IR light - 5 model comparison

[genesant]

I've been mostly lurking here for awhile and decided to contribute. I've been testing and installing IP cameras at my house the last few months. One Axis and 6 different models of LTS and have found that spiders irritate the hell out of me. After trying auxiliary IR lighting near a couple cameras and finding a huge reduction in spider webs I have decided to test different models of IR lights and install them at all camera locations. My temporary test is with an LTS CMIP3042W 4mm. For the test, the lights were 2' below and 2' in front of the camera. The wheel barrow was 55' from the camera. Lights 1 and 2 had such a narrow hot beam that they turned out to have too much washout on any person within 25' of them.

1 CMVision IR3; 3Leds; 4.02 watts; $13; bracket OK, ~65% coverage; hot center; bad washout

2 JCHENG DIGITAL; 4Leds; 4.65 watts; $12; bracket OK; ~65% coverage; really hot center; bad washout

3 JCHENG DIGITAL; 8Leds; 6.07 watts ;$18; Poor bracket; ~95% coverage; fairly even-good upper corners; fair washout

4 CMVision IR6; 6LEds; 2.92 watts; $26; Decent bracket if oiled; ~90% coverage but dimmer; fairly even overall; fair washout

5 JCHENG DIGITAL; 12Leds; 11.88 watts; $38; Poor bracket; ~95% coverage; fairly even-best upper corners; fair washout

 

[bp2008]

Are you sure that #4 is what you think it is? Looks like it has 6 LEDs. CMVision IR6 it would be.

Otherwise, great comparison. I like it!

 

[genesant]

You are correct. I goofed and light number 4 is the IR6 and I will try to correct the post. Good eye. Thanks.

 

[weigle2]

Simple question. Does anyone make a curved IR LED light to give a more even coverage? It seems to me, with IR light being so important for night viewing, a curved array would work so much better. All these really STUPID hot spot lights really suck. In fact, why can't they do this on the cameras themselves? All they would need to do with the 2 LED's on the 5231's is angle them away from each other even a little to get better coverage. You don't need much light in the Starlight series for good viewing.

By the way, great review! TU.

 

[Dodutils]

All these really STUPID hot spot lights really suck. In fact, why can't they do this on the cameras themselves? All they would need to do with the 2 LED's on the 5231's is angle them away from each other even a little to get better coverage. You don't need much light in the Starlight series for good viewing.

making curved LED would result less focused light, they concentrate all the IR LED to same direction to get brighter light but you can also use different lens on the LED to get wider angle but you'll get less light so you'll have to get more LED and so on...

Also LED inside camera is not good idea because IR LED attract bugs and spider that produce a lot of false alarms so its better to separate camera from IR LED

 

[weigle2]

making curved LED would result less focused light, they concentrate all the IR LED to same direction to get brighter light but you can also use different lens on the LED to get wider angle but you'll get less light so you'll have to get more LED and so on...

Also LED inside camera is not good idea because IR LED attract bugs and spider that produce a lot of false alarms so its better to separate camera from IR LED

All good points, but my experience with internal IR on all my cams (5231's and 49225) don't prove out the spider and bug attraction point. I have zero problems with this, and it's the middle of the summer. Certainly won't have this problem in fall, winter and spring. As far as internal IR on the cams, like I said with the Starlight series, you don't need much light concentrated in the center. But you certainly need more to the sides. The current design with hotspots, is the biggest complaint on these. You would think the engineers would pick up on this. I think they just don't give a rats ass, honestly.

 

[Dodutils]

my experience with internal IR on all my cams (5231's and 49225) don't prove out the spider and bug attraction point.

Not mine I do have tons of flying bugs attracted in front of the IR Lens and when you have to climb to clean up the spider web every week it's not cool.

 

[fenderman]

Not mine I do have tons of flying bugs attracted in front of the IR Lens and when you have to climb to clean up the spider web every week it's not cool.

Are you saying that you have spider webs on your turrets? To the point you have to clean them weekly? That is not my experience...bullets on the other hand are a nightmare..

 

[Dodutils]

Are you saying that you have spider webs on your turrets? To the point you have to clean them weekly? That is not my experience...bullets on the other hand are a nightmare..

Not all cameras indeed bit some are placed were it's easier for spider to make their web.

 

[fenderman]

Not all cameras indeed bit some are placed were it's easier for spider to make their web.

running external ir is not practical, and looks like crap...the ideal solution is have enough external white light to run good low light cams in day mode...this way you capture color images and dont have any of these issue..they dont need much light to perform well.

 

[Dodutils]

running external ir is not practical, and looks like crap...the ideal solution is have enough external white light to run good low light cams in day mode...this way you capture color images and dont have any of these issue..they dont need much light to perform well.

