How do you capture Video from camcorders

[addy]

Hi

How do all gurus capture the video using camcorders or the video camera? I saw Mr Chia's excellent work using mintron camera..

My Sony camcorder doesn't allow streaming vide through USB interface..

I was looking through commerially available video capture devices and came across a transcent product here..

anyone has experience using this or other capture devices..

regards

[VinSnr]

Hi

How do all gurus capture the video using camcorders or the video camera? I saw Mr Chia's excellent work using mintron camera..

My Sony camcorder doesn't allow streaming vide through USB interface..

I was looking through commerially available video capture devices and came across a transcent product here..

anyone has experience using this or other capture devices..

regards

The sony camcoder will be difficult. Most normal daily camcorders are not sensitive enough.

You need at least the Mintron or the Watec. I owned the Mintron before, the reason why it was so popular is because it has the ability to "prestack frames" before it displays on the screen. So it gives a pretty bright image on the screen although if you look into the eyepiece, the object is barely there!

However the mintron suffers from left amp glow and it's pretty noisy at high frame integration.

I am not to sure about the Watec except that it doesn't has the left amp glow problem.

If you really want to go into video, I really think you need to get either the Mintron or the Watec.

[weixing]

Hi,
You don't need to do "live" recording. You can always record to a tape, such as a Mini-DV.

Last time, I do some capture of moon, saturn and jupiter on a Mini-DV tape and then use a firewire card to transfer to my PC. If your camcorder don't have a firewire or USB support, you can get any Video Capture card or if you have a fast PC, you can use those USB capturing device. Below is a link to a company website that produce Video Capture device that can be found in singapore:
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/Category.asp ... ly=24#open

By the way, most Camcoder can't capture what Mr Chia capture... you need a very sensitive video camera to do that.

Have a nice day.

[madscientist]

can a de-infrared camcorder do the trick? there are small tiny bw cctv cams found in the market can capture images under very low light conditions, can they be used?

[carlogambino]

can a de-infrared camcorder do the trick? there are small tiny bw cctv cams found in the market can capture images under very low light conditions, can they be used?

Yes. Normal vid cams usually have a sensitivity range between 3-1 lux(smaller is better). CCTV cameras are good for astro video cos they have sensitivity range of around 0.03-0.01 lux. Check out 'A Guide to Commercial Sct's and Maksutovs' by Rod Mollise for more details.

[madscientist]

i discovered that bw cctv doesnt have a infrared filter. maybe it's time to rip off that filter from digicams to get a cheap "ccd" cam for astrophotography,