UAV camera

[Tom1234]

I am looking for a UAV cameras (one for day and one for night).

Firstly i would like to ask if for the night camera the only choice is a thermal camera?

Also i would need your  suggestions about what cameras to use.
 

[snowman]

Hi friend,
I'm not expert but I dive into cameras for my garden for long time so let me share what I know.

Thermal camera is something sees heat. I really would like to have one of them but they are way too expensive. It senses temperature differences and visualizes it.

Night camera is actually infrared camera. there are IR leds on camera mostly and sensor is sensitive to IR light. We can not see thru IR light but camera does. its like camera flashlight, only we can't see the light.

for my garden night vision cameras are not good because their visible distance depends on power of IR leds and does not cover my garden. I ordered more powerful IR lights and I places them different locations in garden so cameras now see around. they are like light bulbs only produce IR light that we cannot see. As far as I can tell its the most feasible solution.

Real night vision cameras use long distance very powerful IR or UV lights and they are military grade which means expensive and hard to obtain. Also I saw once a  real thermal camera which was fantastic. You can even see rats among bushes. But as I said they are expensive.

did you checked the cameras on ebay ? even though you won't order it gives an idea.

hope that helps.
best.

[solutions]

Just use a regular camera, like a Go Pro, and for night, add white LEDs until you get the illumination you need for the water conditions.

A night camera is useless unless your porpoise is to locate warm blooded mammals, like human invaders.

You never framed the problem completely, so you will get random answers to solve your problem. Is this for security, blowing up ships, or spying on your mermaid girlfriend?

[Sideshow Bob]

YouTube do have some videos about this topic. Just search for night vision vs thermal. But it is a reason why thermal cameras are the prefered military and law enforcement

[Tom1234]

I need your suggestions for any good module.
The purpose of this camera will be the monitor of an area from high altitude.

[CocaCola]

Just use a regular camera, like a Go Pro, and for night, add white LEDs until you get the illumination you need for the water conditions.

They even sell factory made LED rings for Go Pro cameras for night shots, the biggest factor would then be how far ahead you want to see...

As an alternative light those Cree XM-L T6 modules mounted behind the proper focusing lens like those found in the cheap Asian bike lights, headlamps and flashlights are incredible for night time lighting, and will get you plenty of distance...

One of those 10+Cree XM-L T6 bike lights on an UAV would be like landing lights on a real airplane

[vern]

I need your suggestions for any good module.
The purpose of this camera will be the monitor of an area from high altitude.

Do you want a thermal camera (night vision) or a regular camera module without infrared filter? Could you be more specific?
Thermal camera modules let you see at night without illumination, they show the infrared emitted by objects. Low pixel count, very expensive but fun. I have a Seek Thermal for my Android phone, very good and not too expensive. You can check the temperature of objects with this camera.
If you want an infrared camera there are plenty of modules, with high resolution and fairly cheap. But for them you need some light or you illuminate the scene with an infrared spotlight.

[CocaCola]

I think the biggest problem with thermal cameras at any altitude unless you are spending $1000s or likely tens of thousands the resolution, unless using a very small focal area (unlikely on a UAV), you will be hard pressed to get much more than 1 meter/yard per pixel resolution, even if you achieve 25cm/1 foot it's going to be hard to identify objects...  So the desired purpose of the camera is really needed if you want to be able to identify what you are looking at...

[solutions]

Aha! "altitude"...Unmanned Aerial Vehicle vs what I thought...Underwater Autonomous Vehicle.

With that, ignore my comment, above.

Again, you are getting crap responses/guesses because you are not stating what you are monitoring - solutions can be very different.

[CADSTARguy]

As can budgets.

Now tell us more about this mermaid girlfriend......

[Tom1234]

The purpose of this project is to be able recognize vehicles, humans ... with the camera  even in the night.

I was thinking for 2 cameras on for the day and one for the night.
I am thinking that a FLIR module will not so expensive  (for the vision in the night) .

What do you think?

Also with the use of algorithms,
The resolution and the quality of the video output of the cameras will be increased?

[Old_but_Alive]

a single camera would suffice.
a colour camera is very sensitive to Infra red, so at night, illuminate with IR led's.
google ANPR cameras, they use IR for nightime use

[CocaCola]

Also with the use of algorithms,
The resolution and the quality of the video output of the cameras will be increased?

No, the camera resolution is what it is, you can't create something from nothing, regardless of what happens on TV   Sure you can upscale and make it appealing to your eyes but it's not really an increase in resolution...  You could create a tight focus and then stitch together multiple shots to create a type of panorama image, but you are still going to be bound by the cameras physical resolution with each snap shot...

The FLIR is only 240 x 320 resolution, fine for close up stuff or a tight focus at a distance but to get say 6 inch per pixel resolution you have to be focused on an area 120' x 160', if you are talking about a drone at high altitude that isn't much viewing area, unless you are only focusing on a very limited zone...

The best answer will depends on your application and budget, and thus far you have been slim on specifics...

Maybe this will help put this in perspective, this is a nice composite, it's taken with two drones, in the regular image you can see the thermal imaging drone, from the image you can see it's at a very low altitude not high like you said you want to be, and also consider the resolution of the thermal image in this example is about 4 times that of the FLIR...



Now based on some very rough estimates that is about a 1" per pixel thermal image, thus you can identify people, as the pixel per inch resolution decreases to say 1 foot per pixel, it will become harder to identify humans from other similar sized life forms, especially if the humans are trying to avoid detection...