Hi--

David I don't know whether you answer individual questions by amateurs but if
you do here is one.

Often...;-)

I seek to buy a video cam corder which is good in almost no light and which
could turn itself on and off by motion detection. I heard that Sony made
such features. I need to catch a repeat thief. Can you make a suggestion?

BillLarkin@aol.com

Mamy (all) the Sony one-chip camcorders have the infrared
"nightshot" feature, which, with a true IR light source, allows
in-the-dark shooting with no visible light. The IR light on the
cameras, though, shows red, covers only a narrow angle, and
only goes out to about 10'. You would need either a good IR light
source, or at least a bit of tungsten light (which would be
visible, but could look unsuspicious to the thief - in IR
mode with slow-shutter, very little tungsten light is needed
to get an image). As for the auto-start, this is harder. With
tape in, the camera will auto shut-off around five minutes, and
only a few remotes will start it again, and it is a two-step
process, so hard to automate. Easier would be leaving the camera on in camera
mode but without tape, and hooking up the RCA connectors to a VHS VCR with an
8-hour (slowest record-mode) tape in it, recording the whole tape. Reuse the tape each
night until you get hit again... (hide the camera and VCR, of course, or they will be taken).
I wish you luck!