Infrared illumination - experiences?

[JohnnyMalaria]

I'm on the hunt for a decent infrared source to use with my HDR-HC1's Nightshot function and am looking for recommendations!

Here's why:

We have a bird feeder hanging from an old pin oak tree about 20 to 30 feet from our kitchen window. We fill it to the brim everyday. That's a lot of bird seed. Some mornings we find the feeder about 10 feet from the tree on the ground! It requires quite some dexterity because of the way it is hooked. Well, we know the culprit - a racoon. With a 100W outside light on, my HC1 can just about detect it but only in Super Nightshot mode - i.e., about 4 fps.

I'm looking for a powerful IR LED source so I can record at 29.97 and see the detail without too much noise.

Sony sell one but by all accounts it is crapola.

I'm considering this:

http://www.batmanagement.com/Ordering/irlight/irlight.html

Any experiences or suggestions?

Thanks.

[redwudz]

I use this company for surveillance equipment. They have a good selection of infrared illuminators: http://www.supercircuits.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=432

[JohnnyMalaria]

Thanks.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Update - I've ordered this one:

http://www.supercircuits.com/index.asp?pageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=5436

Should arrive early next week. I'll run some trials and post my findings.

[mikel]

If you want to do a bit more than just record the raccoon,
you might check this out.

http://www.pestproducts.com/yard_gard.htm

(Put a timer on it so it only triggers at night.)

I.R. motion triggered, with a 116 dB ultrasonic blaster.

...then record what happens.

[JohnnyMalaria]

I appreciate the suggestion but I want to attract these animals and not scare them away. We consider our property something of a wildlife sanctuary.

[mikel]

Not a problem....I betcha this thing can be modified to JUST trigger your
camera when the raccoon arrives.

[redwudz]

Observing them is OK. But please don't feed them. We had a neighbor that put out large quantities of dog food for the raccoons. Fed quite a few. Some had a canine disease that spread among the others as they were now concentrated in one location. This ended up wiping out most of the population of the local raccoons. She wasn't helping at all, just causing damage. Leave them wild. Something to consider.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Couldn't agree more. Feeding dog food to dogs is questionable enough.

By "attract" I mean "not deter/scare away". We live on an old farm so there is plenty of naturally available food for the menagerie of animals we're lucky to share the land with.

The only deterent we use is, well, pee. Has to be male pee. Around certain plants the deer like (we've a herd of about 23 right now).

[redwudz]

I also use low light cameras from that site. One I recently bought has a .0003 lux sensitivity. It will see easily by moonlight. Since many of my setups need a hundred foot or more range, I haven't used any infrared illuminators. And they are a bit obvious if someone spots them as they look a bit strange. I also found light sources like mercury vapor or florescent lighting doesn't put out enough light in the infrared spectrum that a video camera needs to 'see' with.

I have plenty of 'wildlife', though I live in a suburban area and on a major street. There is a large forested area within a half mile. I've had bears chew on my trash can, deer sleeping by my front door, raccoons and skunks wandering through. The skunks can be a problem in the dark if you don't watch your step.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Well, it arrived a couple of days ago - along with violent storms and tornadoes - so I had to wait until last night to try it.

I left my HDV camcorder recording to a laptop overnight - 8 hours of mostly nothing much. But a raccoon did turn up at about 3am and literally hung on the bird feeder for nearly 40 minutes, devouring most of the seed.

I've created a short, low res clip. I made it black and white plus boosted the brightness and contrast:

http://www.enosoft.net/videos/Raccoon.wmv (~5MB)

[jagabo]

Cool video!

[edDV]

If you want to do a bit more than just record the raccoon,
you might check this out.

http://www.pestproducts.com/yard_gard.htm

(Put a timer on it so it only triggers at night.)

I.R. motion triggered, with a 116 dB ultrasonic blaster.

...then record what happens.

Now that is interesting. Deer come up on the deck and eat everything green. Raccoons leave their muddy footprints.

Also, the Sony nightshot is a great way to track down an escaped cat at night. You get great IR reflection from the cat's eyes.