IRLamp7 PRO - Infrared Illuminator for Video

Limited Stock - Special order

Most powerful, compact, robust, & dimmable infrared light available for video recording in total darkness; for wildlife & filmmaking professionals.

When your job is to count bats exiting from a roost or viewing any sort of nocturnal wildlife, you need to be able to see the entire area. Any you need enough light to clearly see and distinguish your targets. For lighting large or distant areas, the onboard Sony, Canon, and many cheap accessory lights are woefully insufficient. Many illuminators concentrate power in a small spot, which is almost useless for video. You will fail to see all the bats that are there, and your count will be inaccurate.

If you purchased a Sony NightShot, Canon INFRARED, or other IR capable camcorder and tried it out, you discovered that the built-in infrared (IR) light doesn’t give much of an image except at very short range. To utilize the full capabilities of these features, you simply need more light.

IRLamp7 PRO - Light for DV cameras. IRLamp7 PRO is an incredibly bright IR source for field use. It offers high performance IR LEDs in a specially designed heat sink case. At less than three inches in diameter, the lamp takes up very little room in a backpack. This lamp is exclusively sold by Bat Conservation and Management, Inc. 

Differences between the IRLamp6 and IRLamp7 PRO:

• Over 2x more powerful
• Includes user changeable "Narrow" and "Wide" lenses
• Adjustable output up to 5 watts
• "Narrow" lens fills 16:9 field of view, no need for twin lights to fill the camera frame
• 2.1mm power cord compatible with common lithium-ion battery packs

Design elements of IRLamp7 PRO:

• Radiated photonic power is variable from 1 - 5 watts with built-in potentiometer for user-adjustable output.
• More than 2x as powerful than the predecessor IRLamp6 (IR6 output is fixed at 1.6 watts)
• Compact and field rugged film production quality. Designed for photography with no undesirable "hot spot" of light in the image. Produces bright light with an even beam angle suited to most video cameras.
• Works with Sony NightShot and Cannon INFRARED mode, but also any other cameras with near IR features as well as night vision -enabled  CCTV surveillance cameras.
• Completely solid state, no filaments to burn out.
• LED with 10,000 hour lifetime.
• Efficient use of battery power, puts far more of the energy into light, minimizes waste so you carry a smaller battery.
• The wavelength of the light is just long enough to not be visually disturbing to most wildlife, but short enough to fall within the sensitivity of most IR-capable video cameras. Peak wavelength is 850 nm.
• Mounted with a common 1/4"-20 thread standard on photographic tripods in solid aluminum chassis- will not break if/when your light falls over, etc.
• Far more compact + rugged than similarly rated CCTV illuminators.

Includes "Narrow" and "Wide" beam lens

• Lens is user-changeable. Both lenses are wider than the previous IRLamp6 models. Lens could not be changed on IRLamp6 lights.
• The "Narrow" lens is approximately 30-40 degrees.
• The "Narrow" lens will resolve bats up to about 150 feet. This range is highly dependent on which camera you use (cameras vary with the infrared quality; the larger the CCD the better) and the zoom setting of the lens. This beam can fill a 4:3 aspect frame, and the 16:9 widescreen.
• The "Wide" lens is for extremely close work when the camera lens is near it's widest setting.
• Previous generation IRLamp6 usually required 2 lamps to fill a 16:9 screen brightly. Due to lens and power output, one IRLamp7 replaces two IRLamp6 lights.

Power

• 5.5mm x 2.1mm power plugs are compatible with a wide selection is readily available lithium-ion battery packs and inexpensive cables for CCTV cameras. 
• Each lamp comes with one 2.1mm male to male power cord 24'' long. Add 2.1mm "Y" power splitter to run more than 1 lamp from a single battery. 
• We recommended this "small"  6000 mAh lithium-ion battery for one light (9+ hours) or two lights (4+ hours) at low power setting.
• For longer runtime, we recommend this "medium" 11500 mAh lithium-ion battery for almost twice the run time, handy for when recharging between shoots may not be immediately convenient.
• One lamp draws 1.2 amps from a 12VDC source at full power (5 watts)
• Lamp is not powered thru the camera, an external power source is required.
• Lamps are internally regulated and up to 20VDC can be used for power.
• An under voltage lockout circuit (~8V) turns off the lamp when the battery is exhausted, avoiding over-discharge of the battery.

Why we're impressed: John Chenger at Bat Conservation and Management, Inc. has been using IRLamp6 and IR7 PRO illuminators for many, many years now. Coupled with appropriate infrared-enabled cameras, this system actually provides sharper images than when recorded thorough our $5,000 ITT G3 night vision scope. There is no brighter, more compact, better designed IR illuminator in the world.

"I have a few lights from the less expensive competitor. The light stand fell over and the mount broke instantly due to the cheap 3D printed plastic. They also lack a heat sink so life expectancy probably isn't as long as the IRLamp. The light fall off at the edges is more pleasing with the IRLamp. I am reminded of the saying 'you get what you pay for' and am sticking with the IRLamp."

Camera recommendations? Camera models are refreshed as quickly as every 6-12 months and we cannot maintain a list of current state-of-the-art models with the IR night feature. However, see our help article for a list of important points to help you choose a good IR camera.