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General discussion

Digital Video Cameras with Infared Night Vision

Oct 14, 2010 5:31AM PDT

Hey - I was looking for a small digital video camera that used either SD or compact flash media that has the night vision feature. I had an old sony dv tape that had night vision but it broke. So far, the only thing I found was a bell and howell (a brand I'd never heard of) DNV900HD.
I purchased the camera. The night vision works but when you play the video, there is a very loud mechanical whirring and ticking when using the night vision. You cannot hear it when you record. It is only on playback and it is only when using the night vision.

Can does anyone know of another camera that has nightvision?

Thanks,
Ro

Discussion is locked

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Sonys with
Oct 15, 2010 2:54AM PDT

"NightShot" or "SuperNightShot" mode have a built-in infrared emitter that allows monochrome video capture in zero visible light. Check the HDR-CX550 series. The throw of the built-in IR emitter is effectively about 6-8 feet.

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Sony doesn't work
Oct 15, 2010 9:18AM PDT

Thanks but the Sony's are out of my price range and they aren't Mac compatible according to the sony website. Any other more mac friendly brands that allow us to see in the dark?

thanks
Ro

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You did not specify
Oct 15, 2010 2:16PM PDT

Mac connectivity in your original post - but while the software supplied by Sony in the box with the camcorder may not run on OSX on a Mac, I can assure you the camcorder itself merely records AVCHD compressed video files in an MTS files format. Any Intel-chip based Mac running iMovie '08 or newer, or current versions of Final Cut on OSX 10.4. something can very easily deal with the video from these camcorders.

This is a link to the iMovie supported camcorders - the HDR-CX500 series is in there.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3290

The software in the box with the camcorder is useless anyway, so that really does not matter - even for the Windows environment.

I am not aware of any other camcorder manufacturers that include an infrared emitter like Sony. That does not mean they do not exist, it just means I don't know about them. Sony used to have the NightShot or SuperNightShot IR emitter on most of their consumer-grade camcorders - but seems to have dropped that in order to reduce manufacturing costs.

Since you specified no tape, that takes the HDR-HC9 out. I would not recommend a hard disc drive camcorder to anyone... But that would be the HDR-VX500 series... I use a HDR-HC1 - and it has the SuperNightShot feature...

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ebay
Oct 15, 2010 5:08PM PDT

check ebay for the past years models

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Posts deleted.
Jun 4, 2011 7:44PM PDT

To InfraredCameraman. I deleted your post here s the link you provided requires a login.

I also deleted your other two posts elsewhere as they were posted to a discussion that is now 6 years old. I locked that thread to avoid further late postings.

Mark