Shooting at night with Nightshot Camera, can I add extra light

Hi,

I want to shoot at night, its a documentary and includes a woman who feeds badgers, I cant add extra 'visible' light as it will scare them away. I have a Sony HC1E which has Nightshoot mode. It looks like it has some sort of inferred light in it but its not very powerful. Can I build or buy a light to create better illumination?

Ben

You can buy stronger infared lights. They're usually built in other devices, but you could use it to light up the area while you film with your Sony.

This is the official Sony product:

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/cac-flashes---lights/hvl-hirl#pageType=Overview

It fits onto your cameras hot-shoe and is powered by the cameras battery. Of course, this means the battery will run flat quicker, but this light will greatly improve the distance to which your camera can effectivly "see", compared to using the built-in IR lamp alone.

If you search Google for "IR Lamps", you'll find a umber of companies that sell 'Security InfaRed Lights'. You could get a number of these lights and fix them around your shooting location. That would offer you the best solution, as you can get your lights closer to the subject.