New Gear - Sony SR-11 & Creepy Hollow IR ver. 1

Just picked up some awesome new gear this week.

Before I get into the details and specs on the new equipment, I just want to point out that looking for great paranormal investigation gear can be tedious. It took me a long time to settle on the gear I wanted. Why? Because the options that I required is hard to find in one product.

For instance, I did not realize that Sony stopped producing the "nightshot" feature in their consumer line camcorders. I really wanted 0 lux in a Sony. So I had to settle on a model Sony no longer makes.

New Gear:

Sony HDR-SR11 60GB Hybrid HDD/Memory Stick High Definition Camcorder
Technical Details
5.6Mp ClearVid CMOS Sensor
Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T Lens
12x Optical Zoom Super SteadyShot
Image Stabilization
Color Wide Viewfinder
HDMI Bravia Sync
3.2" Touch Panel XtraFine LCD
60GB Hard Disk Drive
Super NightShot Infrared System
Memory Stick Media Slot
and many more cool features

I also picked up a Sony 10 hour battery as well. I did not want to keep having to charge multiple batteries if I didn't need to.

Next piece is the Creepy Hollow IR. This is needed with 0 lux to enhance the night vision on a camcorder. It can get about 35 - 45ft in complete darkness. Sony does make an IR, however, I find the Creepy Hollow IR to be a bit better in distance, price, and battery life.

Creepy Hollow IR
Technical Details
Lumination up to 35 - 45ft
10 hours on 9 volt battery(not included)
Easily attaches to most camcorder rails/shoe
On/Off toggle switch
Cool design
Website: http://www.creepyhollowgear.com/

I decided to turn in my old tape recorder for an amazing audio recorder. In it's old age, I started hearing way too much noise on my recordings. Yeah.. Yeah... I know. I should have used a line mic or something. Lesson learned.

I have been a musician for many years, so I knew ZOOM made some half way decent products. What I didn't know is how awesome the H2 is for a little over $100.

ZOOM H2 Audio Recorder
Technical Details
W-XY mic patterns with 4 mic capsules and signal processing allows Front 90 cardioid, Rear 120 cardioid and 360 polar patterns
Finally record 360 sound as 2ch data or 4ch data simultaneously
Built-in USB 2.0 port for data storage
Records in WAV 96kHz/48kHz/44.1kHz at 16-bit or 24-bit, MP3 to 320kbps and Variable Bit Rate (VBR) data formats
Time Stamp and Track Marker functions in Broadcast WAV Format (BWF)

That is all for now. I am looking into a few cool places to investigate soon. Stay tuned...