Night Vision Camcorders
 

I want to buy a new camcorder and one of the features I absolutely need is the night vision feature, or, more specifically, the ability to shoot in total darkness. The only cameras I've seen with this feature are the Sonys. My question is: Are there any other brand of cameras that also have this feature?

Not that I've seen, although it isn't too great of a feature unless you're in pitch black, otherwise everything just fades white. It'd be nicer if there was some sort of automatic control put on it.

Spend the $200 dollars for a separate, dedicated scope and buy a camera attachment.

This should probably go in another section of the tfp, but I've got to ask...

What are you going to do with a night vision camcorder? :)

Relax dude, nothing too nefarious. I plan to go on vacation to another country where the electricity frequently goes out for several hours at a time. As a result there are very many times where we are left in total darkness. If I had the nightvision capability I wouldn't have to stop recording, or I could start recording in total darkness if I chose to.

I'd like to have options for a camcorder other than Sony. For example I've read that Panasonic makes great low light camcorders. Unfortunately I don't think that they have the night vision features.

Oh. OK. I think I could have a lot more fun with one of these at home... I've never seen a clear pic from a night vision lens. They are always very pixilated. Has the technology actually developed past that?

My bro used to have a Sony camcorder with nightvision and the picture was pretty good in my opinion. Obviously the image was tinted green, but hey who cares, you can still see pretty much everything you would see in regular light. This was a few years ago so I imagine that the tecnology must have improved even more.

I do remember that there was some controversy a few years ago in that some people found a way to use the nightvision feature as a sort of x-ray vision, see through clothes type of feature. I wonder if anybody knows more about how to do this. I remember reading that you needed to buy some kind of filter for it to work that way.

I remember looking into this back in the day (I was 16 once :) ). There are several Sony models that had the ability to do this out of the box (I infact had owned one, accidentally drove over it with a truck though... ask me and I'll tell you the story), you might still be able to find them on ebay. Nowadays... I think you have to modify the optics internally to stop the filter (that is in all of these nightshot cameras) from disengaging in regular light scenarios.

There was also some problems with the camera's built into cell phones, that featured this technology. It lead to the banning of camera phones, in many schools all over the world. Those 16 year olds will get you every time.

This site: http://www.maxmax.com/aXRaySonyExamples.htm has some pretty cool example pics of the mentioned X-ray Sony camcorders. They also sell the gizmos to make modern cameras "X-ray" capable.

Hey skaven that link you posted doesn't work.

Spade111, from what you say, am I right to believe that the x-ray vision is activated by turning on nightvision in regular daylight?

nevermind, the site is working now

Yeah, the Nightshot mode is present on pretty much all of the Sony Handycam camcorders...you should be able to find them pretty cheap in pawn shops or on ebay.
It works really well, too...basically, it just shoots in infrared.
You can even buy infrared add-on lights that will extend your shooting area.

Canon has a line that features "Color Night mode" which is supposed to give you pseudo color instead of all green, but I'm not sure how well it works.
I think it may slow down your shutter speed, which isn't desirable.

The Xray thing is pretty neat. It works because infrared light seems to pass through thinner clothes. You can enhance the effect by adding an IR Pass filter, which basically blocks everything but infrared light.

Back in about 1998, Sony changed the firmware of the cameras to disable the brightness control when using Nightshot...which makes everything you try to shoot in daylight very overexposed, completely blown out.
Of course, you can add additional filters (that act as sunglasses) to cut the light levels to get around that.

Incidentally, pretty much all camcorders and digital cameras capture some infrared light...there's usually a filter to cut it down (which is pretty much what Nightshot does...moves the filter out of the way).
Just point a remote control at your camera & press the button...see the light blinking at you? It's neato.

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ratings.php


They have alot of info about camcorders.. even more than I care to read, but I have been studying it in hopes to get a new camcorder. Check them out.

For some reason, they seem to favor the Panasonic models for 'night vision'.

how much money do you have to spend?

Get back to me with that and I can give you some options.

My current (Sony) cam and previous two all have the night vision. It works great when you go to places such as a zoo where some animals live in total darkness. One of cams I have is the first generation night vision - see thru. I have never tried it but according to others, with the right infrared lens, it can really see thru thin clothes. Anyone wanna model?