Are the IR illuminators on an IR camera visible at night?

[fred583]

I have not yet owned an IR capable camera. My main concern is not night vision. When someone is looking right at an otherwise hidden IR camera at night, do they see the IR illuminators? I know IR is techically not visible light, but not sure how it is implemented. I see the Dahua N45EF63 has something called Night Color Technology which would not be detectable. My method of concealment also involves receding the camera into some large rocks which could cause some IR bounce.

 

[VorlonFrog]

850nm red IR lights do give off a very faint reddish glow.

 

[SkyLake]

Yes, you can see a red glow on ip cameras that have 850nm ir leds.

The ones with 940nm are almost invisible, but they have much less performance in comparison to the "normal" 850nm ir leds that come in most of the ip cameras.

 

[wittaj]

Night Color Technology is simply a marketing term. Do not base a camera on that. Go by the specs and the reviews of cameras that people post here with videos.

Do not go by reviews elsewhere talking about how great the image looks at night because I can make just about any camera look like daytime at midnight by jacking with settings. Motion at night is what is important so that it is not a blur or ghosting.

And if you do not have any light available for the camera, it will suck as it doesn't have IR. Reality is almost every camera with IR will have those little red beads of eyes that you will see when looking straight on, but most people do not see or notice them, just like most do not even notice the cameras.

With that said, it is a great camera with a great sensor, but do not think that it will work in complete darkness and give you usable video. It even states it needs ambient light like you would see in a parking lot:

Dahua Night Color Technology cameras are ideal for applications with at least 1 lux of ambient or artificial light, including parking lots, schools, urban streets and museums.

 

[fred583]

Thank you all.

Yes, that is good advice. This is near my entrance gate about 300' from the house. I do have power there and could put up some kind of decorative lantern or something. Is it bad if the light is in the camera field of vision?

 

[wittaj]

Yeah, if you have no light there, you will want a camera with IR. You would be surprised how much light these cameras need to stay in color at night (for the cameras that can switch to B/W with IR).

I have 33,000 lumen radiating off my house and I have to force the camera in color as it is not enough light for the camera to automatically go to color at night. The sensors are small in cameras and need a lot of light.

If a light is in the camera field of vision it can overwhelm the image and you will have an obvious white glow where the light is and potential glare from the protective lens covering.

There are backlighting options you can use to overcome a light in the field of view, but each one of those can add unwanted noise or blur depending on how much is needed.

 

[fred583]

Thanks, I can find a way to put the light out of the camera view.

 

[Teken]

Thank you all.

Yes, that is good advice. This is near my entrance gate about 300' from the house. I do have power there and could put up some kind of decorative lantern or something. Is it bad if the light is in the camera field of vision?

No matter what you decide upon insure the camera has enough clearance to avoid IR reflection. This will either blind the camera or blow out the image where its not usable for viewing. If your looking for more stealth most folks install a separate IR emitter that either floods or focused to a target area. The benefit is no IR to be seen by the camera and any possible bugs won't be attracted to the camera lens.

 

[fred583]

That is a neat idea. I have the power there so maybe a separate IR emitter. I assume I could tell the IR camera to not turn on its emitter but still switch to IR mode at night?

 

[wittaj]

Yes, you simply tell it to go B/W and on the pull-down for IR tell it off.

 

[Teken]

That is a neat idea. I have the power there so maybe a separate IR emitter. I assume I could tell the IR camera to not turn on its emitter but still switch to IR mode at night?

Absolutely, just a few things to call out for a solid deployment. Insure the external IR you purchase does indeed incorporate a dusk to dawn sensor. If not that unit will be on 24.7.365 sucking up power for no good reason. Next, lets assume the camera is in place and the IR is solid and incorporates the dusk to dawn sensor as 90% do!

Play with the scheduling in the camera as to when the camera will switch from color vs B&W.

The reason is depending upon the entire setup you might prefer to see your video in full color until the last minute where it has to change over to B&W to see anything usable. Remember the dusk to dawn of each unit will be different so take that into account as you don't want to find out later there's a 3 hour window where the camera is blind due to a lack of ambient light.

Let us know how you get on when done . . .