Affordable night vision gear the performs well can be tough to find.
The night vision unit was provided by the company for this review.
Decent night vision used to be terribly expensive.
The Shadow 100 Digital Night Vision Mini-Viewer is a compact and inexpensive night imager that does exactly what it claims to do. Image: X-Vision Optics
However, that world is changing rapidly.
However, they also cost more than a decent car.
Much has happened since then.
The Shadow 100 is lightweight enough to ride comfortably on its included neck strap.
Nowadays, personal electronics offer performance not even imagined a couple of decades ago.
Thanks to an economy of scale, these extraordinary machines are also shockingly affordable.
That same revolution has transformed digital night vision.
The controls are simple and intuitive. With a little practice, you can run this thing by feel in the dark. Image: X-Vision Optics
It offers 600 yards in daylight.
The Shadow 100 is also capable of capturing still images or video on a micro-SD card.
The battery is expected to provide nine hours of operation in daylight and five after dark.
This picture of the Shadow 100 viewer was shot as it sat on the railing of a back porch. As you can see, it really does a fine job of penetrating the darkness.
The unit is water-resistant and offers seven different screen brightness levels.
Theres a tripod mount should you grow weary of holding it.
That the Shadow 100 Digital Night Vision Mini-Viewer will do all that stuff is pretty remarkable.
The Zielgerät 1229 Vampir infrared rifle scope, shown above, mounted to theGerman StG 44 assault rifle. Although unwieldy and delicate, the units could spot a man up to 80 yards away. Image: NARA
As of this writing, shipping is free.
Would You Want This?
Im old enough to have grown up on comic books.
Modern military night vision systems are incredibly capable. However, they are also comparably expensive. The Shadow 100 offers the average citizen a much more reasonably priced option. Image: X-Vision Optics
These werent graphic novels destined to be made into big-screen blockbusters, mind you.
The art was compelling, and the stories, for a prepubescent boy at least, were sublime.
However, tucked away in the back were some of the most tantalizing consumer products.
All of this stuff was directed toward young men.
Nestled in between the multi-function spy tool and the DIY Sea Monkeys was always the X-ray Spex.
There was a small hole in the middle you could actually see through.
In between the layers was typically a small scrap of feather.
Peering through the vanes of the feather caused a weird diffraction effect that was speciously marketed as X-ray vision.
Apparently, the Consumer Protection Agency didnt have jurisdiction over comic book ads back then.
These X-ray Spex purported to let a kid see through stuff.
Published examples included walls, curtains, or your hand.
In reality, it was all obviously just a gimmick.
However, the quest for a true approximation of X-ray vision is quite real.
In the real world, a night vision imager is the next best thing.
A Wee Bit of Science…
Visible light is only a small portion of the overarching electromagnetic spectrum.
Both IR and UV are invisible to the human eye.
Various points along the electromagnetic spectrum are described by the wavelength and frequency of the associated energy.
Red light has the longest wavelength and the shortest frequency.
Violet light has the shortest wavelength and the highest frequency.
Heat is also represented along certain portions of the spectrum in the infrared range.
A Little History
Historically speaking, night vision systems came in three broad flavors.
Image intensifiers are passive sensors that capture trace ambient light and then amplify it into a visible image.
These starlight scopes first found their legs during the Vietnam War.
These days, we also use them to fly blacked-out combat aircraft at night.
Modern FLIR systems depict heat sources as visible images.
FLIR stands for Forward-Looking Infra-Red.
The Germans put these rudimentary night vision systems on their tanks at the very end of World War II.
They called this system the Vampir.
This equipment could pick out attacking troops in pitch black dark at relatively close ranges.
Grunts of the day called the optic a Snooper Scope.
These systems were used in action during the invasion of Okinawa.
Both the Vampir and the M3 included an otherwise-invisible IR light that illuminated the target on an associated imager.
What Does It Do, Exactly?
This little night optic is indeed pretty neat, but it still only costs $150.
However, they were orders of magnitude more expensive as well.
This is not a thermal imager in the traditional sense.
You cannot point it at somebody hiding in the bushes and have their heat signature jump out.
The Shadow 100 includes both an IR emitter and a corresponding detection lens.
It produces infrared energy that bounces back to create a visible image on the screen.
The IR lamp actually produces a soft red glow that is visible on the receiving end.
In practical use, the Shadow 100 works much as might an invisible flashlight.
Congratulations, your eyeball-based night vision is trashed, and you cannot see much beyond your front porch.
However, you have just done a splendid job of illuminating yourself to a potential assailant.
Visible light, in this case, is not your pal.
The practical applications are limited solely by your imagination.
Practical Tactical
Have reasonable expectations.
This isnt aviation-grade tech.
It cost markedly less than a case of 9mm ammo.
However, it does do exactly what it claims to do.
Set-up is straight-forward, and the controls are intuitive.
The field of view is a bit constricted, and it has a finite range.
The Shadow 100 viewer is also sufficiently lightweight as to hang comfortably around your neck on the included strap.
The viewer doesnt have a sealed rubber eyepiece on the near end, however.
That means the digital display produces a fairly bright visible light directed back at the operator while in use.
The digital technology imbedded in this inexpensive thing would have been unimaginable a generation ago.
Additionally, $150 isnt quite the suffocating burden it once was.
The Shadow 100 Digital Night Vision Mini-Viewer is a nifty entry-level piece of night vision kit.
The $150 price makes it a good bargain given its impressive capabilities.
However, the Shadow 100 Digital Night Vision Mini-Viewer is sleek, slick, tough, and surprisingly capable.
It definitely hits above its weight.
Go to forum thread
