I’m not sure if it qualifies as a completely impulse purchase because there was some sort of rationale behind it and I did some research beforehand, but it was very off the cuff- in any case, it was a thermal monocular, and I needed one. Some part of my brain did, at least, and I was in a position where I had the money to do something stupid.
I was going traveling to far-away lands for an extended period of time, and my night vision has steadily been going as I get older, and being the adventurous type I sometimes find myself in less-than safe environments. So I figured, to get around my handicap, either night-vision or a thermal scope of some sort would be a good thing to have on hand.
In hindsight I should have gone with night vision rather than thermal, but it was a cool piece of equipment to have with me. It helped me very little in the end, and the NV would have been the better one to bring by far in the end, as I was at greater risk getting lost in the dark than getting jumped by bad people or animals.
Novelty wears off quick, and utility scales slowly with price, at least for the thermal. It’s like with real wrist watches Anything under $1.5K is a toy- or so it is claimed, I’m not into clocks, but for thermal shit if you want real gear you’re looking at $2K for the lower-mid range models, buying both thermal and NV is just not an option unless you have serious cash to spend. I got a great deal on the monocular, at $600, and for the price it was decent for a hobbyist, but there were definitive drawbacks, most specifically field of view and distance.
I did randomly find a turtle sleeping in a bush in the middle of the night in the jungle though. That alone was probably worth the $600 hahahahaha! Nah not really. But it was cool being able to walk on the beach and looking through the thing and see people hundreds of meters away completely unaware of me. And thermals tell you a lot about what people are up to. It was important for my security as I was living in the wild, kind of, but in hindsight I was never in any real danger, and had I been, I had been better of with night vision anyway.
I’m not sure if it qualifies as a completely impulse purchase because there was some sort of rationale behind it and I did some research beforehand, but it was very off the cuff- in any case, it was a thermal monocular, and I needed one. Some part of my brain did, at least, and I was in a position where I had the money to do something stupid.
I was going traveling to far-away lands for an extended period of time, and my night vision has steadily been going as I get older, and being the adventurous type I sometimes find myself in less-than safe environments. So I figured, to get around my handicap, either night-vision or a thermal scope of some sort would be a good thing to have on hand.
In hindsight I should have gone with night vision rather than thermal, but it was a cool piece of equipment to have with me. It helped me very little in the end, and the NV would have been the better one to bring by far in the end, as I was at greater risk getting lost in the dark than getting jumped by bad people or animals.
They sounds cool as fuck though! Maybe next time get one NV monocular and take both.
Novelty wears off quick, and utility scales slowly with price, at least for the thermal. It’s like with real wrist watches Anything under $1.5K is a toy- or so it is claimed, I’m not into clocks, but for thermal shit if you want real gear you’re looking at $2K for the lower-mid range models, buying both thermal and NV is just not an option unless you have serious cash to spend. I got a great deal on the monocular, at $600, and for the price it was decent for a hobbyist, but there were definitive drawbacks, most specifically field of view and distance.
I did randomly find a turtle sleeping in a bush in the middle of the night in the jungle though. That alone was probably worth the $600 hahahahaha! Nah not really. But it was cool being able to walk on the beach and looking through the thing and see people hundreds of meters away completely unaware of me. And thermals tell you a lot about what people are up to. It was important for my security as I was living in the wild, kind of, but in hindsight I was never in any real danger, and had I been, I had been better of with night vision anyway.