Review: Argus Transparent 1431

Well hello there fellow night vision enthusiast! Have you come to read about esoteric night vision? Well you have come to the right place. Last week we took a close look at the RCOTI, an exciting newcomer to the clip-on thermal imager market. Well today we look at a new spin on a night vision housing. the transparent 1431. It has been almost six years since the Argus BNVD-1431 has come out. We have seen it go through some changes like the Anvis pods, MK2 upgrade and tan molded versions. Last year I was elated when Kyle of Argus showed me he was going to make transparent 1431 housings. Aeontac was kind enough to send me one for review so let's dive in.

I can See Clearly Now, Transparent 1431

For those of you questioning why a transparent 1431? This could be considered an alternate timeline device. L3/Insight/EoTech used to make dealer samples that have transparent housings. EoTech had transparent holographic weapon sights. I saw one during a tour of the EoTech factory almost 7 years ago.

One of the transparent EoTech HWS at EoTech's factory.

Insight even made transparent housings for their PEQ-15 lasers. The photo below is an airsoft replica but they do exist.

So what does this have to do with the Argus transparent 1431? Well the 1431 design is inspired by the L3 BNVD PVS-31A. However L3 has never made a transparent BNVD as far as I know. So this is the closest we can get to having one. Best part is, it is affordable and you can build it how you want.

Building a transparent 1431 is no different than any other 1431 build. But now you can see through the housing material and see details you don't normally see.

When installing the image intensifier into a transparent 1431 pod, you can clearly see the anti-rotation indexing nub and line the image intensifier tube easily as you insert it in.

The light pipe is a bit suprefluous. You will understand why a little bit later in this article.

Here is the pod with objective lens and image itensifier installed. I did not install the focus stop D-ring or eyepiece just yet so I can see through the pod and see how the objective lens interacts with the pod and tube. I was always curious how much space there is between them when focused at infinity.

Eyepiece is installed but not the focus stop D-ring

Fully assembled you can see the components and battery through the transparent 1431 housing. I used two different image intensifiers. One metal and the other polymer so you can see the difference.

Since the 1431 bridge has the same screw pattern as L3 BNVD PVS-31A, I was able to mount my L3 PVS-31A pods to the transparent 1431 bridge.

Can A Transparent NVG Housing Work?

Even before Kyle showed me his pre-production transparent 1431, I had wanted Nocturn to 3D print a transparent Katana or Tanto housing. Unfortunately it never happened. But I was already looking for a transparent night vision housing because I have questions about how it would function. Here are my thoughts and burgeoning curiosities about a transparent housing:

1. Light can leak through the side of the pods and now you would have unfocused light entering the image intensifier. How would that manifest and affect the performance of the image intensifier?

2. The image intensifier produces photons out the back of the tube, would that cause the housing to glow?

Well I was able to answer these questions with the transparent 1431. If you point light directly into the side of the pod between the objective lens and input side of the image intensifier, like a flashlight, then the unfocused light will show up. But to my surprise, standing under or near a street light was not bright enough to have any effect like the flashlight up against the side of the pod.

Something I did not think about before having the transparent 1431, is "what happens if you turn on the IR illuminator in the goggle?" Well the red LED will turn on indicating that the IR illuminator is on. This is why I said that light pipe is superfluous in a transparent 1431 build. The housing acts like a giant light pipe.

Also the IR illuminator is not shielded so the housing acts like a light pipe and causes the right side of the housing to glow with IR light. I used my full spectrum Sony A7S to photograph this. IR light shows up as purple in a full spectrum CMOS sensor.

While you are not able to see the IR light with your naked eyes, you can see it with a full spectrum camera. See how the whole pod and housing glows purple with IR? This also affects the performance of the image intensifier and you have a similar effect as pointing a flashlight directly against the pod.

But what about image intensifier light leaking out the back?

To my surprise, there is not that much light leaking out back of the image intensifier. I had to remove the eyepiece diopters and use traditional milspec style diopter housings and skip installing the eyepiece lock rings. Only then, was I able to create enough of a gap for the light coming from image intensifier phosphor screen to leak out the sides of the pods. I was actually hoping for more than this. I wanted the whole pods to glow green and white phosphor blue.

Transparent 1431 Belongs In A Different Decade

For those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s, transparent electronic devices were the epitome of cool. I remember replacing my Playstation and Dreamcast housings for after market transparent versions. Even Nintendo had a transparent GameBoy back in the day. The transparent 1431 definitely looks like it is from that era.

Final thoughts on the transparent 1431

For those of you who are night vision afficionados, a transparent 1431 is a must have. This is not going to be your primary night vision housing of choice but it jsut looks so cool and it can function. Just like the L3/Insight/EoTech transparent samples, the transparent 1431 was made for the collector and dealers of night vision. It is a cool piece to add to a collection and something fun to play with. I had contemplated painting the inside of the pods, where the objective lens and input side of the image intensifier meet, so block out stray light but the juice is not worth the squeeze. I think it would ruin the aesthetics and the infrequent light leak is not enough to severly compromise the performance of the goggle. Again, this is not menat to be a primary night vision device. You can get a regualr 1431 for your daily use. This is for taking out and showing people and to have fun.

Huge thanks to Argus and Aeontac for sending this housing for this review. If you want to get a transparent 1431 housing of your own, go to Aeontac's website.