Night Vision Camera

Sonar

So someone asked me for a night vision camera that costs around 300 and totally does not suck.
I have no clue where to start, can anyone help?

Wezoin

Sonar wrote:

So someone asked me for a night vision camera that costs around 300 and totally does not suck.
I have no clue where to start, can anyone help?

Movin to Paris?

But on a more serious note, I dont have any experience with this, but you should probably mention if you mean video or picture camera.

Sonar

I think the google search she (my boss) used to come up with something was "Night vision binoculars with LCD display that takes pictures".

It's for her boyfriend, a UFO hunting enthusiast.

stilist

Well, I suppose you could try this. Obviously not guaranteed to work, but at a price like that, who cares?

blincoln

Non-DIY night vision gear usually incorporates one or both of:

- Light amplification
- An IR light source

For aircraft, the second one is going to be useless unless it's an IR searchlight. And it's not. So the first is the only one that's going to matter.

It's possible to spend tons of money on really good night vision gear. The obvious thing to look for when you're buying it - besides the features you want - is the "generation" number. The higher the number, the more advanced the components, giving you better image quality. I think Gen IV is the highest out there currently, but it's out of your price range.

See if she's willing to go with a monocular, instead of binoculars. Binoculars are going to be much more expensive, because you're basically buying two IR imagers instead of one.

Also, make sure she understands that the kind of night vision she can afford is near-infrared - that is, it's NOT the sort of thermographic heat vision (mid-infrared) that e.g. the Predator has. That kind costs about $4000 minimum. Near IR is the green-coloured kind in movies, TV, and videogames.

blincoln

Also, in terms of the DIY thing - you can (relatively) easily convert a consumer digital camera to IR mode using basically the same method. There is an additional step though, which is that you need to get a piece of clear glass or optical quartz to replace the IR blocking filter, and it needs to have the same index of refraction. Otherwise the focus will be wrong, and the autofocus won't work.

Sonar

Binoculor or Monocular don't make a difference, they just want night vision lcd and takes pictures.

There will be no modifications made, consider this to be owned by the technically inept in terms of hardware modification.

350$ is the hard price limit.

Sonar

So far the only thing that fits what she wants is this:

Bushnell 8x21 ImageView Digital Binoculars Camera 118200

I haven't found a monocular version that is an actual camera yet.

blincoln

Those binoculars aren't night vision, however.