NiteMaxx digital night vision camera - Page 21

dtran01 · 04-09-2006, 08:42 PM

Im POST #300!!!

...that said, how about them lenses? anyone else want one? Do we have enough for a purchase? I got my camera (yay mark!) but there:s no way of really testing it out since i have no lens....

Genesisfactor · 04-09-2006, 09:35 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by shotgunefx

I'm with Mark on that one. I wonder if you could de-focus it a little bit.

Funny talking about lasers. Last week, I took my laser pointer and put it through my wide angle lense, backwards.

It was like a microscope on the wall. You could see pieces of "stuff", they looked like bacteria, but I think they were fibers. I spent a good half an hour just putting random things on the lense and projecting it. Don't put salt. It gets in all the crevices

THe biggest problem with that particular laser is the power genreated by it

*POWAAAHHH*. Its indusrial strenght, but i've very hard pressed to find a non industrial IR laser. I don't wnat to blind someone, i and i know how powerful it is.

So you saw moving stuff on your wall, how? hehe, makes an interesting experiement.

, So...salt huh? crevices huh? Is this something i want to know about in detail?

@dtran...you're only REPLY 300...shotgun was post #300

shotgunefx · 04-10-2006, 05:00 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Genesisfactor

...
So you saw moving stuff on your wall, how? hehe, makes an interesting experiement.

, So...salt huh? crevices huh? Is this something i want to know about in detail?

You sick bastard :P

I just held the reversed lens and laster pointer in one hand and projected onto the wall. All the microscopic dirt and stuff on the lens becomes quite visible. You figure the actually opening is basically a pinhole and it get's magnified 6-12" with the wide FOV. It looked kind of cool, so I just started putting other random stuff on the lense to see how it looked. Salt, kind of boring, looked like sugar cubes, but it gave a good idea of magnification.

BTW, don't have the pics and vids yet, but for now, used this for a housing. Two of those project box covers back to back. The better way would be to cut the box it attaches to down to fit. Just was in a hurry to try it out. Pretty compact too. Don't see why it couldn't be helmet mounted.

The CCD is nice. Even in low light it's great. At least better than my Sony Handycam. In sunlight, the picture looks almost natural, in dimmer light, like a room lit up at night, quite different. Everything black or dark colors (not counting metal and plastic) looks moss green. For instance my dark blue bathrobe and my speaker covers are as green as St. Patrick's.

Another oddity is that when the scene is very brightly lit, IR looks lazer green, but as visible light is reduced, the IR starts to lose the green and just look like normal light.

A side note, it sees write through the fabric of my speaker covers even in just room lighting.

I'll try and get those screen caps and video tomorrow.

Genesisfactor · 04-10-2006, 07:45 AM

welcome to the color blind IR world..

...or are we the colorblind ones? that will be crazy if we do anexpereinment and those that she blue where we see green and vice versa were right all along...

Yeah, i need some sleep I got the IBM Thinkpad R51 working to full strenght last night (sans display). So worth a jornada 568....so very worth it...

When you get pics and vids, send it when i wake up

NiteMax Mark · 04-11-2006, 12:39 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by shotgunefx

The CCD is nice. Even in low light it's great. At least better than my Sony Handycam. In sunlight, the picture looks almost natural, in dimmer light, like a room lit up at night, quite different. Everything black or dark colors (not counting metal and plastic) looks moss green. For instance my dark blue bathrobe and my speaker covers are as green as St. Patrick's.

Another oddity is that when the scene is very brightly lit, IR looks lazer green, but as visible light is reduced, the IR starts to lose the green and just look like normal light.

The CCD Camera Board looks like a multi-layer board. To be honest, I would have advised against enlarging the holes like you did. (I was planning on disecting a failed CCD Board here to see if there's any traces in the way but I haven't yet!) I have never seen the behavior you've described and I'm wondering if there's something broken that's causing it.

