# Night Vision Camera



## JVTD (Jul 24, 2019)

I'm looking to add a night vision camera to my Stage managers station. I was wondering what everyone uses and if there is a product that is highly recommended. I'd prefer something with a simple HDMI or SDI output, but I'm open to any suggestions.


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## jonliles (Jul 25, 2019)

this sounds silly, but my Ring Battery Powered camera is awesome with its night vision. With it being wifi, no cables.


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## MNicolai (Jul 25, 2019)

Most of the time I see off the shelf security cameras being used for this. Haven't seen any loyalty to a specific make/model for any particular reason other than getting something with a long-throw lens if you're shooting 100' to your stage. If you have a long throw I would pick up separate IR flood lights to cover your stage since the built-in lights may not have enough punch and putting some lights on-stage will give better visual contrast on your display monitor than the deer-in-the-headlights approach.


jonliles said:


> this sounds silly, but my Ring Battery Powered camera is awesome with its night vision. With it being wifi, no cables.



Probably doesn't work for calling cues after the compression/WiFi/cloud latency.


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## sk8rsdad (Jul 25, 2019)

Per @MNicolai my venue's low light system is an off-the-shelf security camera and a compatible monitor. The IR illumination comes from the emitters for our hearing assist system.

*Low-light Black and White*

Watec WAT-902H2 1/2" Ultra Compact B/W Camera
Everfocus EN7508M 8" Mini Mobile Surveillance Monitor
Tamron M13VM288IR 1/3" 2.8 to 8mm F/1.2 DC Iris IR Corrected Lens


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## JVTD (Jul 27, 2019)

sk8rsdad said:


> Per @MNicolai my venue's low light system is an off-the-shelf security camera and a compatible monitor. The IR illumination comes from the emitters for our hearing assist system.
> 
> *Low-light Black and White*
> 
> ...



This is the exact set up I'm looking for! Everytime I look for security cameras it comes up with the wifi/network kind.


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## StradivariusBone (Jul 28, 2019)

We use a SD security camera as well. To augment the weenie IR LEDs on the camera itself we have a fresnel on our first lx pointed straight down with two cuts of R27 and two cuts of R91. Run it at like 8% and it will light up the stage quite well with IR light in pitch black. It's a trick I learned from someone on here, so I can't take credit.

I do want to one day explore removing the light sensor in the camera as it will randomly switch back and forth between IR and normal during a show. It seems to favor certain wavelengths of light and certain looks will cause it to switch to normal at annoying times. The internal relay is loud enough to be picked up by our house mics on the lighting bridge so it's a mild inconvenience.


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## microstar (Jul 28, 2019)

Instead of removing the sensor, maybe the easier approach would be to cut power to the relay coil and bridge the necessary contacts.


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## StradivariusBone (Jul 29, 2019)

Also true. I've never taken it apart before, it might just be take the lens off and gaff over the sensor lol.


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