The Sony HVLIRM Battery Infrared Light

The Sony HVLIRM battery infrared Light is a great tool to use for a camcorder with poor night vision. The tool attaches to a camcorders accessory shoe, or by using the supplied accessory shoe if your camcorder does not have one, and extends night vision up to a claimed 100 feet. Indoors, the light can reach 100 feet, but the farther away the object is it will become less defined. Outdoors at night it is a different story.

The way that night vision works, is that the lights are made of infrared bulbs. The light extends in front of the camera, bounces off of objects, returns to the sensor, and the camcorder creates the picture on the screen in grey scale. When you are indoors, there are plenty of objects for the sensors to bounce the light off of, so it can reach 100 feet easily. When you are outside, often times the light extends into the area in front of you, only able to hit trees, or anything else within the 100 feet. If there is not anything within 100 feet, the screen will appear black.

This Infrared light has two ways of being powered. The first is to use two double A batteries. The second is to buy a rechargeable Sony info lithium M series battery. This type of battery can easily be found online, and in electronics stores. The two available models are the NP-QM71D or NP-QM91D battery pack. However, many stores specializing in batteries have cheaper versions of the same batteries that last just as long, if not longer. On the side of the light, there is a switch with 3 commands. An off switch, and a switch to power the tool using the double A batteries power, and a switch to use power from a battery pack.

A good practice to use if you have a battery pack is to put both double A batteries, and the battery pack in. This way, if the pack runs out of power, you can simply change the switch to the battery setting, and continue filming. Another great feature is you can adjust how far the IR light reaches. Not only does this prevent extremely close objects become washed out by the brightness, but it also saves the battery life. Overall I give the Sony HVLIRM Battery Infrared Light 5 out of 5 stars. One tip I will give if you decide to buy this, is buy it on either Amazon or eBay. If you buy it direct from the manufacturer, you may be paying more than twice what you may pay elsewhere in the same exact condition.