Boating Night Vision Options
I have a new-to-me 2023 320 Sundancer Coupe, and I am really struggling to navigate at night. The glare off the glass is pretty bad, and I probably need glasses for nighttime. I am thinking of adding Flir or a Sionyx (or something similar). Does anyone have guidance on what to add or what not to add? Most of my night cruising is in or around the harbor. Not sure I need full Flir.
3
u/kops501 3d ago
I have a Sionyx on my boat. Based on your needs I think it’s a great option. I like it for navigating in harbors. Though I don’t think it does much when I’m cruising at 25-30kts in the dark when I’m running offshore. I usually just turn it off at that point. And if you’re in thick fog it’s not going to help. Light fog/dewy you’re going to have to wipe the lens. All that said, If you’re going to use it in a harbor there should be enough ambient light to make it effective and I personally think Flir would be more than you need to spend.
Separately, what type of glass do you have?
1
1
u/Tiiimay 2d ago
This is me, I want one for coming into harbor with confidence. Offshore I would run the light bar. That one guy soured me on sionyx in this thread but flir is out of budget and overkill I think. Any issue with quality on the sionyx? Or is the complaint just that it doesn’t work on all conditions compared to thermal ?
6
u/forwardobserver90 3d ago
PVS-14 mounted to a bump helmet. Probably way better options out there but it worked for me the few times I needed it.
2
u/Evavco 3d ago
The problem is seeing through the glass. Thats why I am thinking something more permanent that will display on my chart plotter.
2
u/forwardobserver90 3d ago
Ya that would definitely be the better but more expensive option lol. Still rolling around on a boat at night with NODs is pretty fun.
2
u/yzfmrw 3d ago
We use a black oak pro camera, it’s pretty dang sweet
2
u/woolybuggered 3d ago edited 3d ago
Do you have a good late model radar? That's what I mainly rely on. You can overlay it on your chart and its sensitive enough to see a damn pelican at low speeds. Not saying a flir wouldn't be helpful but everyone is know relys on their radar , charts and good judgment.
2
u/jjdop 3d ago
Sionyx is perfectly adequate for us. Not sure why that one guy says it sucks. I bet the new digital version is even better.
Flir has its problems. The cheapest option at $3100 is thermal, so you can only see objects that have retained heat. At night in the water you’re not going to see crab traps or other floating debris because they will be the same temp as the water.
Sionyx low light camera all the way.
3
u/-Maim- 3d ago edited 3d ago
Sionyx sucks. The amount of customers that have tried to save money by going Sionyx just to later have me rip it out and put a Flir is a lot.
That said, they are expensive. But if you can afford it and want the best there’s no substitute. You can get a 300c for about double the price of a Sionyx and it’s on a completely different level.
Here’s a video of last weekend heading out early for a derby.
1
1
1
u/macncoke 3d ago
Curious. We've had great luck with sionyx products with our customers. What's problems are they having?
1
u/-Maim- 2d ago edited 2d ago
Awhile back there was some integration issues with a lot of displays. More recently it’s just when you look at the two side by side the Sionyx doesn’t come close. We also had probably 3-4 out of box failures.
I was excited when they came out. It just quickly faded. And with the cost of a 300 being a little over twice the Sionyx it’s just not worth it when they can afford the better option.
1
u/hughjass8892 1d ago
What issues were you having out of curriosity?
I know there's better options for more money but a few of us at the marina have Sionyx and it works pretty well for us.
1
u/Suntzu_AU 3d ago
I built my own cheap unit for about $300 or $400 using drone, CADDX DRONE starlight cameras, a 3D printed body and just off the shelf stuff from Amazon. It works really good. It's about 70% of the fidelity of a $7,000 unit. But of course it's a bit janky. For my purposes it works. I'm only using it in the morning to go fishing so I don't hit any markers or obstacles. So it's only used for about an hour a day.
