I just got camera number two this one is Cam Pan
Any way not to get reflection back when looking out a window at night?
I would like to use night Vision to keep a eye out for Wolfs, Raccoons, Skunks, Deer and Rabbits in the early morning when sun just is coming up.
I would like to use night Vision if I can if I can’t I am good with that also.
I love both products
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Thanks I am new to the whole night Vision
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No problem. IR pretty much reflects off anything. If you search IR Illumination you can find a decent device for a decent cost. I’d also recommend watching video reviews of what your researching as all of them are different.
Thanks for helping me learn about the cameras
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How does one turn off the local ir on a pan cam?
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No problem at all.
Here’s my outdoor set up. When I turn night mode off on this camera the image goes black. Why do you think that happens?
I need to clear up a couple points here…
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It is not currently possible to turn off the IR LEDs (emitters) on the camera without also turning off night vision. However, the ability to turn off the camera’s IR LEDs but have night vision on is in beta testing. Actually, it has been temporarily pulled from beta testing while a problem that cropped up is worked out. But it should be back soon, and probably out to the production app within maybe a month.
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If you purchase an external IR illuminator, make sure to get one that matches the camera’s wavelength. The V2 uses 850nm emitters, the Pan uses 940nm.
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There are several such IR Illuminators available on Amazon in the $20-30 range. Several of them are reviewed in other threads here. Search for IR Illuminator here in the forum.
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You do need to have night vision on to use an external illuminator, otherwise the IR filter will be in place and block the IR light. Thus, if the camera remains behind glass, you will need to wait until the new “night vision without IR LEDs” feature is released.
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@timstik, Are you on the beta software? That is one of the problems, I believe, that is being investigated in beta.
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@Loki
Yep forgot about that. I had issues last week. Mines installed side by side with the illuminator.
Sorry I was wrong. I was thinking of my old system.
Edited my original posts.
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I am not. I leave that to the pros.
Ok, I may be wrong about that being a beta only issue. I do know that it’s something being investigated.
Please do submit a support request for this issue.
Keep in mind that this forum is primarily a user to user community. If you don’t get a helpful reply here, I suggest you file a support request including the log files for more help. You might want to go ahead and submit your ticket now as there is somewhat of a backlog. If you end up getting the issue resolved before support contacts you, then you can always let them know that it’s already resolved.
I suspect this is the answer:
Right. @OverWatch is probably right. I was thinking about another situation that’s being reported.
In @timstik’s case, the camera is outside looking at a very dark scene. W hen you turn night mode OFF, the IR filter swings in front of the lens, blocking IR light. This is done to keep away the purple cast caused by IR light in day mode. But if the IR filter is in place, all IR light is blocked and there isn’t any non-IR light (since it’s dark outside), so you will get a black image.
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Also, based on the pic @timstik provided, I wouldn’t be surprised if the angle of the floodlight caused a reflective glare off the white camera housing. If the lamp needs to be pointed that high, it might be helpful to put something between it and the camera. Just enough to ‘shadow’ the camera and housing.
Thanks for the info. Reason behind the v2 and Pan using a different IR wavelength? Would night vision/IR off and using a motion activated LED light be effective in capturing an image? Or is the v2 “reaction” time too slow if set to record event vs. continuous ?
I don’t really know the reason for the different wavelength. I did one small experiment where I turned off the V2’s LEDs and used the Pan’s LEDs for illumination and the V2 seems to sense those just fine. But since it was a limited test, and I didn’t test the reverse situation, that’s why I recommended getting an external illuminator that matches the camera model.
Regarding motion activated LED lights… I have not see a motion activated IR LED. What people are going is using a full time external IR illuminator. The one I have comes on at dusk and off at dawn.
If you use a regular motion sensing white-light security light, the camera’s motion sensor will trigger the moment it comes on because the pixel based motion sensing will see the huge change in scene lighting. You would then capture motion to the SD card as long as it occurs. Or one 12 second clip to the cloud. I don’t, however, have any personal experience with this setup.
The angle of the ir lamp does not cast any light on the camera face. I had the ir lamp lens parallel to the camera face initially during testing. Created an illuminated hot spot on the ground 20 feet out. I adjusted the ir lens upwards until I saw the glare you mention, then backed it downwards till the glare was gone. Now my entire backyard is illuminated with this method.
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I very much doubt the sensor used inside the cameras is so tightly selective about the exact wavelengths being used. Historically, video cameras that operate in the dark have typically used 850nm LED’s for two reasons, the sensor is much more sensitive to the visible portion of a 850nm LED, and thus can see farther with fewer LED’s - and the 850nm LED’s cost less. When a camera used a 940nm LED, it needed to have more LED’s in order to compensate for the reduced sensitivity of the sensor at the higher frequency. But, all of the older cameras are perfectly capable of ditching their 850nm LED’s and using 940nm. The only critical concern is if the IR cut filter is in it’s ‘night mode’ where it’s not in front of the sensor. To avoid the beta issues, you can just set your camera to ‘night mode’ in order that it’s cut filter is switched off, and then tape some aluminum foil over the cameras built-in LED’s. This will allow the use of an outdoors IR illuminator. Now if you don’t care that people can see your IR illuminator (Much like a 850nm’s ‘red glow’) and want to get the outdoors lit up like it’s a football stadium without anyone noticing, try using a 60 watt heat lamp mounted somewhere up high outside, like on the roof. These lamps are typically sold at pet stores for use in lizard cages and cost very little. The heat lamp will look like a aircraft warning light, not being all that bright to the naked eye. But on camera, you will need to be careful about having trees or other objects close to your window as the glare coming off of the obstacles will blind the camera. I’ve tried using a 200 watt heat lamp, but it was just too ridiculously bright for my cameras!
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