Awhile back I decided that I needed a camcorder for investigating. First I had to come up with a reason why for the wife. I told her that it will be great to film the kids as they get bigger. Her argument was that her digital camera could shoot video as well. After going back and forth and all I convinced her that we did need one. The money issue wasn't an issue since I had plans for that as well. After that I needed to do some research as to what camcorder I needed.

When it comes to ghost hunting with one, only one name keeps coming up and that's Sony. It's the only one that is easy for a person to purchase that has Night Shot on it to use during low light filming. Once I had the brand decided I had to pick a model. For me recording onto mini-DVDs just isn't practical. I wanted mine to just use an internal hard drive. I settles on the DCR-SR45. It comes with a 30 gig HDD and 40x optical zoom. It also takes pictures but they are only marginally better than a cell phone camera. And it was only $400 at Wal-Mart. By now you should be able to tell that I shop at Wal-Mart a lot. Waco isn't exactly the Mecca of the Electronic World. But the local ones didn't carry it so I would have to travel some. I did and that was an adventure by itself. Some reason my two year old son doesn't do car trips very well with a full stomach of milk. I'll leave it at that.

So now that I have used this camcorder on several investigations I love it. It works great and is easy to use. The IR light isn't the best and I had to make a better IR light for it but it does what I want it to. The only other thing I bought for it was a 2 gig memory stick that I have dedicated to pictures only and an extra large battery for long filming when needed.

So for the price and what I do with this thing I truly think it's a great camera. It's not big and heavy so filming doesn't get tiresome after awhile. Plus I can use it for many other things as well.

So I give it 4 ghosts out of 5.

Side note: there is another model that films in HD and has a 120 gig HDD but it is about $800. This would be my next camcorder that I get when I decide to get another one.

I just found out Sony stopped making this great cam. And removed night shot from most of their camcorders. I'm investigating which one might have it. So far not so good.

Yeah, I was at Wal-Mart the other day looking at the new line of camcorders and not one had night shot. I bought a cheap older version at a Pawn shop last month for $100. It might be that or ebay for night shot on Sonys.

Looks like maybe the high def hard drive xr200 and xr500. $1000 and $1300 expensive!!! Love my sr45. Looks like I'll have to convert some of their low end HD harddrive cams until the price comes down.

There's always that. I've heard that there is another brand that has "night shot" or their version of it. I can't remember the name, maybe Panasonic. I don't know how it compares to Sony though.

It has enhanced shutter speeds but not IR night vision. You will never see in 0 Lux like infrared cams or converted cams.

I just acquired a Sony DCR-DVD610, and have a memory card that I record onto. Picture is pretty decent, imo. I use my Sima lights (one is more than enough) and I think altogether, I paid about $275 (including cost of memory card and a warranty; already had the Simas).

When I first got it, I made a test video, I'm pretty impressed with the range. I tested it in a small room (my son's), a larger room, and outside. It can easily record great footage at about 50 feet indoors (lol that's all I had to play with at the time). You can see the vid here:

The only issue is of course using it outside, but I have an IR floodlight if I ever needed it. And I really don't care for the editing software, I have some issues with it – but it gets the job done.

I haven't done any investigating outside in a while. I do need to get some of those Sima lights or even a Sony one just to have.

The issue I've had with the Simas is that they last so little and take so long to recharge (and you can't use them while they're recharging). I have three of them, and when one starts to go, I just swap it out with a fully-charged one; by the time I go through the other two, the first one is usually ready to go again.

There's a guy who did some home-made gizmo where he took three Simas, attached them all to a battery pack & can get three different settings off of them. I think I might just go for the Sony IR pretty soon since I think you can just exchange the batteries (not sure tho).

haha! Ryan, that's exactly who I was talking about! SilverTechie is the best! /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

Actually, the Simas just have this little notch thing that you slide into place, and the bar has a universal screw that you can attach to the mount of your camcorder – the battery is completely independent and doesn't effect the camcorder's battery at all. The bar does come with each light, too (the little pic on the second link).

If that doesn't make any sense, just tell me & I'll take a picture & post it up so you can see what I mean.

hehehe we should bug him into submission!

Yeah, the pictures of the Sima lights don't really show too much. However, they work great and they are super light – still, the short usage time is the only issue…

I have two of the Sima IR lights and they are garbage. They project alright, but you get maybe an hour of use out of a 10-hour charge. I finally gave up on them and got the Sony dual white/IR light that fits the active interface shoe on my handycam. It runs off the camcorder battery, and it's a good compromise between run time and IR output.

For filming the night investigations up at Wellington (all outdoors in a 1/2 mile long structure), I made an IR light out of a 32-LED 3W security light, using a 12V Lithium-Phosphate battery, which I clip onto the shaft of my camcorder stabilizer. Powerful doesn't begin to describe it. Those night-shot handycams are so sensitive that it looks like I'm pointing a spotlight at my subject.

On a Sony Handycam note I picked up a Sony Handycam sports enclosure

model # SPK-PC-2 that fits the Sony PC-5 cam. if anyone is interested in it

I'll have the girlfriend return to Miami with it and all you need to do is pay shipping.

The enclosure was free as part of a dive compressor repair job. It doesn't fit my

camera so "GRATIS RULES!" It is supposed to be water "proof" down to 45 ft. or so.

My friends at the dive shop say 100 ft. is normal and ok though. It's brand new

and has never been in water. /wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />