InfraRed Torches

Anyone have any experience with infrared flashlights? I don't exactly need one, but I have a Sony camera with IR capabilities, but the IR light is good for about 10 feet. Is there a Lumapower M1 Hunter equivelant in the IR world?

Being able to light up a target bright as day to a camera down the street without anyone being aware would be very cool

I know that those wonderful tank lights have IR lenses that allow them to produce compious amounts of IR energy and throw it, but a simple IR emitter swap could do it, just buy yourself an IR Cree or Lux and go for it. THey have them right?

Hello CanDo,

You may find this thread informative.

Tom

Thanks guys
This should be interesting. I hope someday to be able to experiment with these....

Is it possible to make a infrared filter? What is the material made of that they make the filters of, for example, the material they use to make the IR filters for surefire? Im interested in making a filter for a very large light. Any info or help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

An old photographers trick is to use a piece of film as an IR filter.

You need a frame of film that has been developed but not exposed to light, so either a frame shot with the lens cap on or a bit of film near the end of the roll.

yeah, i would need something substantially larger than that for this application, I need something bigger than a square foot......

yeah, i would need something substantially larger than that for this application, I need something bigger than a square foot......

This is a very powerful IR torch, but does eat batteries...

INGAKLUB DX 12-LED IR InfraRed Flashlight Silver $5.73

3xAAA approx 1,200 ma



http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2047

Mike V said:

An old photographers trick is to use a piece of film as an IR filter.

You need a frame of film that has been developed but not exposed to light, so either a frame shot with the lens cap on or a bit of film near the end of the roll.

Click to expand...

Just to clarify, that'd be developed/unexposed slide film. It works great as an IR filter for a darkflash, when you want to trigger slave flashguns without the light from the triggering flash appearing in the picture.

With a regular (non halogen) incandescent, how does dimming it affect the IR/visible balance. Is there some point where it's still drawing a fair amount of power and producing a decent amount of usable-wavelength IR, but not much visible light?

No problem, I have lots of experience. What must be the range of illumination? What size is the target (subject)? How far away will the subject be? How reflective is the subject? What the camera sees is mostly the reflection of IR off the subject. Different materials have different reflectivity at different IR frequencies. If the subject is green under daylight it will tend to reflect lower frequency (700-800nm) IR at a higher rate. This means if the IR emitters are in line with the camera, you can expect a lot of NIR light to be reflected back at the camera, potentially "blinding" the sensor.

It is best to carefully define the following: What is range to subject? what is size of subject? what is desired depth of field of subject? What characteristic of light do you require? Do you want it absolutely covert? What type of sensor does the camera have (CMOS or CCCD)? What kind of glass or lens are you using (Aspherical, IR, varifocal, autofocus, fixed focus? What is the capability of the lens IRIS? Is it manual? autoiris? DC auto or video control? what is value of glass? When open all the way what is the value including glass? (0-1.2) Will it open all the way? How far can you stop it down (180-360deg) ? I like to use glass that is less than f=1.0 Can you control shutter speed? What is QE - Quantum Efficiency of your image sensor? What IR emission will be using? Is it monochromatic or ? What frequencies of NIR? Do you use frame integration? Can you use "ghostlight'? What do you want to see with the camera? What is the objective? What power magnigfication will you need? What electric power is available (DC or AC) (5 12 or 24 VDC)

Hope these factors help you define your project.

you should try www.mountsplus.com they have handheld IR spotlights! Ned is a good guy too!

Well the nightvision binoculars I was getting ended up being generation 2 but were told to be generation 3 to me initially, so i backed out of the deal. No need for the IR now.

Dear gents,
I would like to bring again this old thread up.I am looking for the best of best IR illuminator configuration used with supposedly the best nightshot Sony digicam (DCR-PC350E with 1/3 inch superHAD CCD) in charge of digi night vision recorder.I dealt with idea to buy Yukon ranger digi NV but there is poor FoV,no zoom (I know zoomable optics has disadvantages with low-light conditions) and CCD sensor resolution (just 0.25 mpx)
There is lot of difficulties.Firstly Sony has much more bigger FoV as yukon.It difficult illuminate such all area over mid&long distance.
Another problem is that all LED IR torches (cobra,buschnell,dedal) are offered with non-covert 808nm NIR wavelenght .Accordingly much experience of others the almost cover wavelenght is around 880nm+.
Mentioned professional torches are around 808,good for tube NV (I hate it)
I found some 880nm eye-safe LED torches but problem is that LED has 40nm wavelenght deviation which brings it into non-covert NIR spectrum and subject can see weak red glow.
That is way LED is not solution.Solution would be IR laser which is not eye-safe.
There is just a few laser torches which fulfils my reqirements close to military level.As adjustable beam (flood to spot),range over 200m,manual dimmer etc.Such torches are expensive e.g. over 400 pounds.
I do not want to try some Cree LED tactical (Fenix,surefire etc.) torch with some IR filter.
I think that good tradeoff could be powerfull xenon torch with perfect glass IR filter.Xenon bulb has a lot of IR components within its lighting spectrum.

Is there anybody who can help with relevant experience?

Floordog are you there?I badly need such expert as you are