Infrared light barrier

Gast · 2004-10-10T11:13:11+00:00

Wer hat einen Typ, wie ich preiswert an eine IR-Anlage komme? Des Nachts tanzt auf meinem Balkon ein bislang unbekanntes Getier herum: Weil ich nicht die gan...

Gast

Does anyone know a cheap way for me to get hold of an IR camera system? At night, some as-yet-unknown creatures are scurrying about on my balcony: as I can’t keep watch all night, I want to photograph them. In other words, I want the little creatures to be captured on camera using IR. These cameras should be suitable for this project: Rollei 3003, Contax Aria, Pentax LX with winder. My attempts to find what I’m looking for by contacting the manufacturers have failed. Who’s still interested in analogue photography these days? Regards, Manfred

CPD

Hello, In the old Agfa Photoblatt magazines from the early seventies, building your own set-ups like this is discussed from time to time and instructions are provided; the same goes for books from that era on bird and wildlife photography – if there’s a decent library near you, you should be able to find what you’re looking for. I believe Nikon has an IR light barrier in its range. Otherwise, you could have a look in the classifieds of the magazine ‘Naturfotografie’ (or something similar); they’re often advertised there. But I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t have a go at building one yourself. Perhaps electronics mail-order companies even stock the components – though that’s pure speculation. Regards, CP

MKL

Hello, I wouldn’t recommend an IR light barrier. I’d go for a motion detector instead. For example: http://www1.conrad.de/scripts/wgate/zcop_b...fobox=801050~1# . This allows you to close the shutter release on an electronic camera, or on a mechanical one via an adapter, and trigger it. In any case, a video camera connected to a home recorder and a 300-minute tape would be simpler – that gives you 10 hours of recording time. It does have the disadvantage that you then have to watch through at least 10 hours of footage in fast-forward, but it’s cheap if you already have the equipment. For lighting, you can use a torch with an IR filter or developed transparency – virtually invisible to the ‘little creature’ but not to the camera. Best regards Michael

Gast

Get yourself a light barrier from Conrad. They’re also available as a kit, and from the model sports section, get a servo (a small stepper motor) which you attach to your camera with tape and then control via the light barrier. You’ll definitely have to do a bit of learning, but it shouldn’t be impossible. Model aircraft photographers use servos like this. They use this method to take photos from a model aircraft using a digital camera. Best regards Micha

Gast

A servo trigger is definitely too slow for wildlife photography. It’s better to use the camera’s electrical remote trigger socket. There are CMOS ICs that switch through very quickly when they receive a control signal (without sending any external voltage into the camera). I built something like that once, but unfortunately it’s since gone missing in some jumble box. Roland