Night Vision low budget NV question

[Boosted2.0]

This may be a stupid question, but has anyone tried to mount a standard digital camera behind a normal sight with an IR laser for illumination? I was thinking about it, and since most digital cameras display IR, I kind of figured this might be an inexpensive way to make a NV system.

 

[IR-V]

Re: low budget NV question

Your older and cheaper digital cameras (e.g. phone cameras, pocket cameras, etc.) will give you better performance in picking up IR wavelengths because their IR filtering is not as efficient.

However, their IR sensitivity is generally poor. Inside a dark room, these cameras will pick up the reflected dot from an IR laser aimer. However, they will not be able to pick up the more diluted IR, reflecting off of objects, from an IR laser illuminator set to medium or wide flood.

The IR light has to be very concentrated for these digital cameras to detect ... even with more powerful lasers (e.g. 200 mW and up), only the dot at the target, not the beam, is visible, and only at close distances.

These cameras will not be able to pick up the IR radiation reflecting from targets beyond "conversational" distances, and are not useful outdoors at all (as night vision devices).

IR-V

 

[Boosted2.0]

Re: low budget NV question

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: IR-V</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Your older and cheaper digital cameras (e.g. phone cameras, pocket cameras, etc.) will give you better performance in picking up IR wavelengths because their IR filtering is not as efficient.

However, their IR sensitivity is generally poor. Inside a dark room, these cameras will pick up the reflected dot from an IR laser aimer. However, they will not be able to pick up the more diluted IR, reflecting off of objects, from an IR laser illuminator set to medium or wide flood.

The IR light has to be very concentrated for these digital cameras to detect ... even with more powerful lasers (e.g. 200 mW and up), only the dot at the target, not the beam, is visible, and only at close distances.

These cameras will not be able to pick up the IR radiation reflecting from targets beyond "conversational" distances, and are not useful outdoors at all (as night vision devices).

IR-V


</div></div>

Got it - thanks very much for your response.

 

[IR-V]

Re: low budget NV question

You're welcome - glad I could help.

One thing to know is that even the "cheaper" and "older" digital cameras (which are better for detecting IR radiation) still have IR filters (just less effective ones). Therefore, it would be an interesting experiment to attempt to remove the IR filtering altogether (without damaging the camera) and see what improvements in the IR imaging would result!

IR-V

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: TX_M10BA_Dave</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Got it - thanks very much for your response. </div></div>