Night vision spy camera $10 high gain microphone test

[redtv4me2010]

What is the model of the GE Mic?

[vwestlife]

@redtv4me2010 It is GE model 98950.

[kargaroc386]

The music from 0:12 to 1:00 what is it?

[vwestlife]

@kargaroc386 I don't know. I got it from a broadcast of Radio 227 in the Netherlands. They use it as the closing theme for their news reports.

[survivor030406]

good demonstration. I can't find a video I saw a coupe days ago. It showed one particular sony camera that had adjustable nightshot mode or sensitivity. Which video is it?

[vwestlife]

@survivor030406 I'm not familiar with everyone else's videos, but among my own, in "Sony CCD-TR940 Hi8 XR stereo camcorder full overview & demo" I demonstrate adjusting the exposure while in Nightshot mode.

[6minutetutorials]

@vwestlife dude the Sony digital8 handycam DCR-TRV103 got nightvision and it has a mic input

[TehMG]

Yeah most computer's mic-in jacks aren't very good especially on integrated sound card and a lot of sound cards too. They have mic boost feature but it is extremely noisy.

I built a USB powered mic pre-amp so I could use an XLR dynamic mic with my computer, as it needs more gain than the sound card can provide without mic boost.

[weasel2htm]

Curious, why do you have the tip and the ring swapped? (red and white on the cable)

[vwestlife]

@weasel2htm I swapped the colors because the cable was made with the colors reversed... its red plug is the left channel and its white plug is the right channel, the opposite of normal. But in this case it doesn't really matter anyway since the microphone is only mono.

[weasel2htm]

Simple as that, I expected something more technical.

[SpeakerFreak95]

cool marantz reciever and big speaker

[SpeakerFreak95]

i already bought one for my camera for when i make videos

[BadEditPro]

Wow, that GE mic sounds great! I think I'll go find me one of them... :) JC

[SlimeTron5000]

I do not take a torch.

[SlimeTron5000]

I developed a "Bionic Ear" that with a large wooden bowl and the electret microphone faces the bowl. With volume control, and a 3.5mm socket for headphones!

I am surprized your Sony video camera does not have dynamic range compression on its sound, but my Sony video camera does and it is annoying.

[vwestlife]

It does have a limiter which prevents loud sounds from overmodulating. I can talk with my mouth right up to the GE microphone and it won't distort.

If yours is a DVD camcorder, it may be counteracting with the "dynamic range control" that is an inherent part of the DVD standard. Most computer based DVD players have the option to adjust the sensitivity of the dynamic compression or to turn it off, but on most hardware DVD players it is fixed at the "medium" setting and cannot be turned off.

[SlimeTron5000]

No. It is not a DVD video camera. It is a miniDV camera.

[SlimeTron5000]

Do you know much about miniDV video cameras and their 'dynamic range' setting?

[drum00]

if i was you i just use that for all vids tape it to ze camcorder :)

[vwestlife]

The GE mic picks up way too much tape motor noise if I have it close to the camcorder. I'm working on getting a high quality external stereo Sony mic that clips onto the camcorder's accessory shoe.

[drum00]

Oh.....thats right you use the hi8 or something.

[vwestlife]

Digital8... it uses Hi8 tapes but records digital video on them (same format as MiniDV).

[ThisIs2009]

this proves how good cheap stuff is when you find the right use for it :-)

[maynardcat]

Dramatic difference from the Sony camcorder mic to the GE mic. It was extremely sensitive at a distance, but did not over modulate on your voice up close, very impressive. I found two Sony camcorders at the pawn shop. They are A DCR TRV27, and DCR TRV38 at 120.00 each. I am sure they will take less, but don't know how they compare to yours.

[vwestlife]

Both of those models are MiniDV camcorders with a 1.07-megapixel CCD image sensor. The low light sensitivity will not be as good, but in good lighting they will have crystal-clear video quality.

[maynardcat]

Thanks for that information.

[user12119]

Sony are starting to phase out the nightshot feature on their never camcorders, I suspect it has something to do with the new 60x optical zoom.

[batterymaker]

BTW, that'd make a great surveillance setup!

[batterymaker]

Was that the camera they recalled ten years ago because it supposedly could see underneath clothes, a la x-ray glasses? I had a good laugh when i heard that on the news back then.

[vwestlife]

That was back in 1998, and Sony claimed they made changes to reduce the chance of NightShot seeing through clothing. This camcorder was made in 1999, so I missed out on that feature!

[umajunkcollector]

I'm gonna check one of those out, kewl!

I made a parabolic mic holder out of a round kids sled. It's about two feet in diameter. I used an old cheapo christmas tree tripod stand from a small tree to hold the mic in the middle of the disk. I'm planning to make a vid soon, I'd like to get some geese flying over in formation, my VHS camcorder has a mic jack.

[coolbluelights]

Wow that's really sensitive! both mic and camera, I really need something like this for night filming. how do you get the video onto your computer? I have to film the TV screen, and the only thing I can find that interfaces a VCR to my computer costs over $100 :S

[vwestlife]

This is a Digital8 camcorder so it connects directly to the computer through a FireWire cable (also known as i.Link or IEEE-1394), just like a MiniDV camcorder. You're thinking of the analog camcorders, which only offer composite video (and sometimes S-Video) connections.

[DrCassette]

The night shot feature is amazing. And it's usable for making real videos too! My Panasonic camcorder has a night shot function too, but it just extends the exposure time. That works, but the video is very very skippy (It records like 2 frames per second :P)

Also the microphone is very good! Very sensitive.

[vwestlife]

Sony's NightShot does offer a slow shutter speed mode in order to increase the sensitivity (which I used for most of this video), but you can also leave that off and use NightShot at full shutter speed for smooth motion.

[DrCassette]

I noticed that the shutter speed was slightly lower, but that was still good, compared to that mode on my Panasonic camcorder. Motion looks a little bit like stop motion on my camcorder :)

[BungaEBiker]

The GE mic was really good but the night shot was really grainy. Is it any better with a different focus setting?

[vwestlife]

NightShot produces better results when there are nearby objects for the infrared light to reflect off of. Sony claims it only has a useable range of 10 feet, although I've found it reflects off of objects up to 30 feet away. Any further than that and you are just relying on the camera's image sensor to pick up extremely dark objects, which will result in grainy (but visible!) footage.

[AG3304]

That's a very good mic.Good night shot too!

[GanEdenAustralia]

good mic

[kllolmi123]

wicked! nice cam

[WinLinOSX]

I have almost the same camera. I love the night view.