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Posted: 5/2/2007 7:42:31 AM EDT
| I am looking for a little help on a Nikon Camera to use with some new night vision equipment my dept is going to purchase. The equipment that is going to be used is the PVS-14 and a 6010. The rep from ITT said that the mounts they carry will only work for the Nikon Camera. I do not know if mega pix make a diffrence or other features on a camera are needed to take proper pics with night vision. |
| I am not sure on all the adapters out there for specific cameras but I can tell you what I use and my settings. All of my NV pics are done with a Minolta ZiMage Digi. After MUCH experimentation, I simply pop off the rubber eye guard, place the camera right up against the PVS-14 eyepiece and snap away, I use the automatic setting on the camera and cancel the flash. With a Gen 3 tube, I have no issue with the camera locking onto something to focus. With a Gen2 I have a few more difficulties with the lower gain of the tube. All in all, I have found out that I can take pretty good night shots without the use of an adapter. Hope this helps. |
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I've got the Lensmate Canon G7 58mm lens adapter inbound with a 58-52mm step down ring to use with my PVS-14 & camera adapter & 52-46mm stepdown ring. My first tests with the G7 indicated it might be very good for use with the PVS-14, we'll be finding out real soon. |
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I have one of the camera adapters (not the relay lens) that is shown on the ITT website. It has a collar that goes around the eyepiece end of the PVS-14/6015/6010 and is held together by a ring that threads onto the collar. The back side of the ring is threaded for a standard 46mm camera filter style of attachment. You basically screw the NVD onto the front of the camera lens. You can get an adapter from the local camera store that will adapt the 46mm diameter to larger or smaller sizes. This setup is pretty much oriented towards an SLR style of camera. The whole setup can get kind of long and unwieldy, so use a camera lens with a short overall length if possible. The adapter costs around $50 give or take a few. The other way to do it is to get a point-and-shoot camera and hold it by hand against the back end of the NVD. Most point-and-shoot cameras don't have threads on the lens, so you would have to find or construct some special apparatus if you want to combine the two into a single device. As far as resolution, the image coming out of the NVD is noisy enough that a 4 MP camera is more than sufficient to get a decent image. I hope this helps. |
This is how I take all my NV shots! I set the camera to auto and not too shabby. I am sure guys like Edwin and Mfingar can and will show much greater results! 
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If you look at this photo of my little Canon G7, you can see the black ring surrounding the actual lens where the lens adapter mounts (you remove the ring), this will allow the Lensmate lens adapter (58mm threads) to mount, and with a couple of step down rings the ITT camera adapter will mount right up. I ran the same setup on my Olympus E-1 DSLR, but never really got exceptional photos from the combination, something about the combination was incompatible with proper focus, mnual or automatic. I've got high hopes for the little Canon. 
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OK, here's the setup:  Looks pretty good, and is very secure to boot. Of course there are a lot of controls to operate, both on the 14 and on the G7 but it won't take much work to master them. Needless to say, the G7 optical veiwfinder is useless in this mode! First, a couple of test shots taken while I figure the settings out. Here is one in the garage, very very dark, some ambient light this evening from under the garage door from streetlights outside, but other than that no light at all, I couldn't see crap in there!  And here's a shot at wide angle of some of the grandkids stuff on the den floor, sharpness is pretty good and at ISO 400 noise is well under control with very minimal illumination (I knocked one of the "gears" off the toy on the left with my foot going in what was a very dark room).  The image stabilization of the Canon is going to be a big plus with this application. So far very encouraging results in what is a pretty compact package. |
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It's the stock lens, the Lensmate adapter mounts to the body around the lens to allow you to use teleconverters, or wide angle adapters or in this case a PVS-14 with the stock lens. I found using Program mode (which automatically sets shutter and aperture), flash off, ISO 400 works fairly well, shutter speeds were around 1/20 which isn't too low with the image stabilization, Macro off (it seemed to focus better), flash off, gave good results. The G7 has a ISO 3200 mode which gives acceptable results with more noise but high shutter speeds. Of course this was just to verify function, tweeking the image parameters, working with the focus adjustments, and of course post processing should lead to some pretty good NV images. I'll have a lot more time to work with it when I get a day/night off and I'm not watching the grandkids, but so far pretty promising, and a heck of a lot easier than trying to hold both devices at one time. |
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Here's the setup I've worked up with N-Vision GT-14. Had to do a bit of shopping to get the right "step-up/step-down" adapter rings (Check w/ B&H Photo - NYC). GT-14 comes with their 37mm video adapter ring. http://i14.tinypic.com/66n2ki1.jpg http://i17.tinypic.com/4q4fh38.jpg [email protected] |
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Here's another photo (hopefully smaller) of setup using vehicle window mount. http://i18.tinypic.com/4opgdxj.jpg [email protected] |
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GT-14 weapons mounted w/ Nikon CP800 http://i8.tinypic.com/4ttl6ab.jpg |
I changed to photobucket, here are some of the other shots.    Going to make a few more, after tomorrow I actually have 3 days off in a row! And we'll see what this baby can really do, without the demist and sacrificial lens attached!. |
Glad to see the pics back up! What lighting conditions are these latest pics represent? Urban dark, some light, etc? I am about to pull the trigger on the G7! |
This was urban dark, 1/4 moon and some ambient light from the other side of the house. Without NV, you would have never known the water hose or wheelbarrow were even there, and no way you would spot anyone in dark clothing under the far tree or up against the privacy fence if they weren't moving. |
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Here's some more pics. First, indoors, pitch black with some minor ambient light coming in from around the window curtains (outside streetlights).  My run of the mill no blemish PVS-14 doesn't have the best halo numbers as you can tell by the led on the charger in this shot. Extremely dark, Jessica Alba could've been in that bed and you wouldn't have known it!  Back corner of the yard, totally dark, only stars no moon, ambient light other side of the fence, again no way you would have seen Jessica.  Some ambient light from the house windows, but you'd be hard pressed to see anyone in the swing, much less behind it.   Back corner again from a little farther away, again the PVS/G7 reveals quite a bit of detail.  My old '71 'vette by the street, someone had just pulled in across the way but the G7 handles it well.  I've found that the G7 at ISO400 in P mode gives very acceptable and quick hand held photos. No real need for a tripod, leave image stabilization on, flash off, macro off, and just shoot away. Feild sharpness was enhanced a bit by removing the demist sheild, but I left the sacrificial lens in place. You also can do pretty useful NV videos with the G7, particularly neat following planes across the sky, I think they almost had a mid-air tonight, unless one of them was a satellite! |
The G7 is doing VERY well it seems!
Gulp! Edit, What does da guy get that sold you that PVS?? 
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