Night Vision Camera

[Jeremy Torrie]

Has anyone had successful 4K night vision shot in camera? Red or non-Red? Lens adapters?

We have a feature in the jungle with night sequences (not unlike Zero Dark Thirty) and looking for what might help us get a specific look not achieved by doing a post process to fake it.

Google has not been terribly helpful, so asking the community!

[Misha Engel]

This is the best on the market at the moment https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/p...ional/me20f-sh at 2k.

[Jeremy Torrie]

Thanks Misha. I was thinking more along the line of either lens adapters or prosumer models that do night vision in 4K to help pull it off. I don’t necessarily want to buy this thing, especially at 2K -seems fairly limited- but appreciate the info.

[Patrick Tresch]

This is the best on the market at the moment https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/p...ional/me20f-sh at 2k.

but it's a 5 years old camera. I think A7s1 had better lowlight performance (I think A7s3 has a tiny less low light performance as the first gen camera (with his HDMi 4k output).

[Robert Hart]

I am assuming that for dramatic purposes you may be seeking the now signature green and white noisy image. The resolution of a tube-based night vision intensifier is at best about 70 lp/mm which is standard definition TV quality if a rectangular image is cropped out of a circular display. The "apparent" sharpness of the image is improved if you allow the circular image from the tube display to appear as a porthole image.


https://www.adoramarentals.com/p-~as...ION-EF-ADAPTER

https://budgetvideo.com/catalog/dslr...pter-for-nikon

https://www.militaryandlaw.com.au/sh...adcast-cameras

https://www.militaryandlaw.com.au/sh...adcast-cameras

https://www.keslowcamera.com/cameras...-lens-adapter/

The clips below were shot with a Pyser PNP-HG with Gen 2+ intensifier tube (Photonis by Philips).

Be aware that tube-based intensifiers also see some visible light therefore the image may appear soft due to the mix of sharp focus and soft-focus of the same objects lit by visible and infrared light sources of singificantly different wavelengths therefore different flange to focall plane distances for the same physical distance between camera and subject.. The simplest lenses are also the best to use. Zooms with many glass elements do not seem to perform as well.

If you shoot with a tube-based intensifier, you should think about adding production value with subtle lighting and composition.

For one of the reality shows about ten years ago, an Australian gaffer made an infrared LED light panel to illuminate with IR the subjects.

The following clips illustrate the enivronment of controlled lighting versus going au-naturale. The BTS clip was short with the lens iris closed up t avoid daaging the intensifier tube. The level of intensifier you are likely to be able to access will probably fall short of military grade.







A reasonable nightvision look with better sharpness can be created using a B/W CCTV security camera's partial nightvision capability with a small LED IR illuminator and adding a green hue in post.


I wish you all the best with your endeavours.

[Willem Berents]

I can agree with Robert. CCVT does have options... But why not use RED instead? We have been doing a lot of night shoots (bats, badgers, martens, beaver, hedge hog, etc.) in nature with Red Epic Dragon (+ IR OLPF) and CCTV cam's. Depending on the amount of light we need we bring in Bosch LED IR panels.

The For small 'sets' I use several Led IR spots from Bosch (EX 12 LED IR - 850 nm), and the AEGIS UFLED IR (850 nm). For big sets we are using the AEgis Super Led IR (I have ten of these big ones). Power comes from 12 volt (car/boat) batteries, and to power the small LED IR spots I am using Red-bricks as well (+ D-tap plate). Depending on our productions we desaturate the images (in camera or in post) and add a some 'nightly blue'. But, quoting Robert, you can add a green hue if wanted. But comparng intensifiers and IR lite scenes the look might differ.

When shooting IR with Red you have to decide on lenses. I use Nikonlenses. Check this for some advice (Also canon/ sigma etc.). http://kolarivision.com/articles/lens-hotspot-list/

The CCTV camera's that we have been using are Bosch Dinion 8 MP (3K)and 12 MP (4K) boxcamera's and Hikvision 12 mp boxcamera's. Recently I got my hands on a Sony SNC-VB770 (full-frame, E-mount camera). Since they are CCTV camera's there are several (big) disadvantages like frame rates (30 fps), in-camera-compression, flexibility in operating, etc.). For wild life I found that the smart motion-detection-in-camera can be a big plus (it can even be used to switch on the LED-lights). But, saying that, the really nice thing with RED in IR / Full spectrum) (EPIC Dragon) is 6K, Red raw, 100 fps (or even 150 in 4k)... For that you will need to bring a lot of light in the dark, though.

All the best!