Video Camera Help - Night Time Shooting

Just got a new video camera - a Canon Vixia HF R100. It shoots amazingly during the day and is so much more accurate than my Sony Handycam DCR-DVD105. It has many more colors, better zooming, and is so much clearer. The only downfall is that it doesn't have great night vision / low light sensors.

The 8 year old Handycam is a little better at picking objects up during the night and it has a faster framerate, but the Canon still has better color, although its framerate at night is lower than the Sony. The point I want to reach is to be able to records stars. I'm not going to be doing that, but that is the performance I am looking for.

I still have 13 days to return it. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good night time camera below $300 - 350?

Or at least any tips on how to get its night picture up to its best performance?

Anyone at all? Surely someone has a camera?

Bell and Howell 900 Night Vision camera

It's cheap too, but you won't be able to see stars I can guarantee you that.You might have a chance to see it once the sun has set, but once darkness has settled in, you won't see anything in the sky at all.

As for the built-in infrared night vision, it sees in front maybe 2m.

Get an infrared illuminator to extend your night vision range which I have done.

Originally posted by galactictuan
Bell and Howell 900 Night Vision camera

It's cheap too, but you won't be able to see stars I can guarantee you that.You might have a chance to see it once the sun has set, but once darkness has settled in, you won't see anything in the sky at all.

As for the built-in infrared night vision, it sees in front maybe 2m.

Get an infrared illuminator to extend your night vision range which I have done.

Well it's not exactly night vision. It's just a low light sensor that increases visibility.

If you want to record stars, you will most likely have to get an SLR camera and google the info to change your settings to be able to capture stars.

They don't make infra-red night vision in the newer generation models for some reason (conspiracy there? lol)

I just bought a JVC HM670, still waiting for it to arrive.

reply to post by SubPop79


NO trust me, this camera has an actual infrared night vision.

Watch this video

Watch that video is you wanted to record something like that.

Other than that, there's no way you can record night time stars unless you had Night vision binoculars/goggles and hooked your video camera up to that.

I just want at the moment to be able to zoom in on a single star, and for it to retain its shape, without glare, without becoming diamond shape (some do this for some reason). If I can see a whole constellation that would awesome too, but I don't have enough money to buy a $1,000 camera.

reply to post by SubPop79


Oh I see.

Aim for something that has an extremely high zoom function.

And something that's cheap.

The entry model JVC HD models have 40x zoom.

Originally posted by galactictuan
reply to post by SubPop79

 

Oh I see.

Aim for something that has an extremely high zoom function.

And something that's cheap.

The entry model JVC HD models have 40x zoom.

Well this Canon Vixia HF R100 has a 20x zoom but is capable of 80 - 400x digital zoom, which is fantastic during the day with my mini-tripod, but at night its not so great. I guess there might be a trade off between frame-rate and color depth when shooting at night.