chr1z 0 Posted April 4, 2009 Ok... All my cameras do decent at night except my driveway camera. It just has to far to go before the ir light is reflecting so it is very dark. Is there any sort of IR illuminator for $200 or less I could use that'd give me better images that aren't so dark? It won't let me attach a pic so here: http://www.limitlessenterprises.com/driveway_day.jpg http://www.limitlessenterprises.com/driveway_night.jpg http://www.limitlessenterprises.com/driveway_night2.jpg I posted the daytime one so you can see the distance I need to cover. The dog in the daytime pic is about 25 feet out The road in the daytime pic is 90 feet from the camera The guy in the back on the first night pic is about 45 feet from the camera. The camera is an analog 6 to 15mm varifocal lens camera with 36 ir leds Thanks in advance!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sawbones 0 Posted April 5, 2009 For that limited a budget, your best bet is probably Ebay. I reviewed a bunch of the common illuminators in this thread: http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=13935&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 Pick what you like best. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
coolie11 0 Posted April 5, 2009 Adding More IR's will inhance your image at 45', but it will also degrade your image closer to the camera. Imagine the guy closer to the camera looking like a white blob. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zmxtech 0 Posted April 5, 2009 With your budget I would use 3 Ebay units 2 med power left and right of the drive and one high power up high filling in the front [just for overview] The guys are right you need good contrast up close to ID people -most of the cheaper cams blast out too much IR and you get white out. Easy to fix get a mate to stand near your car as a test subject, then slowly tape off areas of your cams IR LED's [with black tape] till the white out is gone and you get good contrast. This is the trick I use to fine tune -bit ugly but great pic`s ho cares ! I have one of those big IR blaster cams and it has like 6 big luxeon LED's and a mixture of smaller LEDs -the whole IR section is taped off bar one LED because at 10-20 feet it was whited out -now its fine. The real good stuff has variable power -about time they add this to all IR cams ! $200 should be enough to buy 3 units [they also have variable beamwidth] these seem to be good bang for buck and low profile> http://stores.ebay.com/eDogPro_IR-illuminator_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ138288015QQftidZ2QQtZkm my 2c Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sawbones 0 Posted April 5, 2009 Yep. I'm using a couple of those tubular lens-ended jobbies right now, and they're actually pretty functional for narrower areas. A couple of those would probably cover that driveway. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites