It's the webcam on the beach at South Sands in Devon. During the day
it shows average quality pictures, but at night it seems to switch
into some sort of infrared mode. I don't mean the scene is lit by
infrared light (although sometimes the foreground looks that way), but
even in the distance it picks out features in what must be very dark
conditions. People walking on the beach show up as bright white - and
moored boats in the distance show as grey (warmer than the surrounding
water) so it must be detecting heat/infrared.
What sort of camera has this facility? I thought this sort of
capability only existed within the military.

Link to camera web site;
http://www.southsands.com/content/web-camera

Screen capture of night shot;
http://i50.tinypic.com/1ovztj.png

Approc cam location - looks NE [45 deg]
50.2251 -3.7843

On 04/09/2012 21:23, Simon Cee wrote:

What sort of camera has this facility? I thought this sort of
capability only existed within the military.

Point your TV remote at your digital camera or phone camera and press a
button on the remote. You will see the IR LED on the remote flashing in
the cameras viewfinder screen.

The detectors in the camera extend into the near IR and usually have a
IR filter to block out much of the IR.

You can convert a normal digital camera for IR use by removing the IR
filter and replacing it with a filter that you cannot see through - such
as that bit of a developed colour film that wasn't exposed and is still
black.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/peterh111/journal/5498915-the-easy-guide-to-converting-digital-cameras-to-infrared

Many surveillance type cameras are designed to operate this way. However
the frame rate and/or resolution will be much reduced and the final
image may/will be the result of the integration of many frames.
You may only see non-moving objects clearly.

Military/Police cameras will operate in a different IR band, at a true
50/60Hz frame rate and will be much more sensitive.


--
mailto:news{at}admac(dot}myzen{dot}co{dot}uk

On Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:23:32 +0100, Simon Cee wrote:



It's the webcam on the beach at South Sands in Devon. During the day
it shows average quality pictures, but at night it seems to switch
into some sort of infrared mode. I don't mean the scene is lit by
infrared light (although sometimes the foreground looks that way), but
even in the distance it picks out features in what must be very dark
conditions. People walking on the beach show up as bright white - and
moored boats in the distance show as grey (warmer than the surrounding
water) so it must be detecting heat/infrared.
What sort of camera has this facility? I thought this sort of
capability only existed within the military.

Link to camera web site;
http://www.southsands.com/content/web-camera

Screen capture of night shot;
http://i50.tinypic.com/1ovztj.png

Approc cam location - looks NE [45 deg]
50.2251 -3.7843

Most of the digital cameras I own, even the ones in basic mobile
phones have a night vision mode which works, I imagine, by ramping up
the CCD sensitivity (ISO) and integrating several frames together.

I just took my Blackberry outside (0100hrs) and in the night mode it
can easily pick up clouds illuminated by the lights of Manchester.

My son's Canon DSLR can photograph the brighter constellations even
without resorting to the highest ISO settings, just because the camera
in question is described as a "webcam" it doesn't preclude it having a
"fast" lens.

--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%

"Graham." wrote in message
...

Most of the digital cameras I own, even the ones in basic mobile
phones have a night vision mode which works, I imagine, by ramping up
the CCD sensitivity (ISO) and integrating several frames together.

I just took my Blackberry outside (0100hrs) and in the night mode it
can easily pick up clouds illuminated by the lights of Manchester.

My son's Canon DSLR can photograph the brighter constellations even
without resorting to the highest ISO settings, just because the camera
in question is described as a "webcam" it doesn't preclude it having a
"fast" lens.

IME most webcams have fast lenses but you can't get stars on them easily.
With a point source like stars you need aperture, as much as you can get.
A longer slower lens will beat a short fast lens most of the time on stars.

OTOH its quite easy to modify some webcams to take longer exposures and they
can fit into telescopes instead of an eyepiece and take good pictures of
planets and nebulae.

The webcam in question does appear to be integrating frames when you view it
live.
Probably about 10 frames looking at it live.
I have some and they can make night look like day but moving objects can
smear.
They are good for detecting motion in dark scenes so you now where to point
a better camera.

Yes, normally one has to cool the elements to below the temp of the lowest
possible temp to get it to work I'd have thought.

Brian

--
--
From the sofa of Brian Gaff -

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Simon Cee" wrote in message
...


It's the webcam on the beach at South Sands in Devon. During the day
it shows average quality pictures, but at night it seems to switch
into some sort of infrared mode. I don't mean the scene is lit by
infrared light (although sometimes the foreground looks that way), but
even in the distance it picks out features in what must be very dark
conditions. People walking on the beach show up as bright white - and
moored boats in the distance show as grey (warmer than the surrounding
water) so it must be detecting heat/infrared.
What sort of camera has this facility? I thought this sort of
capability only existed within the military.

Link to camera web site;
http://www.southsands.com/content/web-camera

Screen capture of night shot;
http://i50.tinypic.com/1ovztj.png

Approc cam location - looks NE [45 deg]
50.2251 -3.7843

On Wed, 5 Sep 2012 07:58:52 +0100, dennis@home wrote:

The webcam in question does appear to be integrating frames when you
view it live.

It may well be doing that but I think its also showing the heat signature
of objects rather than reflected visible light. Notice how the underside
of the table is brighter than the top, there are "hot" rocks above the
"cold" water line on the clifs, the distant boats and bouys show up very
clearly.

These sort of cameras don't come cheap but looking at some of the other
hotel pages I don't think cost would worry 'em that much.

--
Cheers
Dave.

In article o.uk, Dave
Liquorice writes
On Wed, 5 Sep 2012 07:58:52 +0100, dennis@home wrote:

The webcam in question does appear to be integrating frames when you
view it live.

It may well be doing that but I think its also showing the heat signature
of objects rather than reflected visible light. Notice how the underside
of the table is brighter than the top,

Don't think so, where the deck enters the water you can still see it in
the shallows, with long wave IR you would see the temp of the water.

there are "hot" rocks above the
"cold" water line on the clifs, the distant boats and bouys show up very
clearly.

These sort of cameras don't come cheap but looking at some of the other
hotel pages I don't think cost would worry 'em that much.

My guess is that this is a sensitive Sony Super HAD based camera (or
similar) with auto switch from colour to B/W in low light.
--
fred
it's a ba-na-na . . . .