Simple Comparison of NVT and Gen3

In the 1980s, Generation 3 tubes introduced the use of new photocathode material made from gallium arsenide(GaAs). These tubes promoted significant increases in the cathode's quantum efficiency (QE), measured as the ratio of photons hitting the photocathode and actually converted into electrons (useful photons) by all incoming photons. While the idea of using higher QE photocathode was good on the paper, it came with real drawbacks linked to the “fragility" of this GaAs layer.It became quickly obvious that in order to keep an equivalent lifetime as that of standard Gen 2 tubes, the Gen 3 technology required adding an ion barrier film on the MCP, also called Electron Barrier Film (made of SiO or AlzO3), that blocked a great deal of the useful photo electrons produced by the “better" photocathode. When considering the multi-stage process and therefore the global performance of the tube, the Gen 3 tube did not perform much better than its Gen 2 counterpart, but instead introduced added drawbacks such as very large halos and higher power consumption.

In higher lighting, the nvt tube does better thanks to its excellent bright source protection. In mixed lighting they’re about equal. The halos on the nvt tube are much smaller because it lacks an ion barrier film as needed with gen 3 tubes. As you get into darker enviornments, they look pretty similar. But when you look in the shadows, or into super dark areas, the gen 3 tube has better contrast. This is to be expected due to the difference in cathode. But in most conditions they perform about the same.

There is a difference to the human eye, the gen 3 looks a bit clearer with slightly better contrast. But the difference isn’t large, it’s small enough that the phone camera can’t really tell much of a difference.

Due to the difference in cathodes, we do not recommend comparing our tubes with those of Gen3. Because it's too complicated for the average consumer. A brand new Gen3 is much more expensive than our tubes.

For us, we prefer to compare our own products, such as NVT4 and NVT5. As the next generation product, NVT5 has higher gain, wider response range, and higher FOM than the previous generation. Although the high-quality products of the previous generation are very close to the new generation in a certain performance, the new generation of products score higher from the comprehensive index and the actual effect. At present our NVT5 stock is sufficient welcome to contact us. You can learn more from our sales staff.