Gen 1 is really scrappy and the Viper provides very restricted field-of view. You're probably better off getting a Gen2/3 hand-held monocular at the same price. The head-mount on the viper makes sense, but is over-kill for the Gen1 Viper.

I own the ATN Viper Gen1 monocular w/head-mount. I purchased it refurbished/on sale for $120 US four years ago. Since then, I've had to have the tube replaced once under warranty - Service from ATN was excellent!

Gen1 Sux! Its just a fun toy - the kids enjoy playing hide and seek with it when camping or in the house with the lights turned off.

Its fun to spy on the 'coons, 'possums, black bears that prowel around some campgrounds w/insecure garbage bins at night.

It was nice to have when a bob-cat once visited my Mariposa County wilderness camp - I wouldn't have been able to enjoy watching him stalk otherwise.

The headgear function makes it a hands-free tool, but (IMO) a hand-held monocular is probably a better option if you buy gen1/2 as a toy.

IMO - The Viper Gen1 w/head-gear is not useful as military type night-vision tool for use w/firearms: its far too crude and limited in that capacity, or for night photography/astro-photography.

Its a light-weight device, but takes ups space and does add weight to a pack - so I usually forgo packing it on backpacking/hiking excursions. Its more suited to family camping/car camping.

That said - its still a well thought-out system on the cheap. You can add magnification lenses, mount it to cameras, wear it hands-free, it has a built in IR LED and clumsy but functional head-gear mount for "hands-free" operation.... except you have to manually refocus the optics all the time in order to focus and various distances...

It may be useful for some night-trecking (I've tried it in that in the woods; it felt very claustraphopic) - but its extremely limited "field-of-view" (like viewing though a pin-hole)IR range (unless you carry a secondary IR lamp), and C123A battery consumption truly hamper field ops, especially in dense wilderness environments or durations of 4+hrs...

On the plus side, one can adjust to using both eyes (one with the LI monocular) at night, and even learn to co-ordinate with a firearm, but again - its an extremely shabby and uncomfortable system compared to contemporary military high-end LI systems.

Its a fun toy. I take it camping sometimes, but never use the head-gear. Its not part of my BOB. If the lights went out in my town and things got creepy in my hood, or volunteer urban SAR ops were taking place in a lights out situation - it might be handy, but I doubt that prospect.