Illuminators are a must for any converted or IR (night-shot type 0 lux) camcorder or camera.
There are several types of illuminators available heres a quick overview on some of them.
IR (infrared) illuminators
This type of illuminator is perhaps the most preferred because it gives of infrared light which is invisible to the human eye but visible for the camera.
If you want to be able to use your camera in complete darkness yet be able to see everything through the camera then this is the one for you.
FS (Full Spectrum) illuminators
FS illuminators will give off IR, RGB and UV light (infrared, Red Green Blue & Ultraviolet) this light will be visible to the human eye.
note RGB is what forms the natural light spectrum we see as humans.
IR/UV illuminators
This illuminator simply has IR & UV (infrared & ultraviolet) the IR is invisible to the human eye but the UV will give off a blue light illumination which can be seen in darkness by your eyes.
UV illuminators (ultraviolet)
Great as a secondary illuminator being used with an IR mounted alongside, or for specialist use, not great to be used on its own as the main score of light.
Standard Light illuminators
These illuminators range from white, green & red illumination, they can be used with any normal camera to give illumination in dark places.
Batteries
The square 9v battery which is about 400 mAh,
The AA battery which is about 2500 mAh
The difference is the AA type will have a much longer run time, per set of batteries.
LED’s
Illuminators with fewer but larger LED’s are generally more efficient at providing illumination.
From my own testing I found it’s better to have high power wide angle LED’s over mass number of much lower power ones. This gave me much longer in distance and still kept a wide angle and no hotspot that you get with cheap LED’s. I would need nearly 100 5mm led’s to be the same power as 8 of my 10mm onesLED ratings
The nm LED rating number.
IR’s are 840nm
UV 400-405nm
The number is the frequency of the light in the light spectrum.
Also all Apparition Technologies illuminators have a light angle of 60 degrees, where as most on the market have only around 20.