We are trying to find a camera that will take high quality images of plant growth in a black dark box with a red LED light beamed at the plant. basically, we will set the cam up to take pics at different intervals. we need a camera that will give us the best quality under almost no light.
Any ideas?

2/1/2007 12:41:59 AM

why not use IR LEDs intstead of red ones?

2/1/2007 1:21:14 AM

hell, one of those cheap toy video cameras from Toy's R Us are b/w and can see infrared light

2/1/2007 1:41:46 AM

Most camcorders are sensitive to IR light.

Unless you mean like thermal IR cameras...

[Edited on February 1, 2007 at 1:45 AM. Reason : ]

2/1/2007 1:45:13 AM

There was a series of Nikon digital cameras - something in the coolpix range - that had IR capabilities. You can go old school, get a nice SLR camera (something that doesn't use an IR light to track the film frames like certian Canon cameras), some Kodak IR film, an IR filter, and shoot it the old fashion way. Search for websites on IR digital photography if you're looking for digital options.

2/1/2007 10:43:13 AM

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0701/07010403fujifilmfinepixis1.asp

2/1/2007 1:02:54 PM

A lot of the Sony cameras and video cameras have a mode called nightshot that will record in total darkness using IR, there's not even a need to have an external IR source the camera has some pretty bright IR lights built into it that turn on when you activate the nightshot mode. I have a Sony DSC-F717 camera and Sony DCR-TRV50 MiniDV camcorder, they both have the nightshot mode and it works surprisingly well.

2/1/2007 7:29:10 PM

you do realize photosynthesis is not limited to visible light, right?

2/1/2007 7:41:20 PM

You do realize that IR is not effectively absorbed by plants for photosythesis and only certain bacteria utilize it to any real extent right? You also realize that the vast majoritiy of light utilized in photosynthesis is of much shorter wavelength than IR right?



Infrared starts at about 750nm and goes to about 1mm. Notice the absorption drops off to almost nothing there. Although it may look like using green light would be similarly effective, the scaling of the graph is to blame for that misconeption. Certainly much less photsynthesis will happen with 500nm green light than with full spectrum light, but under only infrared the photosynthesis will practically stop in nearly all plants.

It's good to point out though that visible red light would probably be the worst to use as it is most-efficiently absorbed in most plants. So...

Quote :

"why not use IR LEDs intstead of red ones?"

I guess that post wins...

[Edited on February 1, 2007 at 8:24 PM. Reason : ]

2/1/2007 8:15:48 PM

good feedback!

do you guys know any specific cam that can be set up to take pictures at intervals? for example, set it up for 5 hours and it takes a picture every 10 minutes under the "no light" situations. Our research has kinda directed us towards
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_1/601-3713745-8964138?ie=UTF8&asin=B000I1VJ6K&frombrowse=1

Some cams have a software where you can program the cam while connected to the computer.

?

2/1/2007 9:24:04 PM