We continue to hear about the rise in the popularity and use of a personal night vision camcorder. Camcorder technology is constantly improving and hardly a day goes by without another new announcement of a new improvement in current technology, or a completely new discovery.

The design of CCD image sensors used in night vision camcorders is a highly researched field. Companies all over the world are constantly looking for new and more effective methods of capturing video in low light or no light situations. Making the sensors more effective while finding new means of keeping the cost of manufacture as low as possible has been driving a number of new innovations.

The current market for these sensors exceeds one billion units worldwide, and predictions are that it will top the two billion mark by 2012.

More and more manufacturers are making advances in sensors that use only the available visible light to record in what the eye perceives as a no light situation.

Ultra low light performance is enhanced when the sensor in the camcorder or camera either increases the accuracy of its photon capturing ability, or enhances the sensor performance to enable faster capturing of photons. Both these measures are factors that determine the quality of the final video image. High quality internal sensors with fast performance allow filming in ultra low light using only existing visible light without the need for some other type of illumination.

This ability for a night vision camcorder to be able to ‘film in the dark’ using only the small amount of available visible light is coming closer and closer to being marketed at pricing that will allow mass sales in the consumer market.

Many current camcorders use sensors that are sensitive to infrared light. Infrared is invisible to the human eye, so it is possible to augment the lighting with infrared illuminators that are either built into the camera or by using a separate infrared light source. While this allows filming in the dark the cost of providing the extra IR light is a factor that has to be considered.

This makes the news of new visible light technology sensors very interesting. While you may not find a consumer priced night vision camcorder that truly gives high performance filming in near total darkness on the shelves of your local electronics store today, it will probably not be that much longer before affordable units will be available.

A few years ago, the idea of having an affordable night vision camcorder was unthinkable. Now it seems that units that will have amazing capabilities are only a few years, or perhaps a few months, in the future.

How do cameras, telescopes and the Nobel Prize all fit together? We found out this year when the co-inventors of the CCD were awarded the Nobel Prize.

Over the past several years, winners of the Nobel Prize have generally been more known for research they have been doing in their fields. But the Nobel Prize originally was set up to reward those who created inventions more so than research. And this year’s award to the two physicists who worked together to invent the CCD returns the prize to inventors once again.

CCD stands for charge-coupled device. This is the internal device that digital cameras and camcorders use to collect and capture the light from a scene and record it internally in the camera. George E. Smith and Willard S Boyle worked at Bell Labs in 1969 where they developed the technology and worked to incorporate it into an actual working model. After their first attempts, they had an operational working prototype approximately one year later. This was the first video camera that worked to record an image digitally rather than using film.

Since the time the CCD was invented, it has totally revolutionized all the areas which depend on image capture.

In addition to quick adoption in cameras and camcorders, CCD technology was also quickly adapted to such items as telescopes and medical imaging devices. The CCD quickly went to space and is used in space probes, spy satellites and astronomical telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope. Ground based telescopes also quickly converted to CCDs. Viewing film plates taken in long exposures by telescopes is a thing of the past. Now images are captured electronically and viewed and processed on computers.

The tremendous change in photography and video capture has been the change we are all most familiar with. Modern digital cameras and camcorders have quickly switched over to using technology that is a direct descendant of the CCD. Digital photography has quickly replaced film with it’s ease of use and matching quality.

In addition, other uses such as night vision technology for your night vision camcorder and night vision video camera both use advanced CCD sensors to collect and amplify the light. These types of applications were not even available a few decades ago.

The work of Boyle and Smith in inventing the CCD has truly changed the world in a very short time. Their contribution to technology will be long remembered and applauded. If the granting of the Nobel Prize were to be graded by the actual number of human beings affected by the discovery, the invention of the CCD would have to rank either near or at the top of the list.

When you first start to decide on a night vision camcorder the choices and options can seem overwhelming. There are a number of factors to consider when choosing the night vision video camera that is right for you. Features include deciding on video format, type of recording format, the sound quality, accessrories that are included and many other extras.

One of the main choices that you will have to make is what type of recording media your night vision camcorder will use. And the recording media is usually tied to the individual video format that the camera is designed to record. Here’s a look at some of the most common modern formats to enable you make your choice.

Video Cassette Tapes: This is the oldest format and it seems that it will not be an option for much longer since many manufacturers have discontinued making cameras that use tapes. The MiniDV format remains the most common format and you can get tapes that will record in both standard and HDV video. Tapes are a relatively inexpensive option but you should be aware that this format may not be around much longer.

Mini DVD or DVD Discs: Some camcorders have the ability to record their footage directly on to a DVD disc. While this makes it convenient to easily play your footage on regular DVD players, this format is also being superceded by the newer digital formats.

Memory Cards: To get the smallest form factor, compact camcorders are available that use memory cards for storage. These allow the camera to be made extremely small in size. One of the more commonly known types of compact camcorders that use this method is the popular Flip camera. In higher quality camcorders you need to make sure that the cards you are using are fast enough to keep up with the speed of the video stream that is being sent to the card.

Built In Hard Disk Drives: Hard drives are not just for computers. Now camcorders are using hard drives for internal storage. Most of these types of cameras allow you to record in either standard or high definition quality. Both Hard Disk Drive and Memory Card units require that you download the information onto your computer or other media to store it permanently.

While there are a number of choices in choosing the type of storage your night vision camcorder will use, your main decision is whether you want to use a removeable media like tapes or disks, or have a system to download and store your media from units that use memory cards or internal hard drives. Knowing in advance what options are available will help you make your best choice.