Re: Re: RE: Re: RE: Infrared Help to Catch a Predator

[elchode]

I have the DVR-402 and 702. The 402 is about six years old, and the 702 is three.

In LP, you can get 42 minutes on a disk, 30 in SP, and 17 in HD. The IR light will only work with IR specific cameras. The way the nightshot on the handycams works, is like you stated, it moves the IR filter out of the way and converts the signal from the CCD to a green/white/black psuedo-monochrome. It leaves visible light in the equation to prevent abuse of the fact that IR tends to penetrate wet and sheer clothing very effectively. If you use IR film or another digital camera with the IR filter removed, you can achieve the same effect and get usage out of the IR flood. Otherwise you’re stuck in a pickle, unless there’s a nightshot camera that records to magnetic or non DVR digital media.

The hunter cams are still shots. Some of them can be configured with a minimum delay, but in your case that’s probably not a desirable trait, you’d want to set it to zero. The way they work is to sit with an IR electronic eye that senses motion. When motion is detected, they fire an IR or white flash (depending on model) and take a still photo. This repeats until the memory card is full. The forseeable down side is that you’ll get lots of shots of passing cars and stray cats, but when your perpetrator does come out, you’ll have continuous shots of his activites at roughly one second intervals, which may or may not give you what you need to convict.

I also understand your point about wanting to get further use out of it, which is why I would still recomend pulling an all nighter with a video cam.

In a perfect world, I’d be able to catch enough vandalism pre-confrontation to make it clear what he was doing before I spring it on him. So all I really need is clear enough IR footage from one of those parking spots to see a person approach a car or another car hitting another car, ya know?

Pre-confrontation night, I just need enough visibility to get his routine down so I know when to set my alarm just in case I fall asleep. To do this, I’m going to need enough memory to get both. Unfortunately, I need sony to combine like 4 cameras to get what I want.

They have a 60 GB hard drive camera that has no night shot for $400ish
They have an 8 GB flash drive camera that has night shot for $500ish that also shoots in HD
They have a MiniDV with night shot for $250

C|Net says the Flash drive one has low lux/night mode but Sony’s spec doesn’t. I might spring for it if I can find it used and confirm the low lux.