Hi, I am a wildlife videographer who will be going to Costa Rica to film kinkajous,
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/WildSci/images/babykinkajou.jpg
which are nocturnal. As it is rather difficult to carry a good lighting system around in the jungle at nighttime in a very heavy downpour, I would like to be able to film in nightvision. I found a relatively cheap night vision monocular, and I would like to be able to use this with my GL2. The GL2 has a 58mm lens thread. Can anyone think of a cheap (i.e. less than $70.00) solution to get the monocular and GL2 working together?

Thanks in advance,

Mike

Edit: See post below.

Sorry about the malformed url. The link is here.

nightvision monocular (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=218238&is=REG)

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Wow, that's a really neat find! =)

Unfortunately, unless you can get a step down ring from 58mm-52mm/37mm, I don't think the two can work together. But hey, you can always try to duck tape them together or something! =D

Just kidding, my best advice is to look into maybe using another camera, hi-8 or digital 8 would work as a cheap solution but the night vision on those is kind of shallow and doesn't go out beyond 5 feet or so without buying some night mode enhancer device from Sony, assuming you buy a Sony camera that is. Another option, though more expensive, is to buy one of the Canon ZR cameras and try using the monocular with those as they are 37mm if I'm not mistaken. I can't imagine any other way except to build some wacky rod system to hold the monocular in place and you could zoom through it all the way. But that would waste time I think. In any case, I believe you're out of luck.

If money were no object then this would probably be the way to go:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=316087&is=REG

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=316104&is=REG

However, most camcorders are sensitive to IR light. As an experiment, take your tv remote, point it at your GL2 and press some buttons. Do you see the light flashing? I do on my Sony cameras. So I'm wondering, if you just got a decent infra red light source, would that work for night vision?

For IR lighting choices, please check out: IR Litepanels @ :
www.litepanels.com

Thanks guys. I saw something pretty cool. It is a nightvision GL2 adapter, and it looks pretty awesome. http://www.electrophysics.com/Browse/Brw_ProductLineCategory.asp?CategoryId=152&Area=NV
It didn't say what price it was, so I figured it was probably pretty pricey. I asked for a quote anyway, and it runs upward of $6700. And yes, my camera is sensitive to IR light from my TV remote. I would like to try this out, but I am not sure that I have a decent source of IR light. In response to Pat Grosswendt, that IR light panel looks awesome. Thank all of you for your help.

Mike

I believe all camera see in th IR range quite well. Manufacturers even put a small IR Cut filter in front of the CCD to stop them from picking up so much IR light. IF you have a camera with a removable lense you will see a green plastic piece of glass. That is the IR cut filter. If that is removed your camera will pick up IR light like a normal night vision camera...the colors will be off though since you are mixing visble light and IR light on the CCD. There may alos be some focus issues but I am not sure about that. Let me know if you experiment. I want to shoot somethings with my Canon XL1 in IR. IF I can find a cheap XL1 body to buy I will give it a shot removing the IR cut filter and let you know.