Testing Five Different IR Night Vision Camcorders 

Well, if you have the money, the A7IV has better low light performance (than the A7III). For the next step above that, the A7SIII is among the best for consumer cameras in low light.

On the SiOnyx I didn't try adjusting the exposure to see if I could get more detail. As with the other cameras, I just let it provide the brightest image it could. The A7III had a 50mm f/2.5 lens and the Pocket 4K I believe had a Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 lens. So the Blackmagic had about a 1 stop advantage over the SiOnyx in terms of lens aperture, the A7III had nearly a two stop disadvantage.

@@bigtb1717 , thank you for your feedback. i suspect that the Sony A7S/R family is the top ranking system for pure passive digital night vision application, currently for normal customers. On one hand, i think with similar aperture, the Sony A7S/R would perform better than the SIOnyx system, in similar low light conditions. On the other hand, the triptyque ergonomy/low light performances/price provided by the SiOnyx system is currently hard to beat for us, as hobbyists/normal customers.... Just my thoughts...

@@thenightvisionlab R would be noisy, where as s would be much cleaner

@@bigtb1717 what's the best IR camrea out there? Need one for safaris at night!

I've considered checking out a couple different PrimeWeld units, but never took the plunge. I'll consider getting one to test out.

Possibly. Most of them have fixed focus with a minimum focus distance of around 3 feet. If the camera is closer than that to you, the focus won't be quite on. With it being dark and in IR mode, it's hard to say if that will make a big difference. Would a small, visible light be out of the question or must it be IR? Will there be any ambient light (like from a computer monitor you are viewing or something)?

​@@bigtb1717 Yes there would probably be ambient light from the screen, the idea behind using IR would be so that I could be fully immersed in scary games, so using normal light might distract from that. Plus I really like the way night vision looks with the reduced colors. Thanks for the response!

@@SamhainScares With ambient light from a screen, you might be able to get by with a normal camera, but without added light, the image quality will obviously suffer. If you pick up an IR camera off Amazon to give it a try, I'd honestly suggest you get one of the cheaper ones. The image quality (especially the IR night vision) difference between the $60 cameras and the multi-hundred dollar cameras isn't all that drastic. And there are odd quirks and occasional quality control issues at all price levels as well.

I have to admit, I think some of the "ghost hunting" stuff is a little silly, but hey, so are a lot of things. Harassing someone over it is ridiculous. Sorry to hear that. If you do get back into it, I hope you have a better time of it. And who knows, maybe you'll find undeniable proof and put "doubters" like me in their place, lol. Cheers!

​@@bigtb1717 I have been on a handful of paranormal investigations since last year & am on the lookout for a digital camera/camcorder (with poss night vision or infra red) to take along. My budget is around £500 to £600 mark. I have been browsing online & also physically. Have you got a top choice/recommendation? Thanks

@@andys8483 If you just want a camcorder and can get away without IR, I'd stick to one of the name brands such as Canon, Sony, and Panasonic. Even an entry-level mirrorless camera from one of those, as well as Olympus/OM System might fit the bill, although some of those have limited record times. If you want IR mode, I think Canon and Sony have models that offer it, but I don't know which current Panasonic models offer it, though some used to. I'm in the US, so I don't have a ton of experience with prices out your way, so it's tough to say what would fit in your budget without doing some research first. If the IR is important for some reason other than being able to record in the dark, then the options are a bit limited. If it's really just about being able to see/record in the dark, a normal camcorder/camera and a normal flashlight would serve you better.

@@bigtb1717 thanks for that. After some more online browsing & RU-vid videos, I finally settled on the Sony FDR -AX53 Ultra HD camcorder. It was £699 so over my original budget but the night vision mode looks pretty decent. I know that the battery consumption is a bit of a drawback, especially because I often spend around 10+ hours on night ghost hunts,...so I will have to pick up a couple of spares. Also, some 'active,' places are notorious for draining any electrical equipment very quickly. Thanks again 👍

@@andys8483 No problem. The AX53 is a great camcorder.

Well, it's never visible to the naked eye. It's an IR light, so it's only visible in the camera, even when it's on. I know on some Sony cameras, the IR light can be turned on and off, even when in the IR mode, but I can't remember if it can on the AX53. It's been a long time.

No. Not without adding light. If it is truly, completely dark (like a dark room with NO source of light, or an overcast, moonless night away from any artificial light or sky-glow), even multi-thousand dollar, dedicated night-vision gear won't be able to do much. The more expensive/more sensitive a device is, the better it will do with lower amounts of light. But if there is truly zero light to work with, there's nothing any of them will do without adding light. That is why many camcorders with IR "Night Vision" have a built-in light.

@@bigtb1717Thanks for the info, much appreciated

@@bigtb1717 you can buy an image intensifier tube the type I use are the p8079hp just add a camcorder I have videos covering my builds👍🏻

I have tested and used many Ordro cameras. At night with IR mode on, I have never found exposure compensation to actually brighten the image. The exposure compensation just tells the camera to run a certain number of stops brighter than it otherwise would have. If the camera is already maxing out the ISO and other exposure settings, than upping the exposure compensation can't make the image any brighter. I have done tests by manually setting everything as bright as possible vs. just leaving everything at default. When it is as dark as the testing in my video shows, no amount of adjustments help. When there is a bit more ambient light an the camera doesn't already have all of its exposure settings maxed, then adjusting the exposure compensation may brighten the image. But I assure you, in this video, all the cameras were set to give the very brightest image possible, including the Ordro. I have tested other Ordro cameras models that work a little better in IR mode than the one in this video. But I didn't have any of them available at the time I made this video.

All of these and virtually all I've seen have removable batteries. Many of them have apps for control via Wi-fi as well. What are you going to use the camera for? Can you use visible light and a normal camera or does it have to be IR? What all do you need the app to be able to do? Do you need to stream the image to the mobile device, or only control the camera?

I'm doing well. I hope you guys are all doing well too!

Unfortunately, most of the cheap camcorders have terrible audio. Really low bit rates, low sample rates in some cases, and some of them even have the microphone buried inside the camera with no external holes (saw that once). I've tested a LOT of cheap, generic camcorders and many of them have virtually unusable audio. Some are better than others. It's not really a 2022 technology issue, it's a generic camcorder issue. Most of them seem to essentially be dirt-cheap webcams in a camcorder body.

You really can't make hi-quality yt videos without editing. Even something free like imovie or openshot is 100 times better than nothing, the ability to splice and adjust audio and whatnot is just necessary to make good videos.

True. I only lit it for the video, kind of as a prop, and blew it out as soon as I was done.

@@bigtb1717 be aware children watching this video may copy your behavior