Thermal binocular users, advice on double “black eye” please.

The Stalking Show - 11th to 12th April 2026 - Staffordshire County Showground
Invest in a Family sized tin of Roses or Quality Street, and take several of the confections with you in your multi pocketed hunting trousers, smock, etc, then put the diverse coloured cellophane wrappers over the eyepiece to see which colour works best for you. Check different colours back to back to narrow down your ‘favourite’.

Side effects on lengthy sessions may or may not be blindness,but can include nausea, spots and tooth decay, unfortunately!
 
I've used monocular and binocular formats from all manufacturers extensively... I can tell you, monoculars cause me severe eye strain if viewing for 1-2 hour durations around yards and fields, even more so with the new generations, brightness needs to be lowered or alternative colour palettes like green/red to minimise this... Binocular formats cause no eye strain from extended viewing and this is one of the major benefits, Pulsar have also tested this and the fact they provide no eye fatigue and promote this for dual display models...
 
Jackal8 said:
Honestly, I’m not sure there’s a permanent solution currently. What I’ve done, is look for the thermal with the dimmest screen and buy it. Binos I don’t know, the magnification is too big for the terrain where I hunt.
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The mag does not need to be - i think my binos are base mag 2.5 x
 
It’s simple biology. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness and for you to be able to see. Red light doesn’t wreck your night vision and its why on ships you have red light for darkness. Most night vision devices seem to use white light which kills night vision immediately.

In the military when using night vision, the vision is used constantly for this very reason.

The other challenge with a lot of electronic devices is that they are designed by boffins or nerds who pretty much design as they think they should be used, rather than actually suitable for somebody who might actually use them.
 
As Blackwoods has said. Big difference between using a monocular and a bino thermal. No idea why, but, there is.
So if right handed, spot with left eye, shoot with right, using a monocular.
The big issue when foxing is that we shoot different. The rifle is more likely to be up on the sticks when foxing so one hand on the rifle and the other on the spotter, that is where the binos lose out. So unless you have a 5th leg or something, a monocular is easier. But binos are better.
Choices choices.
 
Rory said:
It probably still happens, but because it is both eyes, not just one, it might seem like it is less affected as both are now reduced in night vision efficiency.
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I use night vision most nights and know that if I use a monocular for some minutes when I remove it that eye is completely "blacked out" When using the Habroks this just doesn't happen. Vision might be slightly affected but not enough to notice. An optometrist friend once explained why this should be, but the explanation was so technical it went over my head!
 
old keeper said:
I use night vision most nights and know that if I use a monocular for some minutes when I remove it that eye is completely "blacked out" When using the Habroks this just doesn't happen. Vision might be slightly affected but not enough to notice. An optometrist friend once explained why this should be, but the explanation was so technical it went over my head!
Click to expand...
Fair enough, I would have thought it would have affected both eyes!
 
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The Singing Stalker said:
As Blackwoods has said. Big difference between using a monocular and a bino thermal. No idea why, but, there is.
So if right handed, spot with left eye, shoot with right, using a monocular.
The big issue when foxing is that we shoot different. The rifle is more likely to be up on the sticks when foxing so one hand on the rifle and the other on the spotter, that is where the binos lose out. So unless you have a 5th leg or something, a monocular is easier. But binos are better.
Choices choices.
Click to expand...
One benefit of the NocPix Quest models single hand focus design in binocular format.
 
Ever since the option of colour pallets on thermal spotters I've always used Red Monochrome. Far less affect on night sight, compared to the white hot or black hot I find both affect your eyes enough to say at times you can't see anything for a minute or 2.
 
Thanks for all the replies, just to say the old black eye doesn’t trouble me at all, it’s just something ive noticed over the years looking through gadgets, certainly no ill effects after a long night etc. It was more a case of seeing if people had any issues going over to bins.
I went out foxing last night and carried out a little experiment.
On my usual stand and scanning every couple of minutes with the left eye, after about half an hour i started opening and closing alternate eyes and as usual the left eye was darker than the right, i made a point of looking down at my boots and could make them out with the good eye but not so well with the “thermal one” So then i switched to the right eye and scanned every couple of minutes for a while and then scanned with alternate eyes so they had the same amount of exposure to the screen.
After this and opening and closing each eye there was no difference in what i could see out of either and looking down i could just make out my boots, still able to see lights in the distance and horizon etc but both eyes had the same amount of vision, no issues seeing where i was going etc.
My conclusion from that basic experiment is what i suspected is that with bins you don’t notice any compromise in night vision due to both eyes being effected.
 
Pellet Pinger said:
Thanks for all the replies, just to say the old black eye doesn’t trouble me at all, it’s just something ive noticed over the years looking through gadgets, certainly no ill effects after a long night etc. It was more a case of seeing if people had any issues going over to bins.
I went out foxing last night and carried out a little experiment.
On my usual stand and scanning every couple of minutes with the left eye, after about half an hour i started opening and closing alternate eyes and as usual the left eye was darker than the right, i made a point of looking down at my boots and could make them out with the good eye but not so well with the “thermal one” So then i switched to the right eye and scanned every couple of minutes for a while and then scanned with alternate eyes so they had the same amount of exposure to the screen.
After this and opening and closing each eye there was no difference in what i could see out of either and looking down i could just make out my boots, still able to see lights in the distance and horizon etc but both eyes had the same amount of vision, no issues seeing where i was going etc.
My conclusion from that basic experiment is what i suspected is that with bins you don’t notice any compromise in night vision due to both eyes being effected.
Click to expand...
Your spot on.
It's not worth changing to binos for black eye.
Eye strain is a different matter.
My mate used his thermal spotter a lot and his eye would be very blurred the next day . He changed to thermal binos and has no problems since
 
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