I have only used AN-PVS5's in the Army, in the late 80's and have had a chance to use AN-PVS7's a bit more recently. Not much difference as far as I remember, but I do have to agree with Nightmare. With the PVS5's, depth perception was very distorted, and some items, such as even very small tree branches, or worse, concertina wire, went completely undetected.
That's what caused us to accidentally drive a Hummer into a tank trap during a field exercise.
A ditch with about 5-7 rows of concertina wire strung across it. What a mess.
Defkon, that second pic you posted, with no light source, per se, looks more accurate than the first IMO. The best I can liken it to, was that of an old cathode ray television, trying to pick up a distance station, with all of the snow on the screen - but with a green tint. Light sources, such as cigarettes, or chem-lights illuminated an immediate area, and a cigarette or lighter up close with them on was damn near blinding.
And yes, I recal a small IR knob in the middle of the damned things that emitted a small IR beam. I believe that was supposed to be used for up-close work, not to run around with it on. And yes, it made the operator "more visible" to others with NVG's. It's also fun to use IR strobes to identify your team members, when you KNOW that your enemy doesn't have NVG's. More useful I suppose with civilian tactical teams.