Originally Posted By: SkyPupIt is a matter of fact that different objects with different material chemical compositions have vastly varying thermal emissivitys from 0-100, and whatever thermal emissivity these materials do have based on their chemical composition constantly varies on a diurnal cycle, not to mention there are no uncooled thermal microbolometers that are unaffected by water vapor humidity in the atmosphere.
I'm sure the above is true. I don't go balls to the wall on foot, in locations I don't know while I'm using thermal, heck I don't do it while I'm using NV, I don't even use my 40" lightbar on the front of my truck to navigate through terrain I'm not familiar with at high speeds, it's just not smart.
However, I honestly do use thermal a lot of the time to navigate at night with no artificial light of any kind or NV, not all of the time but for me definitely the majority of the time , it's just a fact, and who ever says it can't be done or that I'm talking BS, or that I'm misinforming people, is not telling the truth to those that I speak with about how I hunt.
I have never used a cooled microbolometer, so yes I can tell you from personal experience many, upon may variables affect my visual at night, sometimes the mildest ground wind blows enough debris across my visual to impact it, yet in the same exact circumstance at the same exact time, I'll float up the Zenmuse and it will be crystal clear looking down. Absolutely high humidity has a negative effect on visibility and detection range, most of the time when it's that bad for us its usually snowing, or foggy enough that by the time you pull out your NV it's blown out due to illumination either way, so we wait for conditions to clear up, or we don't proceed.
I also do use the KVC with Thermal on my Left and NV on my right eye, I've gotten really used to that set up and it works great for switching options if you need to or want to.
I would like to make note on my last post about not being able to use IR because it's an artificial light source, we can use those to navigate, I misspoke.