In contrast to night vision devices with an image intensifier, digital night vision devices use a highly sensitive CMOS or CCD sensor, which is very sensitively calibrated. The amplification of the residual light is, however, the same.
During the day and in the twilight, many of these devices even enable a colour display. In addition, it is possible to connect to an external data recorder, or to save photos or videos to a memory card. The quality of digital night vision devices is usually comparable to those of the 1st generation.