I spent a few nights with the Akaso Sight-300 and came away fairly impressed. My previous experiences with night vision have been with very high-end scopes, so I wasn't sure what to expect on something that costs several thousand dollars less.
The monocular is super light – lighter than it looks – so it's an easy carry. It has a mount for those of you who are ultra-tacticool with ballistic helmets, and it feels light enough that your neck won't be sore after a long shift on post. I don't have a combat helmet, so I just crept around the neighborhood like Mr. Peanut, holding the Sight-300 to my eye.
I did find the brightness levels on the screen to be very high. At night, minimum brightness worked, but I would have preferred it to be even darker. Reorienting to naked-eye-vision takes a couple of seconds, for sure. If you're using the monocular during the day for spotting wildlife and the like, you'll find the screen to be plenty bright, even in the scorching noon sun.
In the guts of the Sight-300 is a 1/1.79-inch CMOS sensor that pulls in a lot of light (F/1.0 aperture, in fact), paired with Akaso's AI-ISP image processor to clean up grain, sharpen edges, and keep motion blur to a minimum. The result is smooth, fairly natural-looking footage – whether you're scanning a field for baddies or tracking feral cats in the backyard. And I say "footage," because you're looking at a processed image on a screen inside the Sight-300 rather than through glass optics and a phosphor screen like a high-dollar NVG setup.
It has a 60° field of view and records in 4K at 30 fps or 2K at 60 fps. The removable battery is good for about a 4-hour runtime. If it dies, you can swap in a spare or plug the Sight-300 directly into a power bank to keep on keeping on. At just 260 grams, it's one of the lightest monoculars you'll find on the market.
Performance-wise, there's very little lag – I could navigate (and by navigate, I mean creep) in near-total darkness – where it might be just a little too dark for the naked eye – without tripping over stuff. In near-absolute darkness, though, color mode is just too noisy to be usable for navigating ... or really even identifying what you're looking at, even switching between static and movement IQ modes. The black-and-white filter handled the really dark conditions much better with more contrast, but still with a bit of noise. If there's enough light to see with your eyes, color mode works fine.
One frustration: memory cards. My usual Sandisk card wouldn't work, and even a brand new 128 GB C10/A2/U3 card failed no matter how I formatted it. Akaso's own branded card worked instantly, so keep that in mind. While the Sight-300 has a USB-C port on it, it seems to only work to charge the battery. I can't connect the Sight-300 to my computer with the USB-C to retrieve the files. And for whatever reason, when I pop out the memory card and use it in my card reader connected to my computer, it reports there are zero files on it.
Akaso makes other action and 360 cameras (and night vision goggles) that have companion apps, but I haven't found one that works with the Sight-300 – though it is a brand new product, so I'm sure it's in the works. Until then, I imagine I'll just keep collecting random footage and photos as I tinker with the Sight-300, which is pretty fun.
The Sight-300 is currently at the end of its Kickstarter run with over half a million dollars (of its US$10,000 goal) pledged already. For $169, yours will come in a tidy little case with room for Akaso's optional IR flashlight – assuming everything goes according to plan.
All in all, the Sight-300 records in 4K, has a nice wide FOV, and anyone wanting a lightweight, hands-free night vision option for property checks, hunting, or just to see what's making that weird noise outside – this gets the job done without the green-tube price tag.
Sources: Akaso, KickStarter
New Atlas may receive commission if you purchase through our links.
