Hi all, I was hoping to get some input on which are the best compact (dash cameras or action cameras) for extremely low light applications.
I'm a marine scientist and we deploy small cameras in underwater housing to survey fish populations. Our new project is working in ~500ft of water (aka super dark). I am interested in the following cameras, and I was wondering if anyone had one or multiple of these models and have done low-light bench tests on them. Or if anyone has suggestions of other cameras to look into.
FDR x3000
Gitup Duo3
Blueskysea Mini 0906
My understanding is that I need the largest sensor I can find which I can also set at a low resolution. I can sacrifice resolution, (we will likely be identifying based on silhouettes at those depths anyways) in exchange for enough light to have increased horizontal range so we can count the fishes at a distance. We aren't using the videos for any type of production, so noise isn't an issue as long as its not so grainy that I can't get relatively clean edges on the features.
They need to be compact because we deploy them by hand (need to be able to fit them in underwater housings). They need enough battery life to last a minimum of 30 minutes in cold conditions. They also need to be relatively inexpensive (we need to buy ~a dozen because we will have simultaneous trips and need multiple cameras on each deployment to get a 360 degree view).
Basically I need a camera that is small, cheap, and good in low light (aka impossible).
All the newer GoPro models do not handle these conditions very well (Hero 3 was actually the best for this type of work).
Ideally, someone with multiple action cameras would be gracious enough to conduct a simultaneous bench test (like this:
). In a dark room light on for 1 second and off for 30 seconds.
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated! There are so many options out there its hard to know where to start.
I'm a marine scientist and we deploy small cameras in underwater housing to survey fish populations. Our new project is working in ~500ft of water (aka super dark). I am interested in the following cameras, and I was wondering if anyone had one or multiple of these models and have done low-light bench tests on them. Or if anyone has suggestions of other cameras to look into.
FDR x3000
Gitup Duo3
Blueskysea Mini 0906
My understanding is that I need the largest sensor I can find which I can also set at a low resolution. I can sacrifice resolution, (we will likely be identifying based on silhouettes at those depths anyways) in exchange for enough light to have increased horizontal range so we can count the fishes at a distance. We aren't using the videos for any type of production, so noise isn't an issue as long as its not so grainy that I can't get relatively clean edges on the features.
They need to be compact because we deploy them by hand (need to be able to fit them in underwater housings). They need enough battery life to last a minimum of 30 minutes in cold conditions. They also need to be relatively inexpensive (we need to buy ~a dozen because we will have simultaneous trips and need multiple cameras on each deployment to get a 360 degree view).
Basically I need a camera that is small, cheap, and good in low light (aka impossible).
All the newer GoPro models do not handle these conditions very well (Hero 3 was actually the best for this type of work).
Ideally, someone with multiple action cameras would be gracious enough to conduct a simultaneous bench test (like this:
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated! There are so many options out there its hard to know where to start.