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Starlight Cameras vs IR Cameras

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:41 pm
by floyd_2
Hello everyone,
I currently run a number of IR cameras in my ZM setup. I have found them to be only average at night, but excellent during the day. I was just wondering if anyone was using the cameras touted as Starlight Cameras that use frame accumulation (and probably lower shutter speeds) to image during the night without the use if IR LEDs.

I'm keen to head down the Starlight path on a budget, but am interested to know if I would be wasting my money and would be better off continuing with IR cameras. The Starlight cameras that I have seen are dome cameras, currently on eBay in the sub $200AU price range.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Floyd

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:24 pm
by jameswilson
waste of time IMHO
all they do is drop the shutter speed down to as much as 2 seconds.
Yes you get a lovely image but if anything moves in the scene you can image what you will see.

Proper IR cams give a great image, cheap combined ones dont. Its not the technology that you have an issue with, its the quality of it.

For example a decent IR sensitive camera is £400 and a good IR emitter is £250.

It always makes me smile when people expect a £80 quid ebay 'sony' (supposedly) to do this.

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:12 am
by coke
Not sure (too lazy to look) how dollars compare between countries, but I love my 1031 (1011) is the replacement (they changed models), http://store.bluecherry.net/ACTi_ACM_10 ... m-1011.htm

Looking at $470 USD, though.

Took amazing streams even in rather badly lit caves, and did surprisingly well before it even shifted to IR.