Infrared technology promises to turn night into full-color daylight
(Image credit: SiOnyx)
Though the action camera market seems to be getting more crowded by the hour, here’s an interesting prospect we haven’t seen yet – an action camera that can turn night into day.
The Aurora Sport is a new action camera from SiOnyx, who specialize in infrared technology, and it uses the company’s proprietary Ultra Low Light imaging technology to turn night into full-color daylight. This is the same technology that recently won the company a $20 million contract with the US Army.
The camera itself can shoot HD video and 10MP stills, and is water-resistant with an IP67 rating (which means it can last in depths of up to 1m for about an hour).
It has a Micro OLED Display and built-in Wi-Fi with complementary iOS and Android apps, and it has a built-in 32GB microSD card – which translates to space for about four hours of video.
(Image credit: SiOnyx)
Advanced shooting modes on the Aurora Sport also include HDR, panorama and time-lapse. When night falls, you simply switch the scene mode and the camera activates its ultra-low-light mode.
So how well does this work? We’ve only seen a brief sample of video from the camera, but it looks pretty good. The 1-inch sensor – considerably larger than you’d expect in an action camera – allows it to produce a lot more colour and detail at night-time than you’d expect. You can see a screengrab below from the Aurora sport in action, showing some of its night-time footage with the night scene mode turned on.
(Image credit: SiOnyx)
The Aurora Sport is nice and light as well, weighing just 288g. Its battery is a rechargeable Li-Ion version.
Get the Digital Camera World Newsletter
The best camera deals, reviews, product advice, and unmissable photography news, direct to your inbox!
The SiOnyx Aurora Sport will be available for an introductory price of $399 - and is half the price of the original black-and-green colored Aurora night scope which was launched last year.
Jon spent years at IPC Media writing features, news, reviews and other photography content for publications such as Amateur Photographer and What Digital Camera in both print and digital form. With his additional experience for outlets like Photomonitor, this makes Jon one of our go-to specialists when it comes to all aspects of photography, from cameras and action cameras to lenses and memory cards, flash diffusers and triggers, batteries and memory cards, selfie sticks and gimbals, and much more besides.
An NCTJ-qualified journalist, he has also contributed to Shortlist, The Skinny, ThreeWeeks Edinburgh, The Guardian, Trusted Reviews, CreativeBLOQ, and probably quite a few others I’ve forgotten.
