Anyone use the full color cams as a floodlight?

[rufunky]

I have a small staircase on the side of my house leading up to my deck ( picture below) . I have contemplated placing a camera on that side but also need a motion light over there as the one I had was connected to the one on the back of the house via metal conduit and it just looked ugly. Has anyone used the full color cams as a floodlight in a situation like this?

 

[sebastiantombs]

The LEDs in a "full color" camera are very similar to using your phone as a flashlight. Fine in close quarters but not useful past about six feet. Plan on a real floodlight, LED, and better off if left on all night. A 10 watt LED flood will more than handle it and give the camera some light to work with.

 

[bradner]

I have two of the 5442-LED cams but I still have other exterior lighting. I'd say they are brighter than the cell phone lights. Maybe 2 cellphones bright. I'd say they go out to 10ft, I have mine mounted 8ft high.

As @sebastiantombs said, a 120V LED flood is much better but if you have no other easy lighting choices, it's better than nothing. In that narrow spot it may be somewhat ok but if I had my siding ripped off like you, I'd run power for a regular LED flood light.

Tonight I'll try to see if I can get a shot comparison of how they work on/off lighting wise...

 

[rufunky]

Thanks guys. Bradner if you could do so that would be great. I may be able to split the back light up in the attic easy enough if need be..

 

[bradner]

Thanks guys. Bradner if you could do so that would be great. I may be able to split the back light up in the attic easy enough if need be..

It's pouring rain so the the raindrops are a bit of a nuisance.

Camera: IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED 6mm

Normal Daytime


Nighttime - LED's off (some residual light shining off LED flood lights 150ft away)


LED's on manual at 100%

20ft away from camera


8ft away from camera


My nighttime camera settings


20ft away I could definitely read something like a newspaper front page. It's much brighter than 2 cellphone lights that I guessed at earlier . Normally I have a back yard light on which spreads some lumens in this area so it's a bit better lit than using the built-in LED's alone - I shut that light off for the images I posted above.

 

[wittaj]

Your cellphone flashlight must not be very bright LOL . I agree with @sebastiantombs that it doesn't give off much more than a cellphone. But location can make a difference as well. A completely dark place it might give the appearance of being brighter than say a front yard that has neighbor lights and what not that drown out the brightness of the camera.

 

[bradner]

LOL, well when it stops raining, I need to take a night photo with my cell phone light on beside the camera to solve this mystery of "how many cell phone flashlights is the 5442-LED the same as".

I checked my POE switch stats and when 5442-LED draws 3.58 watts with the LED off and 7.2 watts with it on. So is it ~3.5 watts LED? Close to the spec sheet.

 

[CCTVCam]

The LEDs in a "full color" camera are very similar to using your phone as a flashlight. Fine in close quarters but not useful past about six feet. Plan on a real floodlight, LED, and better off if left on all night. A 10 watt LED flood will more than handle it and give the camera some light to work with.

Follow Sebastian's recommendation of a 10W led flood light (note go for 6500k colour temp - with many lights that will give you a white close to daylight look. 4000k or lower will give a pronounced yellow colour cast, Although some claim daylight at 4500K, I've yet to believe it. To my eyes, most of these lights look neutral around a claimed 6000-6500K. Even within the industry there seems to be confusion about Daylight with claims ranging from 4500-6500K. My recommendation is go high. (I've tried plenty of lights / headlight bulbs at 4500-500K and they still look yellow).

10W floodlights are exceptionally small and so it won't be obtrusive. I'd personally conside mounting one on the apex of the shed roof pointing almost straight down. You can always put a hood on your camera if there's any direct glare however, with the camera pointing downwards and the light pointing straight down, it's unlikely to be a major issue. Be aware that at roof height, your camera is unlikely to capture a facial shot. Hoods for turrets can be bought on Amazon for less than £10 from memory.

For neatness you could go with an all in one light and pir. You save electricity and be green, and give the light a longer life using a PIR. Personally I prefer to keep them separate as then I can switch out the light or pir at will saving the cost of buying both. These days with the good cameras they adapt almost instantly to change in lighting. PIR's fail eventually and light needs might change or your light may simply fail. Either way, it can work out cheaper and more flexible to have them separate as then you can exchange pirs and up grade / down grade / replace lights at will.

This google picture shows how small the 10W ones are:

Preview

 

[garycrist]

How about POE lighting, the trigger is right there too.

 

[sebastiantombs]

PoE floods with a PIR are a little expensive from what I've seen.

 

[NightLife]

I have some lights I purchased on Amazon. Nothing industrial, just a 5000K, 3200 lumen setup. I bought 2 of them, and plan to mount them orthogonal to each other up on the upper deck so I can light up my entire camera framed area. Using the built in LED's is far from optimal, unless you have a camera with a pretty narrow FOV. I'm hoping flooding the area with these lights will create a lot of added stability in night time video quality.

And what I like about the lights I picked up is that they are broken into 3 separate panels, and each has a fair degree of mobility. The centre panel can pivot up and down, while the 2 side panels can almost pivot, and rotate to place the lighting anywhere the user desires. Having 2 placed at 90 degrees to each other really opens up possibilities, and should send shadows scattering.

Google this for the lights - like I said, nothing anywhere near industrial, but for my purposes of mostly looking to capture critters I think these will more than suffice. I didn't think I wanted to mess with motion triggered lighting. That just seemed like another link of possible failure. I'd rather just have something decent on from dusk to dawn which will hopefully fall in fairly close sync with my camera switching from day to night mode.

FAGUANGAO Dusk to Dawn LED Security Light,35W Photo Sensor Flood Light,5000k Daylight,3200lm, IP65 Waterproof,Adjustable 3 Heads Wall Light for Eave,Garage, Porch, Yard, Black

*I didn't catch that they were only 2 prong until I ordered, but they're going into a GFCI outlet at least.

 

[bradner]

Costco Canada had these in the summer and I bought one for my back porch. They didn't have a cord but were direct wire in. I like it on my porch for that exact reason - very adjustable.

 

[bradner]

Follow Sebastian's recommendation of a 10W led flood light (note go for 6500k colour temp - with many lights that will give you a white close to daylight look. 4000k or lower will give a pronounced yellow colour cast,

The 5442-LED casts a 4000K light, very yellow. I have multiple 150W (13,500 lumen) 5000K LED floods around my yard and they cast a nice "white" light.

 

[Flintstone61]

I have a couple LED 5442's. it's a shitload more than a cell phone light. not as "white' of a light but helps with localized illumination as well. I think it might do what your asking but nothig more. buy one and try it. if it needs more, well, refer back to this post.

 

[eggsan]

If your camera includes an auxiliary relay, you may add a 12Vdc spot lights attached to a modified junction box

 

[rufunky]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Looks like the cameras give off enough light to get by but I'm not sure I'd be 100% satisfied ....

I took a trip into the attic to see what fishing a new wire off of my deck light switch would entail. The deck switch is powered off of the kitchen ceiling fan/light junction which is right near where I would mount the new light. It doesn't look like there will be too much work involved and I think the outcome will be worth the bit of extra effort.