Triggering RED cams with infrared beam?

[Vince Doran]

Is it possible to trigger a RED with an infrared beam or motion/vibration sensor? I would like this for shooting wildlife docos where it is hard to approach some shy critters.

 

[Zac C]

Unless you had an IR head attached to a start/stop input, and an IR remote with you.

I don't see that happening

(But hey, in 6months time, with the epic/scarlet, you can be 100ft from your camera with your redmote... )

 

[David Rasberry]

Any standard security sensor, like a motion sensor, that gives a contact closure could be wired to the I/O port and programmed to start and stop the camera.

 

[Vince Doran]

Thanks, yes the Redmote will be fantastic but will also need something that triggers when I'm not watching or can't see in complete darkness, of course it will also have to trigger lights.

Any standard security sensor, like a motion sensor, that gives a contact closure could be wired to the I/O port and programmed to start and stop the camera.

Is anything available pre-made and how hard would that be to do? I have no idea about electronics, wiring diagram anyone?
Would an infrared beam work underwater?
cheers

 

[Fritz M.]

Infra red only barely transmits through light fog. It will not work through water.

If you're trying something through water you'd need to get something similar to the 'eye' thing they use on garage door openers. Those look basically look for a reference light and once that beam is broken, they trigger. The drawback to it is that it's only on a single beam rather than an area like IR is.

One question might be how good is redcode at compressing a non changing image. If you stare at a static scene and nothing changes, how much disk/memory space does that take up? If the amount used is small then it could be feasible to just leave the camera running.

Although with the kind of resolution that these cameras are going to have, it probably isn't practical to think that you could get a static image. The slightest breeze would cause enough turbulence to register changes.