Video Transcript
One of the most popular night vision devices that we sell currently are the RNVG-A. Now recently they have been upgraded to the MGAs. Now the RVGA's are not going away. These have just have added a feature. So what we're going to do is we're going to go through what you get in the box once you order these, talk about some of the features, and kind of go from there. So let's start with what comes in the box.
What comes in the box, you're going to get your night vision device. We're going to get some other stuff we'll talk about here in a second. But you're going to get a hard copy of your spec sheet for all of the information that you need to know about your night vision device. So I'm going to leave that in the box for now. Underneath the nods, you're going to have a 123 battery. This is something that we throw in the box for you guys just so, you know, as soon as you open the box, you can throw your battery in and start wearing them. Get to using your night vision device as fast as possible. And then you're also going to get these little tools and little rings that you're going to need for your MGAs. So we're going to set these off to the side, and I'll explain them once we get to that part of the device.
Now for the device itself, they're going to come in our nods pouch. So this is something that all of our night vision comes in, aside from the PVS-14s and the RVM-14s. And when they first ship, you're going to get the night vision wrapped up in bubble wrap, two fold. So two layers of bubble wrap, although these definitely don't need it. One of the cool things about MGAs, basically all of the night vision that we sell is that they're extremely durable. They are aluminum housings.
So if this is your first exposure to the night vision offerings we have on the website, we sell very durable night vision, again, aluminum housings and things like that. So what you get out of the package, once you unwrap the bubble wrap, you're going to get the night vision with the lens covers on it. So these are your covers with little pinholes in them. So if you're wearing these nods during the day, or in an environment like this with a lot of lighting, you can keep these, one, to protect the lenses themselves from being scratched, but also when it's kind of bright out, and you don't want a ton of light coming into your nods, you can keep these on and this obviously reduces the amount of light that comes in to the nods. On the rear side of the night vision, you're going to have covers, basically just for travel and for storage, just to protect the rear lenses of the device.
And other than that, you just have your nods themselves. So these to the standard RNVG-As, which are my personal favorite set of night vision, I own a set of these. What new things you're getting with the MGAs is manual gain. So that's what the MG stands for in MGAs, is manual gain articulation. So these still articulate, but that's what this means, is that they're able to do this, just like the RNVG-As were able to do, but now you have manual gain. So that's what is going on right here.
Other than that, the only other difference between these and the standard RNVG-As comes down to this tool here. So one thing that you can do with both sets of night vision is adjust the tension of the articulation. And now what AB includes is this tool. You kind of have to articulate it so the tool lines up with the little notches that are on the back of this flat head screw, so that when you tighten it, it just tightens down a little bit tighter. So you just hold this down and then use a screwdriver to tighten down your articulation.
Two items that come in the little plastic bag alongside these tools are these little rings here. So on the standard RVG housings, they are attached to the housing themselves, and something that the MGA's have improved upon is now these attach to the, basically right under the mount. So the reason why that is important is because these, when you attach your retention cables to your nods on your helmets, if they're attached to the tubes, they can kind of pull your tubes down because these articulate. So when wearing standard RNVG-As, again, if you have the retention cables attached to your nods, while you're moving around, again, that tension can just kind of pull these down tighter into a place that you don't want them. So now that the fact that they're attached to the center of the housing instead of the tubes, a part that you'll get the retention benefits of these not bouncing around, but it's not going to affect the articulation of your nods.
So to attach these kind of a pain just because they're small, you just feed them through there just like you would anything else that uses a ring like this, and you'll be good to go. Other than that, when it comes down to actually using these nods, it's pretty much the same as RNVG-As. There's no power button now. Now you have this nod because it's manual gain. So when they're turned off, they're basically turned all the way to the left. And when you want to turn them on, you'll hear a click. Now they're on, and the more on you turn them, so the more that you adjust this knob to the right, the brighter your night vision is going to be. That's the benefit of the manual gain. It doesn't how bright your nods are aren't totally dependent on the external light source going into the nod. So you can make them brighter or dimmer to your liking. So when they turn them off, you just turn them back to the left. That'll dim them as they go. And once you hit that nice little wall there, it'll click, and then they're turned off. The button underneath the manual gain knob is for your onboard illuminator.
