Vivotek 7361 - recommend me an IR lamp

[David Reed 0]

I have a Vivotek 7361 which is a 2mp cam, and its reasonably okay and the best I could afford at the time. It's pretty useless at night, so was wondering if a separate IR lamp would help it perform well at night.

 

Budget is an issue, which is why I can't consider changing the cam to anything better so its going to be a trade off on price v performance when choosing an ir lamp.

 

So is this a solution, and can anyone recommend one in the uk?

 

 

Cheers.

[David Reed 0]

Sorry, meant to add that the area monitored is 13m in distance.

[Kawboy12R 0]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/277-5316832-6249626?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ir+illuminator

 

Pick one that illuminates at an angle roughly as wide as the field of view of your camera. Higher power draw more or less equals more light if you want a rough guess of IR "lumens" put out. Well, at least if you're comparing 850nm with 850nm illuminators. The 940nm illuminators put out less at a higher power draw but are more or less invisible (no red glow). Some might have a very slight red glow.

[voip-ninja 0]

If you want something better than average, and very discreet look into an Axton IR.

[Bullseye 0]

Is there a special lenses needed for 940nm as i just spent £30 on one and my cams cant pick it up! nightmare as i need it working for over crimbo

[Kawboy12R 0]

Good question. Some quick Googling didn't turn up a good answer for me. I'm not sure if most of the 940nm sensitivity is in the lens or in the camera sensor, but I suspect it's in the sensor. There's an IR filter that is removed in order for the sensor to see IR at night (IR needs to be blocked during the day because of the huge amounts the sun puts out). When the filter is removed at night then everything is going through the lens to the sensor. I'd like to find out for sure myself because I like using 940nm with my setup and might run into the problem in the future.

 

Are you sure that your cam sees IR at all? If it doesn't have IR LEDs built into it then it's not a given. It might be blind to ALL IR. If you need a quick check and a quick fix, a power splitter and cheap IR camera with 850nm LEDs (the red glowing ones) might be available for you to pick up on Monday before "crimbo". They're a lot more available locally here than dedicated illuminators or lenses. You wouldn't have to hook up the cheapo as a camera, just feed it power and use the IR for your other (I assume better) camera. If not, then you at least have a camera that can see at night even though it sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

Santa might notice the red LEDs and get scared off though. He guards himself quite carefully around here. Better be careful if you're setting it up near a tree or chimney.

[ak357 0]

Good question. Some quick Googling didn't turn up a good answer for me. I'm not sure if most of the 940nm sensitivity is in the lens or in the camera sensor, but I suspect it's in the sensor. There's an IR filter that is removed in order for the sensor to see IR at night (IR needs to be blocked during the day because of the huge amounts the sun puts out). When the filter is removed at night then everything is going through the lens to the sensor. I'd like to find out for sure myself because I like using 940nm with my setup and might run into the problem in the future.

 

Yes, it's sensor in camera which has to be design to see 940nm