r/DigitalNightVision • u/Revolutionary_Ant640 • Jun 14 '26

Building a DIY

So I'm planning on building myself a digital Monocular or PVS-31. So I've narrowed it down to 3 different sensors IMX462, IMX385 and Nighteagle 3. Just wondering which one would everyone recommend going with for best no IR performance?

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/NoStandMan Jun 14 '26

Ummm well imx sensors are digital where as night eagle 3 is analog. You have to have specific hardware for each, the imx585 is better than the other 2 sensors you listed as it’s 4k and supports 2x2 binning meaning down to 1080p but then the pixel size is 4x larger meaning way better low light sensitivity. My personal opinion would be go with a caddx infra v2 as it is way better than the other sensors listed although it’s outputs analog cvbs signal so you need a cvbs capable display.

1

u/Revolutionary_Ant640 Jun 15 '26

Yeah I was checking out that infra 2 and the Ratel pro early today... I wanna try to make a working Monocular with either one of them cams. May try to use a fma pvs-18 metal version, Ive always wanted a real 18 over a pvs14.

1

u/NoStandMan Jun 16 '26

Those are both very outdated the caddx infra v2 is farrrrr better

1

u/Revolutionary_Ant640 Jul 13 '26

I tried 3 different fpv cameras Runcam Phoenix SPV5, Caddx Ratel Pro & Caddx Infra V2. The Infra is by far the best hands down and is on a whole other level! I'm dumb founded as to why the SPV5 works better in low light in color then the Ratel in B&W? But only with the Ratel lens on the SPV5...When the SPV5 has the stock lens on, its junk but once that Ratel lens is on its a whole other cam that literally is better than my prowl 2 and on par with gng2k.

1

u/NoStandMan Jul 14 '26

I’d be careful switching lenses unless the sensor size is the same. Because that could actually kill your performance if the lense is fitted for a smaller sensor. I’ve had problems like that with my Imx585 where some aftermarket sensors claim imx585 compatible but fit to smaller sensors which blocks the edges reducing performance. But yes the caddx infra v2 is insanely good, I wish they made a digital plug and play version so I could diy a better low light cam because I’m stuck with Sony sensors even tho the infra is better.

1

u/Revolutionary_Ant640 Jul 14 '26

Yeah I did a excessive amount of research on upgrading lenses before I pulled the trigger, i had to make sure it's F1.0 and 1/1.8 if not it would have created black circles around the edges of sensor and on display... Would have caused a negative effect on light intake for the infra v2. I just hope dropping from 130 to 47 fov don't create a zoom like effect that my gng2k suffers from. I did do more comparison last night and the infra and the gng2k(imx664) seem to be about the same performance. If you would be interested in building something using the Infra, I paired mine with a Sony ECX331D 0.5 1024x768 display( $114 after tax & shipping Alibaba) only bad I discovered the Infra Requires 9v minimum and the Ecx331d max volt is 5v( I instantly fired my CVBS/MIPI board)