Hopefully I'll find time to investigate the issue. If I need to send you a replacement, please let me know.

Meanwhile, I've been so busy with the forum and other things that I haven't done my Federal Income Taxes yet! I've prepared returns for other people but I've left mine 'til last... I apologize if I'm VERY slow at responding to questions over the next week!

shotgunefx · 04-11-2006, 02:03 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by NiteMax Mark

The CCD Camera Board looks like a multi-layer board. To be honest, I would have advised against enlarging the holes like you did. (I was planning on disecting a failed CCD Board here to see if there's any traces in the way but I haven't yet!) I have never seen the behavior you've described and I'm wondering if there's something broken that's causing it.

Hopefully I'll find time to investigate the issue. If I need to send you a replacement, please let me know.

Meanwhile, I've been so busy with the forum and other things that I haven't done my Federal Income Taxes yet! I've prepared returns for other people but I've left mine 'til last... I apologize if I'm VERY slow at responding to questions over the next week!

Hi Mark,
I figured there was a good chance there was nothing in between the layers were the hole plating was. A little risk, but that's why I got 4 ccds

When you say you've never seen that, you mean the artifacts I was refering to? I've seen it on all CCDs I've had (except my sony handycam, but maybe I didn't look hard enough).

It's very subtle on this, most of the time you can't see it. It usually becomes a little bit visible when you have bright light sources. It's hard to describe the artifact, like pixels but much bigger.

I believe what it is, is that the DSP (or the CCD) breaks the image up into a grid composed of cells of NxN pixels (some sort of box filtering) for processing. If one cell has a much higher brightness compared to an adjacent cell, it becomes apparent as a very slight vertical/horizontal artifact where the cells join.

My SAVV reverse cam has this but it's 10 times more noticable. With these, you almost never do.

I love how well these adjust to varying light levels. Even with the slightest light, it will to give a good pic of my living room (where I've been doing my experimenting). Shine a spotlight on it and it will adjust so the camera is not blinded. (Haven't tried a laser yet though), but either way impressive.

I took 4 of the IR boards and mounted them in my broken fog light,(Damn it's bright, I look like powder, yet still the ccd adjusts nicely) as soon as my camcorder is charged, I'm going to head out and take some on the road video.

NiteMax Mark · 04-11-2006, 02:35 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by shotgunefx

Hi Mark,
I figured there was a good chance there was nothing in between the layers were the hole plating was. A little risk, but that's why I got 4 ccds

When you say you've never seen that, you mean the artifacts I was refering to? I've seen it on all CCDs I've had (except my sony handycam, but maybe I didn't look hard enough).

It's very subtle on this, most of the time you can't see it. It usually becomes a little bit visible when you have bright light sources. It's hard to describe the artifact, like pixels but much bigger.

I believe what it is, is that the DSP (or the CCD) breaks the image up into a grid composed of cells of NxN pixels (some sort of box filtering) for processing. If one cell has a much higher brightness compared to an adjacent cell, it becomes apparent as a very slight vertical/horizontal artifact where the cells join.

Actually, I was referring to the green color distortion you mentioned. There's a pin on the header where 2x Zoom is activated that disables color correction. It kind of sounds like color correction is off but I still haven't seen it as severe as you describe.

And while you're at it, I haven't seen the other artifacts either. I've seen MPEG compressed video behave lige that but never with these CCDs. What are you viewing the image with? I have an ancient Composite Monitor that I keep because it has Y/C and Composite Inputs. Some of the newer stuff might actually be digitally altering the image, no?

shotgunefx · 04-11-2006, 02:50 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by NiteMax Mark

Actually, I was referring to the green color distortion you mentioned. There's a pin on the header where 2x Zoom is activated that disables color correction. It kind of sounds like color correction is off but I still haven't seen it as severe as you describe.

