Its finally here! Friday Night Chenanigans! Today we look at something that was hihgly anticipated by myself and some of my friends. The Nocturn Katana Molded is in full production with units shipping as I type up this review. Nocturn Industries was kind enough to send one for this review. Thanks to Corey Myers at Nocturn for bringing it to the East Coast Night Shoot for me to pick it up.
UANVB Katana Molded
For those of you who may or may not know the UANVB Katana, it is the flagship bino housing by Nocturn Industries. They started with the Katana had it was 3D printed using Multi-Jet Fusion printers. It was a solid and robust housing and over the course of a couple years they were able to fine tune their design to the goggle you see above. Now that is a regular Katana housing and it does not have the external power port. That goggle is using RPO lenses. A mix of RPO 1.0 and 2.0 lenses. For ultimate weight reduction you want to use RPO 3.0 lenses.
While the MLF printed Katana was great, Nocturn was not satisfied with sitting on their laurels. So they got busy redesigning the Katana for injection molded production. There are a whole host of challenges and design changes to make this housing with injection molded technology as well as redesigns to their electrical components. The good news is that the cost to manufacture is lower and the savings is extended to the customer. The regular Katana housing retails for $1,750 while the Katana Molded retails for $1,550.
Up Close: Katana Molded
The first thing you notice about the Katana Molded is how light the housing feels. Irt is a mere 3.9 oz!
You can immediately see scalloped sections that help with strength and reduce weight.
I was pleased to see D-Collar close focus stops on the Katana Molded. Now you do not need to use close focus stop rings and you can swap objective lenses without the need to remove the image intensifier.
I love how the Katana uses their own tube retaining ring. The mil-spec design has miniscule threads that often cause the tube retaining ring to cross thread. Not the case with the Katana and the Katana Molded continues this design with their hybrid light pipe x tube retaining ring.
These tune retaining rings are incredibly light weight while having a dual function as light pipes.
Even though the light pipe x tube retaining rings have a frosted texture, you can still see through it to read the tube label on your image intensifiers.
Here is a side by side comparison of the old MJF printed Katana and the new Katana Molded. While similar in function and overall design, it is a huge step in the design evolution of the Katana.
Using The Katana Molded
The Katana Molded all have the external power port underneath the bridge. The operation of the Katana Molded is a little different due to their electronics and how the housing used external power. You still need to keep a CR123 battery in the housing even if you have a remote battery pack plugged into the Katana Molded. The oboard battery helps to complete the circuit but also sends power to the onboard electronics to turn on. Once the goggle is turned on, it senses power from the external power and switches to draw power from that rather than the onboard battery.
I noticed the dovetail on the Katana Molded is a much tighter fit in my Wilcox mounts. I really have to push it in to get the dovetail to lock into place. This eliminates wobble to keep the Katana Molded rigid as possible on your helmet.
Final Thoughts On The Katana Molded
The Katana Molded is lighter, cheaper and stronger than its predecessor. Also it crosses that gap that many people refuse to accept a 3D printed housing. Of course they have their Katana Ruggedized which was made from CNC aluminum. However I appreciate light weight systems and the lighter the better. Go check out Nocturn's website for more information on the Katana Molded.
Later I will be performing and documenting drop tests on this sample housing using my high speed camera.
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