Night vision cameras

[asteven221]

We often use the boat at night in the winter in the pitch black. I quite enjoy night time boating but one thing that bothers me is running over lobster pot markers, especially when they have an extra pickup buoy. Also during the day our auto pilot seems to have some kind of death wish as it seems to specifically aim for them and I have to take avoiding action. It's pot (oops sorry) luck that I miss them at night.

I was on a boat yesterday fitted with some really cool (expensive looking) infrared and thermal imaging cameras. That got me thinking about the idea of fitting something that would give me some warning of a pending mishap with these pesky buoys at night.

What do others think about the idea of night vision kit? Is it a non starter really unless you go for really good high end kit?

 

[savageseadog]

Thermal imaging is very expensive and best but intensifier viewers and binoculars less so. You should go for generation 2 or 3 intensifiers as the performance is far higher than generation 1 and they are also far more robust.

 

[Seajet]

The above is correct, but there's a huge price difference between generations 1 & 2.

May be worth trying cheap gen 1 kit to start with, they're still very useful.

One tip; avoid the 'Yukon' monocular, mine only lasted less than 2 hours total use, then packed up - naturally the suppliers had gone bust in the meantime...

If possible, get kit which can fit on a camera, usually via an adaptor.

 

[Searush]

FWIW, I recently fitted an IR rear view camera to my Motorhome. No good for long distance as it is very wide angle, but the whole set up was only 50 squid.

Probably be useful for picking up mooring bouys at slow speed, but I doubt you would manage too avoid pot markers at speed.

 

[Csail]

Unless you want to spend a fortune don't think about it.
Pots are a pain, why can't they mark them with a reflective flag.If they did a small led lamp on the bow would easilly pick them out.

 

[Seajet]

I wouldn't really go along with that, even 1st generation can be useful, here's just one supplier;

http://www.binoculars-uk.org.uk/night_vision.htm

 

[FishyInverness]

Given Raymarine's new foster parent being an IR thermal imaging company, it's no surprise to see their catalogue now starting to feature Thermal Imaging cameras as part of their systems...If you have the funds, take a look there

 

[asteven221]

Pots are a pain, why can't they mark them with a reflective flag.If they did a small led lamp on the bow would easilly pick them out.

I totally agree with that!

A reflective tag and no pickup buoy would make a no cost good start at safe (er) nightime passages. Sometimes it seems like they actually want to damage our boats given the way they operate.

Thanks for the info on the night vision cameras. Mucho appreciated.