Re: Inexpensive Infrared Video

[Helmut Faugel TE <htf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 29 Apr 1997, Michel Wurtz - LTE wrote:

> For his birthday, my jungest son received a toy video camera (to
> be plugged in a TV set or a VCR - it cost around 50$ and works with
> standard AA batteries).  While he was playing, I noticed that some
> dark evergreen in the room looked clearly white.
> 
> So I tested the camera with a pseudo infrared filter (just made
> with a Wratten red 29 + Wratten blue 47B + Green 58 : you can
> look the sun through it -- i have no 87c or 89b on hand !) and
> it worked well.

It`s even cheaper to use a black slide, slides are getting transparent
above 800 nm.

> In fact, the camera seems to be essentialy infrared sensitive :
> you got the IR effect even without filtering.  The only thing to
> add will be a portable monitor (same weight and price than the
> video camera itself :-) and you will have a infrared previewer.
> 
> Did someone test something like that (I know that W.J. Markerink
> uses nightvision equipment with same results) ?

I did, it's the one and only IR-experiance I have till now.

This cameras are using ordinary silicon CCDs which have a peak sensitivity 
between850 and 900 nm. It's really fun to use this camera, inks are
disapering, black trousers turn into white one and so on


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Helmut FAUGEL                       |  Tel.   : +49 / 089 / 3299 2245
Max-Planck-Institut f. Plasmaphysik |  Fax    : +49 / 089 / 3299 2558
Boltzmannstr. 2                     |  E-Mail : faugel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
D-85748 Garching bei Muenchen       |
Germany                             |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------