Solution or nightmare ?

[treetop]

Hi,
I am new here... So please be gentle !

I haven idea that may work but I thought someone must have thought of it 1st ..& they aybe on here .

Can I turn a car reversing camara kit ( cheep off the bay ) into a handheld NV spotting rig ?


They Mostly come with a 4.3" LCD monitor, I have various IR torches ( T20, L 808 & L 940 ) that will throw light
I know that it will have wide angle lens, and I will need to look at that .... But I can pick up a kit for around £ 25 ...

But am I wasting my time ???
Is there better options for less than £ 50 ??

Thanks
Al

[Snapper]

A better option would be a Sony super HAD II camera for £18 (or less of you shop around) with the ir filter removed, a c mount 50 mm f1.4 lens for around £15, a 12 v Li ion bettery for £8 and a screen for £13. You would have to do quite a bit of tinkering and lateral thinking to get them together but it would work much, much better than a reversing camera.

[some bloke]

The cameras will likely be very poor so you will have to compensate by using extra light.

However, spotters don't need as much light as add-ons so it should work OK but you will likely always have to use IR - rather than only sometimes.

[treetop]

Thanks guys...

Any links to good places that you would recommend, that I can pick up the bits you suggest ?

I have got a 700TVL IR CUT PAL camera that I ripped out of a CCTV camera .. It has a fixed 3.6mm lens ...
Would that work ?

[some bloke]

Probably be OK with a bigger lens for a spotter - see snappers post about the lens etc.

[dedduk 1963]

Hi TT.I bought a reversing kit off the bay £25 .. I think it was good for about 25yds , no good for what i wanted, so I used the screen plugged into my Bresser monocular, all plugged into the vehicle socket, could see a fox out to 150 yds with extra IR , I know you talked hand held ,I had the screen in the cab of the vehicle, and it was quite bright would certainly spooked anything if I'd been walking , John

[treetop]

Hi,
Cheers for the reply ...
I think i am going to give this a go,
I know I need to change the lens, as yes, it won't go out past 25m with the 4mm lens they come with, as they are designed for wide angle / short distance.
After much research I have got hold of a 9-22mm s-mount lens that should fit straight on the board, that should give me the distance I require.
I will try and run the whole thing off 3x 18650 batteries to make it portable & use either a seperate T20ir or the pulsar 808 for illumination.

I have a green filter screen to go over the TFT .. It should do the trick

We can only try ... If it works .. Great ! If not , the car gets a camera ..