Videotaping Fluorescence
The ingredients for shooting fluorescence video are the same as for fluorescence photography -- you need an intense light source fitted with an exciter filter to stimulate fluorescence, and a barrier filter in front of your camera lens. You also need a barrier filter in front of your eyes so that you can see the same thing that your camera system is seeing without having to look at the monitor all the time.
The key ingredient is an intense, focused light source. We have had success using the Underwater Kinetics Light Cannon fitted with the NightSea exciter filter, and the new BlueStar will also work well. The light not only has to be intense, but the energy must be tightly focused. As an example, we compared the 10W Light Cannon (with the diffuser in place to soften up the spot) with a 25W HID video light, and the Light Cannon performed much better. The reason was that the reflector on the 25W light spread the beam over a much larger area, so the energy per unit area was not as high as the more focused spot of the Light Cannon. If you have an intense video source you want to use, make sure that the light can be focused tightly.
Please contact NightSea to ask about configuring your system.
877 436-9262 (toll free) or 978 685-6410
Fax: 978 689-3232
e-mail: nightsea@nightsea.com
20 New England Business Center, Andover, MA 01810 USA