Steevo25 0 Posted January 9, 2007 Hi All, Hopefully you can sort out my confusion. Seeing various cameras advertised, I see some advertised as Day/Night cameras and others advertised as True Day/Night Cameras. What is the difference? All of them mention about a mechanical filter, some of them say dual filters. Is there a big difference or is it just terminology the various dealers are using? Thanks in advance. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kensplace 0 Posted January 10, 2007 Many manu claims in cctv are marketing bull.. Simple as that... At least as far as I have seen. Usually, the only way to find out if something is suitable for your needs is either to A:) Buy it, and find out the hard way or B:) Tell a pro what you need and get them to buy it for you A: always works eventually B: if you get a good pro will work first time, if not, at least you should demand money back.... If you want REAL day night, buy a top end b&w, and a top end colour, and use both cams. One cam will never do the job of two. Dont forget additional lighting also.... grrr at colon bracket coming out as a smily : ) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steevo25 0 Posted January 10, 2007 Many thanks for your reply. I presently have 4 cameras on my system. Three of them work perfectly and both their day and night time image is perfect. The 4th camera I have a problem with. The day time image is excellent but the night time image is very snowy. The other problem I have with it ( the major one ) is that it is in my front porch ( which is an open front porch ) and currently it has IR. When someone approaches the porch, the IR is so strong and close to the person that the person is completely white and washed out. The porch also has a light in it that is PIR activated so this adds to the amount of light. Without lights the position is fairly dark, but there is a small amount of light from the street lights. Unfortunately, because of the space requirements and the position, I cannot use the same camera as the other 3 I have ( they are too big ). Also it is low down so would be better being a vandal resistant dome. My idea was to put a fairly good quality Day/Night camera without the IR LEDs in that position. It would give some sort of image at night with little lighting but would give a fairly good image when a person approaches and the porch light turns on. I have looked at a variety of cameras around the £250 mark ( about $500 I think ), but it seems every manufacturer details their specifications in a completely different way so comparing them is extremely difficult. The one there at present was supposed to be a good quality camera ( about $400 ) but so far I have not been impressed with it. I have been onto the suppliers several times and all the tweaks they have given me have failed to improve the picture quality. Also, to change any if the DIP Switches ( to turn off AGC etc ) you have to completely dismantle the camera which apparantly voids the warranty. This camera is being returned for a refund after a lot of arguing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
galen 0 Posted January 10, 2007 Steevo, since you have a light that does turn on and it washes out the ir camera that is there now, just go with a low lux b/w camera with no ir. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Metal Shaper Man 0 Posted January 10, 2007 Infra-red lamps come in varying wavelengths from approx. 730nm to 950nm. 730nm filters are overt and give a red glow - like a traffic light. 830nm filters are semi-discreet and produce a dull red glow. 950nm filters are effectively totally covert - giving off no visible illumination. Viewing distances are reduced with 830nm and 950nm lamps. A 950nm will require a highly sensitive night time camera. When you are talking about projecting light from the camera out, the intensity of light in regard to identification will be of concern. Think of a camera with a 500W bulb, 100W bulb, 50W bulb and so on. The high reflecting areas of an object will wash out under higher wattage . Simply, the design or balance between the light used, distance and the camera will determine the outcome. Example, Extreme cameras are a leader in this area. From one of my earlier post: While the human eye can only register light between the blue and red spectrum, a color camera's image sensor can detect more. The image sensor can sense long-wave infrared radiation and thus "see" infrared light. Allowing infrared to hit the image sensor during daylight, however, will distort colors as humans see them. This is why all color cameras are equipped with an IR-cut filter -- an optical piece of glass that is placed between the lens and the image sensor -- to remove IR light and to render color images that humans are used to. As illumination is reduced and the image darkens, the IR-cut filter in a day & night camera can be removed automatically to enable the camera to make use of IR light so that it can "see" even in a very dark environment. To avoid color distortions, the camera often switches to black and white mode, and is thus able to generate high quality black and white images. IR light is filtered away in the camera by an IR-cut filter in order to render color images that humans are used to. When light conditions are too dark to render color images, a day & night camera's IR-cut filter can be removed to enable the camera to make use of IR light to produce high quality black & white video. True day/night do not use IR. They operate to very low lux levels. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Oxide.Blu 0 Posted January 11, 2007 Metal Shaper Man, correct me if I am wrong…infrared light is never visible to the human eye. If an IR source is overt or dull red in color, you are seeing something that is not infrared. That doesn’t mean IR isn’t also part of the energy being radiated. I have seen the term “near infrared†Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Metal Shaper Man 0 Posted January 11, 2007 Infrared light is divided into three different bands, near, mid, and far infrared. For infrared photography, it is the near infrared band that is detected. As with visible-light photography, NIR photography is capturing reflected light not intrinsic heat of objects, which is emitted at longer IR wavelengths. As I perceive it, the bulb is the source that emits the light used, hence, red being brighter, white softer and not visible even softer. From that I would determine that all the cctv cameras we are talking about in the forum, use NIR or (near infrared.) The question is, what camera and/or set up - meaning lens, lux, etc. - do we use with what light source and the amount of light used that will not wash out the scene? Many of us do not have the time or interest in studying the science, therefore, it comes down to what Kensplace said above. Many manu claims in cctv are marketing bull.. Simple as that... At least as far as I have seen. Usually, the only way to find out if something is suitable for your needs is either to A Buy it, and find out the hard way or B Tell a pro what you need and get them to buy it for you A: always works eventually B: if you get a good pro will work first time, if not, at least you should demand money back.... If you want REAL day night, buy a top end b&w, and a top end colour, and use both cams. One cam will never do the job of two. Dont forget additional lighting also.... Oxide.blu. I would say you are correct. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