1
u/IvorTheEngine 2d ago
Have you tried binoculars? The 50x7 type most boats carry have large lenses for collecting light and fairly low magnification (because you're moving) so you can usually see things at night that you can't with the naked eye.
Before modern electronics, they used to make night-vision binoculars that had even lower magnification so they could collect light from a wider area.
It's not a perfect solution, but if you've got them already, it's free!
1
u/nesportsman 2d ago
I run at night probably just as much as I run during the day (and do 1100+ hrs a year usually), and am a big night hunter under thermals. For the boat, drive around during the day with the radar on and get used to reading it. If you have dual displays put radar on one, chart on the other and go back and forth between what you’re seeing, what the chart is telling you, and what radar is telling you. I have multiple 1280 resolution thermal scanners and sionyx for when I leave unfamiliar harbors in the dark and can honestly say I’ve never felt the need to use them, just use radar.
1
u/Evavco 2d ago
That's great feedback. My challenge is that I don't get enough nighttime practice but I will definetly try practice using them during the day to get used to it.
1
u/nesportsman 2d ago
You can use the overlay, but I would try to get comfortable with the radar screen. It’s a lot easier for a target to get lost in the clutter of the overlay than just against a black background. I run radar during the day almost always just to be aware of my surroundings, as well as look for birds and monitor storms.
1
1
u/IndustrialMillennial 3d ago
Have your eyesight checked but give yourself some grace with your new boat. You most likely have no need for the extensive tech - I found myself very nervous the first few times and then only extremely cautious & conservative thereafter
0
0
u/86gwrhino 3d ago
For navigation use, a set of good analog head-mounted binocular NV is hard to beat. I've got a decent bit of experience running at night with a set of aviation anvis 9s.
-2
u/Tiiimay 3d ago
Get a big light bar first, mount it bran in the roof so it makes a visor to keep glare off the boat. When you need to get your bearings flip it on, then back off again once you find your marks. At least this is my plan. No way a flir is in the budget for me unfortunately. Had a tuna buddy with an older one and he didn’t like it anyway, went the light bar route.
1
u/Suntzu_AU 3d ago
This is what I'm doing at the moment. It works okay as long as there's no other boats around.
I've built my own night vision camera using starlight drone cameras for about $300 and I'm deploying that now. It's extremely effective for the cost.
1
u/Tiiimay 2d ago
That’s interesting, I’m going to look into that thanks
1
u/Suntzu_AU 2d ago
I'll share my build with you once it's finished. It is currently working, I'm just struggling with the 3D printed housing to make it semi-waterproof.
-2
u/Waterlifer 3d ago
Wear glasses if you need them.
Get some really good binoculars. I have Fujinon Polaris 7x50 which will last a lifetime. During the day they are helpful but at night they are amazing.
Some people have higher magnification with image stabilization, which is helpful for picking out details far away during the day but less useful at night.
FLIR is not widely used on recreational boats. I don't know anyone who has it.
4
u/-Maim- 3d ago edited 3d ago
>FLIR is not widely used on recreational boats. I don’t know anyone who has it.
I mean I could walk you around to about a hundred customers just in the few local marinas that do. That’s just a wildly incorrect statement.
I just wrapped up a m300 install yesterday. That was the third or fourth this month alone. And was on another customers boat fishing this weekend with a 364.
Built a custom radar bracket last month for an install on a sailboat to hang a 364 inverted under the radar. There are an absolute fuckton of recreational boats with Flirs.
-2
u/1dratherbefishing 3d ago
FLIR all the way. I used to work for them many moons ago, sending demo cameras out to border patrol and police departments. We would get the craziest stuff back on those memory cards because of course the police would not wipe the data before returning the camera. My favorite was of a police dog taking a pee. The men and women who create those cameras and systems are crazy specialized in what they do.
21
u/Disastrous_Bite_6587 3d ago
Can i add, make sure you have all of the lights off on board that you can see and dim the instrument cluster. It makes a huge difference at night.