Rostov Cyclop NS-5 Night Vision Scope
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
In the wake of the Fall of the Soviet Union, Rostov saw an opportunity. It quickly westernized throughout the mid 1990s, opting to invest in itself and employees, prioritizing higher education and improvements to their largely unchanged since the early Soviet Era optical technology. They booked a flight for a team to go to Shot Show 1997 and the rest is history. After connecting with companies such as Newcon, Bushnell and more, affordable consumer night vision began to hit the West.
These tubes are actually still very prevalent to this day as Russia has enormous amount of Gen 1 tubes sitting around and has scaled production for producing it still. That said, this device is actually Gen 2. That said, its important to get some things straight about Russian night vision. The Russians to this day are still behind American and European tube technology to an extent. In the 1980s-2000s, they were noticeably behind.
How do we know? Well, for one, due to lower power intensifiers (the part that gathers light and translates it to the image for your eye on the other end), they opted to “stack” them. This meant you would get the power of what western tubes could provide, but you ended up with heavier units as well as slight fisheye from the overlap on the edges of your image. This was especially noticeable in gen 1 devices, but in the Gen 2 devices, it is not nearly as noticeable.
Enough about the history! Time for the good stuff.
This optic according to the original manual (not included) touts the following specs:
Generation 2
Fixed Magnification of 3.4x
Lens Cap (Doesn’t actually like to stay on, so we recommend replacing it or altering it)
Carrying Case
Carbine Optic Rail
Adjustable Focus
Field of View of 10 Degrees
Swappable Objective Lens (Original included only)
System Gain of 8000
Powered by a Single 9v Battery
Operating Temperature Range of -20c to +40c
70mm Eye Relief
Objective Lens of M42x1
Dimensions of 354mm X 103mm X 98mm (Oh lawd she thicc)
Standalone Weight of 1.6kg
Weight with Carbine Mounting Rail of 2.05kg
Note: This does include a tool, which is used to adjust the connection point between the scope and the “Carbine Rail”. The reticle itself cannot be moved, but this optic CAN be easily zeroed by using this tool to adjust the mount.
