Night vision goggles as you might expect allow you to see at night. Although people are most familiar with night vision goggles, there are also night vision binoculars, monoculars, and scopes. Generically, these items are grouped into a category called night vision devices or NVDs.

There are two types of night vision goggles and each work quite differently. The first type uses thermal emissions that are converted to visible light with signal processing techniques to produce an image in the goggles. This type of night vision goggle produces a gray image that provides good image quality even in low light. Image enhancers produce the more common green image that you are probably familiar with when you think of nigh vision technology. These image enhancers collect available light, enhance it, process the image, and display a fairly clear image to the user.

Image enhancers are categorized by their generation. Generation 0 were developed during WWI I and are fairly low tech utilizing and active infrared signal . Generation 1 night vision goggles do not shoot an infrared beam, but are not well suited to low light conditions (no moon or cloudy skies). These are what are considered consumer grade or low cost night vision goggles. Generation 3 and 4 night vision goggles work much better in low light conditions and also have image enhancement technology so the final image is clearer and less grainy. These are the high-end military and professional use goggles. Some of the very high-end night vision products also include adapters so you can mount your camera lens to the goggles. You should expect to pay around $400 for Generation 2 goggles and as much as $3000 for Generation 3 goggles.