Message posted by lone wolf on March 23, 2005 at 13:17:43 PST:

There are still arguments over which type of sensor is better, and most claim the CCD is better in terms of sensitivity and low noise. In any event, the Sony "Haad" (aka "had", aka ex-view") sensors are very sensitive. [IIRC HAAD stood for something regarding the physics used in the sensor, but the name was changed a few times by marketing, probably for a good reason.] With a large aperture lens, the camera in the link is as good as gen 1 night vision. I have the older lower resolution version. It has enough near-IR sensitivity that you can see a soldering iron glow. [The response curve cuts off at about 2um.] For lenses, don't buy the tiny ones sold for security purposes. Get the old c-mount movie lenses sold on ebay. You want a prime lens (as opposed to a zoom lens). They have less glass in them, which means more light gets through. Hopefully the lens is shown on ebay with both caps, which makes it more likely someone took good care of it. {Or they bought some caps to get more money on ebay.]

Most camcorders can accept a NTSC composite video signal. If you don't have a camcorder, you can use a frame capture device. I got an old Intel webcam that has a composite input on the back for frame capture or even moving images, though it is only usb version 1.

In Reply to: Re: Any Groom Lake Infra-Red photos about? posted by werD on March 23, 2005 at 11:56:54 PST:

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