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Need help with long range IR night vision security camera

Melensdad

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
I've got a pool shed that is 75' away from the front corner my workshop. The rear corner is 100' away. I want to use a 3x-16x auto iris camera with 150' IR range to monitor the corner of the workshop that is 75' from the pool house. The camera is a brand new 700 TVL unit, Sony EFFIO chipset.

The problem is that I mounted the camera, focused, adjusted the zoom and during the day I get a perfect image. At night I get what looks like HEAVY FOG. The image is nearly WHITE, and I mean the entire monitor screen is virtually WHITE with almost zero contrast.

So I swapped the camera with another brand new, identical camera. Same result.

I put the camera INSIDE my workshop at night and tested it and the image was PERFECT with crisp black & white IR image, no IR hotspot, great contrast. I tested the camera in the back room of my cigar lounge (no windows) and got the same perfect results.

Re-mounted the camera under the eve of the pool shed, aimed it at the corner of the garage I want to monitor, and again the night image appears to be nearly all WHITE with almost no contrast.

So last night I rotated the camera to view my birdbath, measured the distance to be 22' away. Centered the birdbath in the screen and waited for nightfall. This time the image was NOT completely white, but it was about 65-70% WHITE with MODERATE contrast. I have a dozen less expensive cameras that give better images at night. But this camera, when tested inside, works perfectly.

What is going on? This is the second camera and I now have a 3rd replacement coming.
 
Sounds to me like you're in a ghost zone.
Seriously, no freaking clue. Normal day, normal inside, fog only at night. Unless your atmo is so saturated it is unable to properly see heat, I have no idea.
As I typed this, one thought did occur. On some scopes(night vision) you can get this fogging if there is a light source nearby. Check and see where any outside lights are, or if there are any illumination points from a distance.
Maybe somebody who has more experience with NV cameras will jump in.
 
Been outside playing with the camera, seems like I am bouncing Infra Red light off the eve of the roof and back into the lens.
 
...and here I thought lobo was onto something with the 'Ghost Zone'. :yum:

Glad you got it figured out bob. :thumb:
 
Well I now have the camera re-mounted. I cut a piece of rough sawn "1x" cedar that matches the eve of the pool shed, made a mounting block out of the cedar, drilled a hole through it for the wiring and painted it to match the shed. Screwed it up to the eve, then mounted the camera onto the piece of wood. It should lower the camera just enough to keep the IR lights from reflecting off the edge of the eve (I hope).
If that is not enough then I can always double it up with another piece of cedar.

Now that I know what it is, its simply a matter of getting it positioned so there is no reflection back into the lens.

My camera supplier is getting me another camera, I'm HOPING it arrives tomorrow so I can play with it over the weekend. The new one has a bit more zoom.
 
The IR problem is resolved, I lowered camera and solved the IR reflection problem. Now I just have to find a camera that will actually work at the distances I need to 'see' at night. Daytime is easy.

Just installed the newEST of the new cameras. This one is 6x20mm zoom, with 65 IR emitters. Supposed to be able to 'see' 150' in total darkness. I'll have the answer later tonight.

The camera I just took down was also supposed to 'see' 150' in total darkness but it could not hit the garage/workshop that is exactly 75' away.

Since the new camera has about 50% more IR emitters I'm hopeful that this one will do the job at night. During the day it sure has a great image. I had to back the zoom off a little bit to get the full field of view that I wanted to see. Basically I'm looking to pick up the corner of the garage/workshop and 2 gates (one on each side). Anything more and I'm not zoomed in close enough to get great detail. Anything less and I won't see one gate or parts of both gates. The nighttime view is what I'm really looking for. So now that its all set up Its a simple matter of waiting for nightfall to test out the IR capabilities.
 
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