Does ED have detailed technical specs on the Shkval optics?

[Reticuli]

Is it an analog video camera or digital?

 

What is the spectrum range for useable sensitivity of the CCDs, if that's what's used, in nm?

 

Why is the "filter" knob named that if they're really just contrast settings for the monitor?

 

Most CCD-based cameras are already inherently IR-sensitive beyond normal human sight and the use of an IR pass through filter will let you see "just" the IR band. Under normal night time use without such a filter you still get additional IR sensitivity in addition to the human visual band it will both pick up.

 

How unlucky could Kamov be to be stuck with a camera that has no IR capability at all and no actual optics filtering adjustments built in? Did they get riped off, or something?

[Kenan]

Good question. 25T has a LLTV pod. Eventhough Ka50 isn't meant for Night ops, it could have been fitted with one.:D

[Vault]

http://www.filefactory.com/file/af29agh/n/Skhval_pdf[url=http://www.filefactory.com/file/af29agh/n/Skhval_pdf][/url]

[Reticuli]

It doesn't even need to be visually light amplifying. Most CCDs already are sensitive to IR light to begin with. You usually have to build an IR blocking filter in the optics to get the colors looking right in the visual range. Many pro camera shops will go in there and remove it for you and adjust them so you can use it for IR, too. I think Sony actually started making their internal optics even more stringent against passing IR because the national news were calling their cameras the tools of peeping toms.

Since the Shkval's monitor is black & white, you don't even need to worry about color correction. It's just very weird. Very little equipment out there is automatically directly correlative to human vision. Even chemical film picks up different colors and wavelengths. Most, in fact, is especially sensitive to the green-blue bandwidth of fluorescent lights and UV light...hence the reason we use filters to correct/block them, respectively. With video cameras, that tends to lean to the IR band more, instead.

[Vault]

AKAIK The imaging for the Shkval-V on the KA-50 is proccesed by the Okhotnik Image proccesing system which has BOTH TV/IR outputs.

Edited March 1, 2009 by Vault

[EtherealN]

How unlucky could Kamov be to be stuck with a camera that has no IR capability at all and no actual optics filtering adjustments built in? Did they get riped off, or something?

 

They're not. The Shkval is no longer produced and the Ka-52 uses other hardware who'se classified nature is one of the reasons why the Ka-52 isn't modelled. The last few Ka-50's to be produced for the Russian Army (out of a total production series of some 12-14-ish) were built with parts that happened to be sitting there as surplus.

 

Remember, the Ka-50 is an 80's bird who's original deployment schedule was basically annihilated by the breakup of the soviet union.

[GGTharos]

The Shkval used by the Ka-50 is an analog TV system.

[Boberro]

Good question. 25T has a LLTV pod. Eventhough Ka50 isn't meant for Night ops, it could have been fitted with one.:D

 

LLTV for Su-25T was crap. And its military value was really low. It was planned to mount this on chopper (helicopter can hover and have more time to find targets via this pod) but LLTV was too heavy.

 

Generally this pod was more useful to night navigate than real fight.