[BenG]

gen 1 is totaly useless, it fishbowls, and has such low sensitivity, that depending on the wavelength the cameras are giving off you might not even be able to see it. Oddly enough for your purposes the AABB pvs-14 thingy that is sold by lots of airsoft places for around 400$ would actually work rather well because it uses the exact same principle that those cameras use to work, BUT if you plan to use your NV outside at all, you "have to" go gen 2 or 3.

Saying gen 2 is useless is a bit of an overstatement, is it anywhere near as good as gen 3? not a chance BUT it is still more then adequate for your average airsofter, although because of the quantity of high end gen 3 units in ontario you will be outclassed, in a NV to NV battle. The newer gen 2 units from photonis are actually being produced with higher minimum specs then gen 3 units HOWEVER, the major difference in gen 2 and 3 is in photocathode sensitivity. gen 3 can produce a much much brighter image with darker skis because the gallium arsenide used in the photocathod responds MUCH better to longer wavelengths of light. Basicly what this boils down to, is with gen 3 youll still be able to have a bright image that may or may not be noisy depending on your SNR in the pitch black and see stuff, with gen 2 youll have a very dark image that may or may not be noisy depending on your SNR, and this results in it being significantly harder to use but it is still useable, and can be easily used if you use an IR weapon light, gives your position away to other gen 2/3 users when you flash it, but they can probably see you anyway so lol.

The hardest thing for people to understand about gen 2 vs gen 3 is that the major difference lies in sensitivity not in gain, if both tubes have say 30 000 gain, and are looking at a scene at say 11pm that is refracting 10% visible light, 70% 700-850nm light 10% 850-950nm light and 20% heat both units will produce a similar image, however say we observe the same scene at 2 am, there is no moon, just some star light, the same scene will have say 5% visible light 20% 700-850nm light and 70% 850-950nm light and the rest of the EMR being heat, the gen 3 will have a massivly better image because the gallium asenide is much more responsive to that longer wavelength light. If the tube cant turn the photons into electrons, it cant multiply the luminescence in the scene. Someone had a great graph that showed the photocathode response of gen 1, 2 and 3 to increasing wavelengths of light, were is it!

One final thing, having used gen 1 gen 2 and gen 3 devices at many games, gen 3 really really does outclass gen 2, even with plenty of light, because of other tube parameters, that said i own gen 2 because university is very very expensive

gen 1: I think thats maybe a hill over there or it could be a stump or just a shadow I have no idea
gen 2: thats a hill over there with maybe 3 people on it
gen 3: thats a hill over there with 3 people on it one is picking his nose, the other blinked, and the others leg is twitching

or see thundercactuses version in my quote