Scott Broscious

Tegatdavis, In regards to your "experiment" you have to remember that cameras have specific light sensitivities. Check for the min/max lux requirement when you're looking for a camera. 1 lux is like the amount of light on a clear night sky with a full moon. I'd suggest you do more than just consider a black and white camera if you want it to work in low light conditions without nightvision/ir as a black and white camera will have a higher sensitivity to light than a color camera. Considering this there are plenty of low cost cameras well under 150 that would be perfect for your situation. We'd definitely need a bit more information than you've provided to give you a more precise answer. The problem with flood lights and cameras comes in when you think about the cameras sensitivity to light. Basically with those flood lights on, its going to be trickey to find a camera thats not only adjustable, but could give you a picture thats not to washed out in the lihgt of the flood lights or too dark when it hits the shadows the flood lights dont reach. You may have to decide which you'd rather have, a cheap outdoor low light camera that can see what you'd see with your naked eye at night with those flood lights on (which could amount to the same image you saw in the camcorder outside the lit area of those flood lights), or an expensive camera that does exactly what you need (and more that you dont). I say this because there is a distinct difference between a camera that is able to operate under low light and a camera that can operate both in the light produced by a flood light and still produce a nice picture in low light at the same time. My suggestion to you would be when your installing these cameras that you dont install them inside the cone of light produced by the flood lights. Place them outside the light that way the light sensor isn't confused by the contrasting light and shadow, it'd be utilizing low light while still seeing everything that takes place in the flood lights light instead of being directly affected by the light produced by the flood light and thus not able to render an image outside of that light as well as it should be. Hopoefully you understand this last paragraph, if not let me know and I'll think of another way of saying it.