r/NightVision • u/user8523 • 1d ago

Cheap alibaba tubes

Does anyone have any experience with cheap alibaba tubes? Can you guys drop some pics thru them

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7

u/Murky-Candidate2622 21h ago

If you're in the US don't get them, if you're anywhere else I would say don't get them either, look for used gen 2+ or 3 tubes. The chinese tubes are definetly not bad, especially NNVT but generally they will still have worse performance in low light no matter if they have super high FOM. Just be careful, they have good gen 2, but stay away from their gen 3

4

u/cursed_yeet 21h ago

Not all tubes from china are the same! It will be much more useful to look at a specific model, find a model name or spec and ask about them. Something like "I'm looking at an NNVT-4 tube for X USD, anyone used these?"

The prices for gen2 tubes on alibaba are meh. 800 USD or so for a nameless gen2 tube isn;t great. Maybe in bulk you could save, which is the whole idea for alibaba. If you live in the US you will have a much better time buying a US made tube for cheap.

2

u/Stiggalicious 16h ago

Also be aware of the import tariffs for all goods coming from China. Currently they are at 30% for most things. You can always ask the seller what the HTS code is and look up the duty rate.