And while you're at it, I haven't seen the other artifacts either. I've seen MPEG compressed video behave lige that but never with these CCDs. What are you viewing the image with? I have an ancient Composite Monitor that I keep because it has Y/C and Composite Inputs. Some of the newer stuff might actually be digitally altering the image, no?

I got ya. During the day (indoors with the lights on) it almost looks normal. Black shirt is grayish, speakers look gray (maybe a twinge of green), once it's night out (lights still on), lot's of green. Almost always fabrics (and the shiny cover of my service manual), everything else, the colors might be shifted a bit as I would expect , but not kelley green. Maybe the lights in my room give off a lot of IR?

I'll try and get video of this.

As far as the CCD artifacts, like I said, very very slight and I've seen them on other CCDs were they were not slight at all. (The Savv for instance uses a decent 1/4 Sharp CCD and it's really apparent). Most of the time you can't see it at all. It's not like the blocks on mpeg. It's more like seams or steps.

Just using a composite video on my tv, lilliput and camcorder and it's the same. (As it was with my Savv as well, but 100 times worse).

While it might not be good for the health of the CCD, I just tried blinding it several times with a laser pointer. Held up pretty well. If it's not dead center, it actually adjusts enough so you can see the corners of the image. Pretty much the only thing this doesn't work in is no light which is expected.

Peoples · 04-11-2006, 07:31 AM

i get those glowing "artifacts" too....at first i thought i had a dead pixel, but it was only with IR on.

Genesisfactor · 04-11-2006, 04:04 PM

Hey, mark, i have a 3.7 lithum Ion 1-Ah battery. Will that be enough to power a similar laser? What sucks is that it its the only IR laswer on ebay that's a cheap price. I'll have to find a way to weaken it. Will that battery do it or will it just not shine at all?

NiteMax Mark · 04-11-2006, 04:12 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Genesisfactor

Hey, mark, i have a 3.7 lithum Ion 1-Ah battery. Will that be enough to power a similar laser? What sucks is that it its the only IR laswer on ebay that's a cheap price. I'll have to find a way to weaken it. Will that battery do it or will it just not shine at all?

As I understand it, a laser operates at a farly high voltage -- much higher that the typical power supply voltage. Because you are essentially powering a DC-DC converter, my feeling is that it will malfunction instead of providing proportionally dimmer output. If I knew more about the particular laser involved I might have a different opinion.

I wonder if you could pulse a laser at a low rep-rate (synchronous with the CCD) and get lower output power with equal brightness. (You know, it would only be on for that fraction of a second that the CCD was seeing it.)

Genesisfactor · 04-11-2006, 11:57 PM

Honestly, i have no idea. My little brother gave em a batery that he found of a phone that enither orf us had for a birthday present. I just want to put it to good use, you know?

dtran01 · 04-18-2006, 03:42 PM

Okay guys... about that bundle buy to save on shipping and stuff.. it seems like it has fizzled out. and here i'm sitting on two nitemax cameras that inoperable without the lens (and after mark tried so hard modding one of the nitemax's!) .... so i think unless it's going to happen within this week or so, i'm going to buy seperately.

at_b · 04-18-2006, 03:47 PM

i m waiting on the lens too, any idea if that is going to happen?
thanks to all posting usefull info here

NiteMax Mark · 04-19-2006, 12:33 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by at_b

i m waiting on the lens too, any idea if that is going to happen?
thanks to all posting usefull info here

The original intent behind the group purchase was to save the cost of shipping multiple items from multiple sources and paying over again several times for shipping. I figured I could get the items here in quantity for virtually no additional shipping charge, and then repackage and send them to individuals who would only pay only once for shipping.

The whole idea falls apart when people want an item from only one source. It will cost virtually the same to have me ship an item to you as it would to have it shipped directly from the seller. If you wanted three different items, you'd pay three times for shipping from three sellers -- but only one time if it all came from me. See?

At this point it seems like there's a lot of people who want items from only one source. Under the circumstances, I don't think it'll work to anyone's advantage to have me in the middle.

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