  I very briefly describe the latest generation near infrared (1-2.5 micron)
instruments which are available on, or under development for `large' (D>=3.5 m)
telescopes. Most of the imagers under construction are limited to relatively
small fields, while the spectrometers aim at quite high resolving powers. The
alternative instruments which I discuss here are
  - WIDE, a relatively low-cost instrument for the prime focus of LBT and/or of
TNG optimized for deep imaging of very large fields (12'x12' on LBT and 26'x26'
on TNG) through the 1 micron, J, H, K' broad-band filters.
  - AMICI, an ultra-high efficiency, low resolution disperser optimized for
collecting complete 0.9-2.5 micron spectra of very faint objects. This device
is mounted in NICS (the IR instrument for TNG) and should soon deliver spectra
with quality comparable to that obtained with instruments on 8m class
telescopes with similar integration times.
