Infrared wildlife filming at night

[James Ewen]

I am using a IR converted 550d to film badgers in an urban environment. Providing that the subjects are well lit then the results are excellent. Lighting is key. The advantage with a converted DSLR is that you are not chained to an external recorder and you can be very mobile.

I am using 3 IR illuminators, cheap ones bought online. One is an IR 60 degree floodlight, plus two small IR spots (30 degrees) to punch light into the shadows. They all run off a 12v motorcycle battery which runs them for a full night. There are better lights available but these are expensive.

The whole kit goes into a camera rucksack (naturetrekker).

[Bo Skelmose]

Hi James
I would love to see a clip made by your canon camera
Although I am very satisfied with my Everfocus 200 dollar camera I would still like to make the footagebetter.
This is from a everfocus camera with built-in IR diodes - this gives a very flat picture with no shadows and I would not recommend it - I have used it to see what kind of life there is in my little lake in the garden.

Endnu en IR test on Vimeo

[James Ewen]

Hi Bo,

I will upload something when I get back into the office next week. Just a thought, if you were to mask off the IR Diodes (with tape or something similar) on your Everfocus camera and use external lighting from an IR illuminator then you may notice a difference. Front lighting is generally going to give a flat image with no shadows, effective but not always pretty, especially with regards to reflections/glowing in the eyes.

James

[Bo Skelmose]

Hi James
I have two other IR everfocus cameraes of the same kind - without IR diodes :) I am planning to film a beaver dam so the camera with IR LED's can be used as lightning and a total of the dam, to see what is happening.
I'll look forward to see your footage :)

[Cees van Kempen]

Originally Posted by Bo Skelmose

No problem when filming very close - you can always play with the back focus and the CS adapter as I did.
I use often this Fujinon lens "TF2.8DA-8 1/3-Inch CCD 2.8mm, f/2.2 Fixed Focal Length"
I cannot imagine that you will have any problem with the quality at so close range. My friend told me that the Gopro isent very sensitive with IR - but in a nest it cannot be a problem.
Probably the gopro with its fisheye lens would be fine there - but there may be a problem with focussing at that close range...
Maybe you should look at IR light with 940nm wavelength - these IR light are totally black - the one I use are 850nm and they are red when you look at them.
Bo

Hi Bo,

Is there a reason for this lens? It seems a bit more expensive than other lenses and has quite a large F-number as well. Is it the quality of the lens that made you chose for it?

[Bo Skelmose]

Hi Cees
No special reason for choosing this lens. Some years ago I was looking at the Iconix hd-rh1 camera but I was not satisfied with the camera but the lens on the test camera was fine. When I should choose a lens I bought this lens as it also looks fine when recording in colour.
There is a lot of lenses and it is very difficult to see which quality they have - choosing a model from a wellknown brand can be the only solution. If you want to film in the nest of the kingfisher I imagine that you will have to be close to your birds so it has to be a wide.
Instead of the Iconix I bought a panasonic AG-HCK10 with a AG-HMR10 recorder - with a wideangle converter it does the daylight job of that type of recordings- I also got a UW house built for it - today you can buy a ready-made UW house.

PS. I use other cheap lenses too and they do a great job also. The scene with the cat is made with a cheap survailance lens.

[Cees van Kempen]

Bo,

On what device do you record the footage of the Everfocus? I just recieved my Everfocus and am still awaiting a small monitor. Without the monitor I can't see what I am doing, but I do notice that my nanoflash is not recognising the camera. When connected it says 'no source'. Hope it is a setting in the camera that causes this problem and that it can be solved in the menu of the camera once I have the monitor.

[Bo Skelmose]

Huh - ad far as I remember it output 1920x1080 25P and can be set to 30P too. Many older recorders only accept 1920x1080 50i and 1280x720 50P - which it is the standard for HD-SDI. Newer models accept 25P too. I use a Blackmagic Hyperdeck Pro to record from the camera and I consider the new Odyseey 7Q in the field. Maybe you just need to switch to pal to get 25P. Dont know if the nanoflash switch itself or need to be manual set to match the input.

[Cees van Kempen]

I fear the problem is that the camera outputs 1080p, whereas the nanoflash is 1080pfs and needs an interlaced signal out of the camera to turn it into pfs frames. Hmm, didn't check this on forehand.

Can switch to 720p, but don't fancy that. May have a look at a BM Hyperdeck Shuttle, believe that can deal with true 1080p input.

[Bo Skelmose]

The new Odessey 7 seems to have the same screen data as the Small HD OLED monitor so it will look great and supply a recorder too!
I know - we cannot keep investing in machines.....
I can test it with the shuttle but they should work fine together.

[Cees van Kempen]

Bo, would you mind to test it for me with the shuttle, so I am sure to make good purchase?

[Bo Skelmose]

Hi Cees
Just tested - The Blackmagic Hyperdeck Shuttle 2 can record the signal from the everfocus camera :)
Bo

[Cees van Kempen]

Bo, Thanks!

[Cees van Kempen]

Well, here I run into a problem that drives me nuts. Instead of ordering a BM Hyperdeck Shuttle I decided to go for a Samurai Blade. Because that also accepts true P input and it acts as a monitor at the same time. But when I connect the Everfocus it says; No Input. What could I possibly do wrong?

[Cees van Kempen]

Just received an answer from B&H where I ordered the camera. They say: "That camera is not SMPTE 292M compliant and will not be recognized by standard HD-SDI recording devices."

Hmm. Don't get it. How can it then be that it works with the Hyperdeck Shuttle 2 (Bo) and on blackmagic capture cards (Mat)?