External IR Led is not a porblem for me, I don't care about "visual" at country's house ;-)

 

[looney2ns]

Not mine I do have tons of flying bugs attracted in front of the IR Lens and when you have to climb to clean up the spider web every week it's not cool.

Something like this: Libman 12' Extension Handle 612 by The Libman Company for $19.99 in Brooms - Brushes - Handles - Cleaning Aids - Sundries - Domestics : Rural King

Along with one of these: Libman Lambswool Duster 244 by The Libman Company for $7.99 in Brooms - Brushes - Handles - Cleaning Aids - Sundries - Domestics : Rural King

Pull top cap off of pole, pull black handle from the duster, slide duster handle into pole.

Gently dust the front of the cam.

Stops the climbing need.

 

[Iemand91]

Great comparison. #3 and #5 seem to give a very decent extra light. And #3 isn't expensive either.
To bad the outside wall starts to look real cluttered with the camera, the camera's wires going to the window from the camera. Adding this with power cable going to the window looks quite messy.

But it may be a good idea to complement my Hikvision DS-2CD2132F-IWS which has rather poor night vision.

 

[bigredfish]

Something like this: Libman 12' Extension Handle 612 by The Libman Company for $19.99 in Brooms - Brushes - Handles - Cleaning Aids - Sundries - Domestics : Rural King

Along with one of these: Libman Lambswool Duster 244 by The Libman Company for $7.99 in Brooms - Brushes - Handles - Cleaning Aids - Sundries - Domestics : Rural King

Pull top cap off of pole, pull black handle from the duster, slide duster handle into pole.

Gently dust the front of the cam.

Stops the climbing need.

You must live in a fancy neighborhood, I use the redneck version (see attached)

 

[genesant]

For those that don't have problems with bugs it could be related to your climate. I live in Oregon near a slough and lots of bugs in the area love to fly in front of the cameras at night and out of 7 cameras I was averaging two per night getting spider webs in front of the lenses using the built in IR. The two cameras that I installed additional IR lights on 3 weeks ago stopped having any bug issues. The cameras will definitely be more obvious with the additional IR lights but when all the wires are hidden it isn't really that bad. And I expect to have less issues with moist air/fog in the winter looking like a snow storm in front of the camera with the built in IR bouncing off the water particles. That is the theory anyway and I hope it pans out.

 

[looney2ns]

You must live in a fancy neighborhood, I use the redneck version (see attached)

Ha! Hardly. I like it!

I didn't have a 12ft fish'n pole. To reach my ptz, it takes every bit of that 12ft.

 

[Kawboy12R]

Try turning down gain on the cameras or speeding up the exposure for less washout. Washout is caused by uneven lighting. Targets up close will catch and block more IR that's needed in the back of the scene for balanced lighting. Also, aim a bit high so that the hotspot hits distant targets where more light is actually needed and the closer shots are using the dimmer fringe of the pattern. For extra points, use two- a big one pointed up into the distance where it won't wash out close face shots and a weaker one pointed down a bit.

 

[Tizeye]

Another option for reaching elevated cameras is a painter's pole. (Makes painting the ceiling and eaves a lot easier too!) I actually have a 21 footer that built a platform for my camera for elevated views, triggered remotely with app. Now has paint splatter on as did double duty.

Bugs??? I live in Florida...enough said. Moths and spiders are a given. A sparrow decided the bullet camera would make a nice perch. I even had a lizard crawl over the lens triggering an event as it stalled there doing it's pushups to impress it's mate.

Kind of a dumb question but I assume that an IR light needs it's own dedicated power source, running a CAT5e line in parallel to the camera's and taking another PoE port. There is no way to daisy chain off the camera, or split the camera's cable to power both devices off the one PoE port.

 

[Kawboy12R]

You can run a POE splitter to 12v near the cam in a junction box and run both if the cam has a 12v option. Check power budget for the combination though. You'd be better off splitting POE+ to run a decent size illuminator or run a length of wire from a convenient 12v wall wart for the illuminator and keep the cam's POE separate.

 

[Tizeye]

Good point on splitting, but could be designed with managed overlap of each nodules aim. The most concentrated are 1 and 2. Now compare the exposure (tree leaves) of 1 and 2 vs the wider coverage 3 and 5. Unfortunately, a person wasn't standing there to show facial highlights, but look at what #2 did to the detail on the shed siding. Both 1 and 2 have so much light concentrated in the center that it could be spread and would actually be beneficial to the exposure. Generally, with decent software Photoshop on stills (and perhaps Photoshop/Lightroom's limited video processing) and Premiere Pro or FCPX for video you can adjust the exposure in post, pulling detain from underexposed, but blown out overexposed has destroyed the detail and you are SOL.