So just like the RNVG-As, still got the onboard illuminator. And then other than that, everything about the night vision device itself is the same. So just to go over these things with you guys real quick, you have your rear lenses. Both of these have adjustments. The way I like to explain this is that these are tuned for your eyeball. So when you set these up, they're going to be, again, tuned for your eyeball just like any other magnified optic like an LPVO or a spotting scope or something like that, or even binoculars.
So the best way to set this, there's a few different ways. What I like to do is look at something while I'm wearing these at night, obviously, at about 25 yards away or so, maybe 50. And then I'm just going to turn these left and right until the image is as clear as possible. So that's, again, just the way I like to do it. Now, for the front of the tubes.
So this is the same as any other night vision. This is going to adjust your depth perception, per se, or the range of what you're looking at. So some people like to set this as affinity because you can kind of work with a lot of different distances when they're set that way. And all that takes is just looking up at the sky, look at the stars, adjust it so the stars look super clear. And then the majority of the work that you're going to do, say 20 yards or 15 yards or farther, is going to look pretty good to you. Now, if you're going to set your nods that way, which is completely normal, whatever you do up close may be a little blurry.
So what I like to do when I was on the teams doing this stuff in real life, as a communicator, I had one of my tubes set up for really close to me. It was my non-dominant eye, so I can work on radios and things like that. And then my other one would stay far away because it was just a little bit more cumbersome to adjust both of my devices, or both of my tubes is what I'm trying to say. Also, I had PVS-15s and PVS-30 ones. These are a lot easier to adjust, so you have that. Now, new night vision is getting better than older night vision, so if you guys have used military night vision, you may remember how specific your focus used to have to be. So if I wanted to look at something 15 yards away, in order to be clear, I'd have to adjust this for 15 yards. Same thing for 20, 25, etc., etc.
If you mark, as in look at the sky or something, you'll be able to work, like I said, in a lot of different varying distances, and your night vision will be pretty focused to it. It's, again, just really up close to where you're going to have to adjust this. But when it comes down to setting it up on a helmet, you just have a dovetail here.
You just slide this onto the helmet, just like you would any other night vision, onto your standard G24 style mounts. And then attach your little rings to the little holes that are on the center of the night vision. Make sure they're secured with the retention bands. The retention bands not only keep the night vision from bouncing around, but also if your mount fails for whatever reason, you don't just drop your knobs on the ground.
Again, one of the benefits about these, very durable. So if they do take a spill, they'll probably be fine, but they're still expensive. We want to take care of them the best we can. So lets talk feature about these, again, same thing as the RNVG-As, is the ability to take a battery pack, something very beneficial. So if you do have the AB Low Profile battery pack, you don't actually have to have a battery in the night vision device. So you just have your batteries in the back. One thing I like about that is it just reduces the weight of the knobs. I know a battery doesn't weigh that much, but it just helps with balance just a little bit more. So that's about all I have for you guys for the MGA's. Pretty simple set of night vision. Now, just like all of our other night vision devices, these come with L-bit or L3 tubes. All of our tubes are to mil-spec or better. So that means even if you buy the cheaper L-bit tubes, you're going to get very, very good tubes.
L3 obviously has that reputation behind their name. So they're going to be a little bit better. But if you buy L-bit, you're going to be good to go. We have plenty of content talking about the differences between L-bit and L3. And if you're actually going to notice the difference between the two, you're probably not. But if you want to spend the extra coin for the L3, definitely not a bad idea.
So that's it for you guys with the MGA's. If you guys have any questions about this set of night vision, how to set up on your helmet, if you have any questions about any of our night vision devices or accessories, just shoot us an email at [email protected], and we'll be happy to help.