Camcorders

I am going to get a hand held camcorder soon (with nightshot)

I was wondering what kind your team uses?

Sony I personally think is the best, but have to leave this question for Mr Tech man himself, Matt......

The only camcorders that have nightshot is the Sony that Im aware of. We use both Sony camcorders and dvr based cameras.

alright heres another one for ya guys DVD , mini dvd , hard drive type?


And do you guys use high def?... man those things are freaking expensive :'(

No, we dont use hi def ones and we really dont use camcorders alot anymore, we have the dvr and cams, but no, our are not the hard drive type and I was going to buy 1 so I went to rent a center and got 1 for a week fo see how they was going to work, I like the hard drive part of it, but there is no hope for the night vision on em, so, my advice would be no to that.

I appreciate the feedback as always , the one camcorder is basically going to be carried around with us during emf sweeps and the walkthrough parts of the investigation/s

We will have four IR stationary cameras going in different parts of (whereevr) at that time.

Yea, thats what I was going to use the hard drive cam for too, to carry around, but Matt even tried putting his IR light onto that cam, it was still dark, it sucked

Actually let me clear all this up..Christel your camcorder was a hard drive camcorder but the night vision part had nothing to do with the hard drive part of it..It was because it was a JVC camcorder. Only Sony has true night vision (that I have found) but I did notice that some of Sonys hard drive high def camcorders dont have night shot...wtf dont know why they would not have that option with that price tag but.....We do use a Sony minidv to walk around with and the picture is much clearer than the 8mm (high8) so hopefully all is clearer. lol

WHATEVER blah lol Well, i said I liked the hard drive part of it =p
See why Matt's in tech and Im not lmao I know how to operate things is about the extent of my tech knowledge and thats ONLY after he shows me

Also forgot this part....um we also added a extra sony ir light that fits into the shoe on top of the camcorder to light up the area better. The camcorders themself only project about 15-20 ft in total darkness so I added the light. These can be found on ebay or you may get lucky and find one on craigslist like me. They are called ir extenders. hope this helps

Guess I also need to add...no Christel "I GOT DIS" lmao

Guess I need to add Matt *$%@ *@ lol
I think I said in my 1st answer to him, ask Mr Tech guy him self MATT so blah hahahahaha

LOL, you guys crack me up but I do agree with Matt. You go boy!!! Definetly get an IR extender. The sony's are great for a small room but one thing I am learning to do is to piggy back off the DVR IR's to get more light since they arleady have more IR lights and brighten up the entire room like it is day.
What I mean by this is to use my Sony in one room and have the DVR Camera in another room pointing towards the open room with the Sony allowing the IR light from that Digital camera to illuminate the Sony. But just like the scene in Ghost Busters, YES Christel... Ghost Busters!!! "DON'T CROSS THE STEAMS" meaning if you havn't arleady done so and know what it does when you point the cameras directly at eachother. The IR lights will blind the cameras. Just another tid bit if you didn't already know.

lol Glad we amuse u Mike, thats what we are here for

Very helpful info,I am going to check into the IR extender or make my own.
Correct me if I'm wrong but is the extender just a circuit board with a bunch of IR led's on it?

Hell i can make one of those for cheap

Yep, thats pretty much it.

Just got the Sony DSC-H50 (still camera) with Nightshot(going to get an IR extender for that)

Ordered the Sony DCR-SR45 camcorder with Nightshot , should get it buy this Saturday 3/7/2009(also going to get an IR extender for that)I can't wait. So far the still camera takes excellent pictures with tons of setting options for day and night, i was impressed with the night shot with out the extender. I would like to get it to take pictures full spectrum (UV and IR).


Matt do you know if the camera can pick up the UV frequency as is?, like if i were to add a UV extender made of UV led's like Barry uses on GHI?



I can make one (If i knew where to buy UV led's) i just don't know if that camera can pick up that frequency.

Upon buying this camera i have also picked up landscape shooting, i have always ed appreciate lanscapes, old barns,houses and pretty much anything ascetically pleasing to the eye. This camera rocks!, it is great especially for the price

Im not for sure. I know Barry modded his camera to do this so I doubt there is one on the market that does it from the factory. But hey Ive been wrong before....
By the way Ill get your avatar back up asap. thanks

Also on the extender question..yes that is more or less what it is but another trick I heard about that you can try is to use a red heat lamp bulb ( used for reptile warming lamp) place this in the room and it works just like a ir extender but alot better..

mike did you really just use the phrase "you go boy!" ?!?!?

Oh yeah..he went there..lol

If you are going to have the camera in a stationary spot you can also modify the Stanley Tripod flashlights. Take out the white LEDs and replace then with these cool triple chip 10 mm IR leds (each "LED" has 3 leds built into it)you can get on eBay. There is also a resistor change you have to make so you don't burn up the IR LEDs but man do they throw out some light. I use mine near a wall outlet so they can be powered off house voltage, but you can also load up the 3 legs of the flashlight with AA batteries to go totally portable.[img][/img]

can you go into a little more detail on the resistor change?

Sure, the IR LEDs require about 1.5 Volts DC as opposed to the white ones that run around 4 volts. There are 6 resistors on the back of the LED board that need to be changed so you don't burn up the IR LEDs. These are usually around 10 to 15 ohms and Stanley's newer designs use the SMT, or Surface Mount Technology type resistors. What I do to determine the value of the resistor that you need is to take the voltage required for the LED (1.5) subtract it from the supply voltage (when I use an adapter it's 5.0 volts so you have 5 -1.5 which is 3.5 volts. The LEDs can take a maximum of 120 mA (miliamps) of current through them, using Ohms law you can calculate the resistor value . R (resistance value) =V (3.5 volts)/I max current (0.120) or 120 mA this equals about 30 ohms. I usually have a couple resistors around that value I solder in the circuit and measure the actual current through the LED and adjust it accordingly (I might need to lower or raise it a bit) I would rather raise the resistance and have a little less than max flow through it because as the circuit warms up, it will increase the current draw so I might solder in a 33 ohm resistor instead of a 30 ohm. You can use a standard 1/4 watt resistor with the leads coming out of both ends if you want and get a bit creative with how you solder the leads to the circuit board. I also remove the plastic lens of the flashlight that has the lens bubbles on it so the light will be spread out more evenly rather than to have it focused in one small spot. You can probably leave the lens off, but I cut a flat piece of plastic for the cover the shape of the original lens for protection. If you want to run the flashlight off of a wall wart (power supply), you can also install a power jack on the body of the flashlight and wire it in so you can use either batteries, or AC outlet power. The power supply you need is 5.0 volts DC at 1000 ma, or 1 Amp minimum. These LEDs do draw a lot of power, but they work well. I also made an IR light source from a 6 volt lantern and a 5 watt IR led, talk about a flame thrower LOL

nice, thanks for the info! This will be a winter time project for me.