On Thu, 10 Feb 2000 22:22:44 +0000, Stuart Brown
>In article
>
>>Can someone please tell me what exactly Sony did to their post (98?)
>>models to prevent the "x-ray effect"?
>
>They disabled the Nightshot working in normal/bright lighting -
>everything is over-exposed.
>
>Anybody out there care to share what they use their Nightshot for? The
>only use I have found with mine is to see my nocturnal fish in my
>fishtank. It's pretty impressive seeing a room in total darkness, but
>then again there's not so much that happens in a room in total darkness!
Well, I find it quite useful, and think Sony botched this
one by disabling a really neat feature for a silly reason...
Daylight IR shooting (in B&W, not "toothpaste-green" mode)
is beautiful - skies and water are black, clouds are white
(and even overcast skies have considerable cloud detail with
IR), foliage is near-white and ghostly, skin has a light,
"translucent" look, buildings and roads tend to be dark,
car lights flash - effects that can bore one quickly in still
photography, but which continue to delight when in
motion... (BTW, those "snappy" Mitsubishi B&W car ads are
often shot in IR.) The effects are strong with the Sony
night-shot cameras with daylight IR capability not disabled
even with no filter over the lens. Adding a yellow, orange,
or red filter will increase the effect somewhat, and using
an 87 IR filter increases it somewhat more - but a simple
no. 25 B&W filter works fine. If I think to do it, I will
put an IR frame-grab in my camcorder reviews (under "I
babble" on my web page) in the TRV-9 section. (Also, BTW,
the "X-ray" effect that so bothered Sony and caused them
to disable this nice feature works only with single layers
of shear cloth, and then none too well - getting too
excited about that capability is absurd...).