Ambient Lighting vs .....

R

Rich.L

Getting the hang of it
Aug 6, 2019
55
43
VA
Hi,

After reading several post and doing a bit of searching I have a question.

A lot of users seem to like the Dahua Startlight cameras for night time use.

Is ambient lighting with higher resolution/fps a better option for night time to be able to identify indviduals? If so, what kind of ambient lighting levels would be required? Are we talking 1-2 dimmable LED's per camera location, security lighitng that is on at 100% or a Clark Griswald level of lighting that can be seen from the moon?

I deally, inside 25ft from the house, Iwould like to have enough detail whether day or night to provide to the police if necessary.

Rich
 
Rich.L said:
Hi,

After reading several post and doing a bit of searching I have a question.

A lot of users seem to like the Dahua Startlight cameras for night time use.

Is ambient lighting with higher resolution/fps a better option for night time to be able to identify indviduals? If so, what kind of ambient lighting levels would be required? Are we talking 1-2 dimmable LED's per camera location, security lighitng that is on at 100% or a Clark Griswald level of lighting that can be seen from the moon?

I deally, inside 25ft from the house, Iwould like to have enough detail whether day or night to provide to the police if necessary.

Rich
Click to expand...

Hi @Rich.L

In general:
Unless you can light up the area similar to the daytime lighting, a starlight / starlight+ camera will provide you a better image during low light conditions.

That stated, the newer 8MP models out with the newer sensors do a better job than the older 8MP models - and so those maybe useful if you have plenty of ambient light.

Remember to check out the reviews by members to get an idea of performance.

Also, Clark Griswald level of lighting may cause issues with some cameras - as features can be washed out if the camera has a very bright spot ( say a bright light ) in the FOV and very dark spots ( example shadows ) - this is why it is important to test the views both at night and the daytime.

With regards to ID distances .. see the DORI info in the cliff notes.
 
I have 12 cameras around the house. Three I keep in color at night because they are the most important locations where I expect to need facial ID. They default back to B&W/IR if lighting doesnt come on for some reason. The rest I let go to B&W/IR as light dictates.
It does take a good deal of white light to get usable color video without motion blur at night, even with Starlights. Generally the Starlights or HiK Darkfighter's will provide a better image in B&W as well though.


Two 1200 lumen 100W LED bulbs in the coach lights, and street light about 200ft away to the left and right.
This is an awesome new 4MP Starlight bullet - see review here
(Be sure and choose highest resolution in youtube player)



vs 2MP Starlight B&W/IR



2MP Starlight turret with built-in white LED's
 
bigredfish said:
They come on 100% at dusk and go off at dawn.
Click to expand...

Have your neighbors provided any negative feedback about having those lights on? Do you keep other lights on the side and back of the house on at night also?

We had some new neighbors move in and they did some massive floodlights and had them pointed to light up their entire yard. By doing so, they were also pointed towards our master bedroom windows. We didn't really appreciate it and they didn't care.

Once we move in to our new house, I will need to see what I can do with the ambient lighting and see what cameras will work.
 
Ha, I helped both neighbors install cameras and they both have lights on at night. Actually I’d say 50% of the street does.

We do have low level lighting around the screened in pool area pointing at an 8 ft fence at the back of the lot.

It’s really not as bad as some would make it out to be. It’s a well lit neighborhood, but you couldn’t use it for aircraft navigation
 
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