I'm looking to add a night vision camera to my Stage managers station. I was wondering what everyone uses and if there is a product that is highly recommended. I'd prefer something with a simple HDMI or SDI output, but I'm open to any suggestions.
Most of the time I see off the shelf security cameras being used for this. Haven't seen any loyalty to a specific make/model for any particular reason other than getting something with a long-throw lens if you're shooting 100' to your stage. If you have a long throw I would pick up separate IR flood lights to cover your stage since the built-in lights may not have enough punch and putting some lights on-stage will give better visual contrast on your display monitor than the deer-in-the-headlights approach.
Per @MNicolai my venue's low light system is an off-the-shelf security camera and a compatible monitor. The IR illumination comes from the emitters for our hearing assist system.
Low-light Black and White
Watec WAT-902H2 1/2" Ultra Compact B/W Camera
Everfocus EN7508M 8" Mini Mobile Surveillance Monitor
Tamron M13VM288IR 1/3" 2.8 to 8mm F/1.2 DC Iris IR Corrected Lens
Per @MNicolai my venue's low light system is an off-the-shelf security camera and a compatible monitor. The IR illumination comes from the emitters for our hearing assist system.
Low-light Black and White
Watec WAT-902H2 1/2" Ultra Compact B/W Camera
Everfocus EN7508M 8" Mini Mobile Surveillance Monitor
Tamron M13VM288IR 1/3" 2.8 to 8mm F/1.2 DC Iris IR Corrected Lens
We use a SD security camera as well. To augment the weenie IR LEDs on the camera itself we have a fresnel on our first lx pointed straight down with two cuts of R27 and two cuts of R91. Run it at like 8% and it will light up the stage quite well with IR light in pitch black. It's a trick I learned from someone on here, so I can't take credit.
I do want to one day explore removing the light sensor in the camera as it will randomly switch back and forth between IR and normal during a show. It seems to favor certain wavelengths of light and certain looks will cause it to switch to normal at annoying times. The internal relay is loud enough to be picked up by our house mics on the lighting bridge so it's a mild inconvenience.