matbock.com
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