Introducing Our Photonis Echo Select Tube Program

Your Nightvision Device is Personal

Nightvision can be very endearing to the owner, and picking your own tube makes it more personal. We don't believe in making our customers pay more for a choice, we believe that customers should pay for what they actually receive. Some other vendors price tubes individually, while others charge a selection fee regardless of tube quality on hand.. We considered both options, but ultimately decided on another process that we think is the most transparent and beneficial to you, the customer.

Our Process

Photonis Echo tubes are some of the best tubes for the price. In order to lower the cost, Photonis does not test for blem specifications or halo size to put on to the spec sheet. We consider that to be an issue, so we have taken it upon ourselves to take each tube we receive, put it into a nightvision device, and document both the screen quality and halo size as both are extremely important factors in determining tube quality, and tube matching for binoculars. We take pictures through every tube so the customer can see what the screen quality is like, and we compare halo sizes with those from known devices in order to estimate halo size from a specific tube.

This is an extremely time consuming process, however we feel that it is the only way to ensure product quality and match tubes to the best of our ability. To find out more about our matching process and how we enhance our selection, check out our other blog post on why we only use Variable Gain MX10160 tubes.

Straight from Photonis, Echo tubes are 1600-2000 FoM and range from relatively clean tubes, to sometimes having large dark spots. Most tubes will come with a small spot here or there. Halo values typically range from 0.7 to sometimes larger than 1.0.

Select Tubes

In order for us to classify a tube as Select, it must meet all of the following requirements:

• Figure of Merit must be higher than 1800
• Equivalent Background Illumination cannot be higher than 2.0
• Halo size cannot be larger than 0.9
• For binoculars, Halo sizes must match
• Screen Quality must be aesthetically good, meaning:
• No large dark spots
• Spots must not be excessive
• Middle of image must be relatively clean

Here is an example of a tube that met our select standards (the small red spot is a laser burn on the camera sensor and does not appear in the tube image):

Here is an example of an otherwise fantastic tube at 1950+ FoM and 0.8 Halo, but did not meet our select cosmetic standards because it had too many dark spots:

Our hand select program allows customers to choose between "Standard" and "Select" tubes at purchase. Regardless of which route the customer chooses, the customer may, after consultation, hand pick their own unit from any tube or tube pairing we have in inventory that falls within that grade.

Our units are meticulously built, and we hope that this provided some insight on the work that goes into tube selection for each unit. We want our customers to be certain that their unit is right for them. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out.