Video Cameras
Categories
If your looking to buy a camcorder to use for investigations there are several important things
to be aware of to save yourself wasting hundreds of pounds.
Some cameras don’t have night shot or infrared to start with instead have a white light at the front
these will be no good you might as well just have the lights on or use it in the day.
Some achieve night vision by slowing the frames per second and causing more light
exposure per frame, these are not really any good as your recorded image will be blurred and
impossible to use as a mobile camera. So before you buy check the camera has infrared capability to my knowledge the only domestic camcorders that use infrared are Sony ones with 'Night Shot'
There are also Full spectrum cameras available which is looked at at the bottom of the page along with thermal imagers.
Digital 8 format
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The first Digital camcorders were Digital 8 format that used 8mm tapes to record onto, these are getting a little old now and are very bulky to have on an investigation, on the plus side they were fitted with a good sized glass lens and were fairly good |
at Infra red footage which was achieved with the night shot or super night shot mode.
Mini DV format
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The Mini DV format was a good progression from Digital 8 as it was a smaller tape similar to the DAT tape in appearance and as such the actual cameras became smaller also, they were a better size for investigations and also featured infrared by selecting night shot or super night shot. these |
cameras are also capable of taking still photos in infrared and saving directly to a memory card. We have had three of these cameras now for about four years and have found them very robust and a great tool for investigation teams on an invent, with there easy to use touch screen operation.
HD format
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The full HD 'High Definition' gives a vastly improved picture quality over the Digital 8 and Mini DV examples we have and at the same time no longer relies on tapes as it records directly to its hard drive. it is fantastic in infrared. we have had one of these cameras for a couple or years now |
and have found it to be an enormous asset as it enables us to produce very high quality video footage in normal and infrared shooting modes it also has a surround sound audio recording capability.
Light Spectrum
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Above is the Electromagnetic spectrum which ranges from Gamma Rays up to Radio Waves, its all about frequency in the middle you will find visible light frequencies which can be photographed or videoed using normal equipment with no special modes, however one theory is, do ghosts exist as visible forms in the frequencies above or below where we can see, Below are some examples of photography in Ultraviolet, Infrared and full spectrum which use the frequencies from ultraviolet up to infrared.
Ultraviolet example
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Ultraviolet is the light source sometimes described as black light. its the light source that will lake white things appear to glow in the dark. |
Infrared example
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Infrared is the example that im sure we have all seen before in various ways from military footage to most haunted in night mode. Cameras achieve infrared mode by illuminating usually a small infrared LED and turning off the infrared filter. All around us is infrared and if |
it wasn't filtered out by cameras for normal shooting everything would look washed out and weak in its colouring.
Full Spectrum
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Full Spectrum is one of the newer formats in the ghost hunters kit box, as it will photograph or film light from ultraviolet right up to infrared. while the user hope to be able to see something that is not visible to the human eye . |
Thermal imaging example
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Thermal imaging has been the holy grail to many ghost hunters as it makes heat signatures visible. and fits nicely to a theory that ghosts cause disturbance in temperature. which is clear to see with this equipment but not with the naked eye. |
