A picture is worth 1000 words… or is it?

When shopping for a night vision device the most important thing on most shoppers’ minds is what will it look like when viewing through it? So while surfing through your many product options on line you see a device that looks good, and yes it’s in your price range so you instinctively click on it to see the product page.  Poof a big page opens up with lots of info on specs and paragraphs all about the product how to use it and even what type of batteries it takes. Wow! Being the savvy and smart shopper that you are you zip right past all that information junk and go straight to the pictures…pay dirt you think to yourself. Ah yea a crisp picture of a mountain lion in a tree in cool night vision green or white hot thermal. Yes you say to yourself this is how I want to see in the dark, and it only costs ?, I’ll take it! Ok, ok not every body shops like that but the point I want to make is that the manufacturers provide all those great images that go with their various night vision and thermal devices. Many of the images are of the device itself from different angles, showing the controls and ergonomics of the product. These images are great and can help a buyer decide what product will work best for them. A word of advice is to look at the specs and see what the actual dimensions of the products are (you may need to convert metric) as sometimes the image will make the device look much smaller than it really is so be careful. Back to that pretty image of the mountain lion in the tree. Unfortunately many people are under the impression that those photos were taken through the device that the photos are displayed with. Sometimes they are but in reality most of the times they are not, and the few “real” photos are taken under ideal conditions and then usually photo shopped anyway.  To sum it up. Sometimes a picture is worth 1000 words but other times 1000 words are worth 10,000 words. What I mean is look at the images of the device, check out the physical dimensions and weight of the unit, read all the descriptions and specs, do some comparisons, view the action photos with a grain of salt, and then speak to an expert or someone who has actually used the products. Often times a short conversation with someone who is experienced will save you time, money, and a lot of disappointment.