Best type of lighting for Starlight cameras

[Dodutils]

Once again, this is a non issue for turret style cameras...you are buying the wrong design. On a turret camera the IR and the lens are already separate.

OK I missed the point that Turret had seeparated IR so it's fine.

 

[fenderman]

OK I missed the point that Turret had seeparated IR so it's fine.

this is camera basic 101 stuff..

 

[Dodutils]

Everyone's goal is to record video for security purposes; all your cameras are not worth a fucking thing if they missed what they were installed for.. as I said; Only chumps operate in such a manner.. glad it works for you; but your advice is unsound and not recommended.

Again all depend or user's real need so my advice can be good or not but it's not my decision and please try not to be rude.

this is camera basic 101 stuff..

As I said I am not english native so I did not get the real meaning of the "Turret" word.

 

[zero-degrees]

Let me give you a very personnal example, for 10 years I had to check people in/out at my Grand mother's house especially for workers (is this right word in english ?) how came every day to make her eat and wash.

So I had to count each time they come in/out and also how long they spent at home and for this the motion recording was fine and rarely missed an in or out (but yes it happened), I also developped my own "fast video review" tool, very optimized to do a monthly check/report with semi-automatic sorting (using auto x10 time play speed, keyboard shortcuts for deleting or moving each video to dedicated worker's folder (key 0-9 as I never had more than 10 different workers) and adding a "in" or "out" at the end of video's filename, so the time each one spent at home could be automatically calculted by an other software I developped on purpose and then double check with the company's bill, very usefull and permitted to detect some workers that did not wrote the correct timing (whenever they knew about the camera that's weird).

While I respect your use here - that is not security, you used it as a time clock. Also I sure as hell wouldn't have gone though all that, I would have installed a $50 time clock or alarm panel that they logged in and out. Then if that time clock entry was questionable I would go to my video footage that was recorded 24/7 to match video to time clock entry.

So i understand your "why" but again, that isn't security related IMO it was a freaking time clock

 

[Dodutils]

While I respect your use here - that is not security, you used it as a time clock. Also I sure as hell wouldn't have gone though all that, I would have installed a $50 time clock or alarm panel that they logged in and out. Then if that time clock entry was questionable I would go to my video footage that was recorded 24/7 to match video to time clock entry.

The very first usage was indeed for security reason right after she got crooked (is that the rigtht word ?) and it worked well, the check in/out feature came later when she started to need those helpers (is there any english name for those people working for old people's healthcare ?) so this video based time calculation was some kind of challenge as a programmer to make a very optimized reviewing/time calculation system and legally I had not to declare any Automatic WorkTime system (French administration and working laws matter).

 

[Kawboy12R]

Separated or not, a turret's built-in IR still fires off motion events for moths, etc. A one inch "separation" isn't enough. All built-in IR is bad for halfway meaningful motion events and video quality, particularly in fog, snow, rain, etc. Off-cam illumination is greatly preferred for many reasons whether it's IR or white light.

 

[Dodutils]

Separated or not, a turret's built-in IR still fires off motion events for moths, etc. A one inch "separation" isn't enough. All built-in IR is bad for halfway meaningful motion events and video quality, particularly in fog, snow, rain, etc. Off-cam illumination is greatly preferred for many reasons whether it's IR or white light.

That is what I tried to explain, thank you.

 

[zero-degrees]

Separated or not, a turret's built-in IR still fires off motion events for moths, etc. A one inch "separation" isn't enough. All built-in IR is bad for halfway meaningful motion events and video quality, particularly in fog, snow, rain, etc

A month will set off a motion alert if your sensitivity is set incorrect with or without internal IR. Also I can say that I have damn near perfect motion email alerts on two cameras with next to zero false positives. Both these cameras are first floor turret cameras (IR built in/active) and I have NO false hits because of snow or rain. I also have no IR reflection off a downpour of rain or heavy snow and my cameras are only recessed 6" back under the eve.

 

[fenderman]

That is what I tried to explain, thank you.

You need to study camera design options out there... You don't seem to have any experience..

 

[Kawboy12R]

A moth at 6 inches is BIG in the frame. No way to tune those out and still catch smaller events far away. Depends on location and what you expect to get flagged though. You can't up the duration length much if you expect to catch quickly moving vehicles although that's a good way to catch slow foot traffic and eliminate moths. If I can't catch distant people or coons and still avoid falsing from bugs and weather then I'm not happy. For important motion events triggering emailed alerts then I run completely separate motion settings for the same camera.

 

[Katodude]

Wow, that is a lot of posts. First I plan on recording 24/7 at the highest resolution. Hard disks are cheap. I plan on putting as much real light as possible. Does anyone have any comments on my camera placement? Also I don't have an issue with turning off the camera IR illumination if necessary and am willing to buy extra illuminators as necessary. Any advice is appreciated and I don't mind over engineering a solution.

 

[j4co]

If you only want to watch that car, you seem to have ok positions, as you have that covered from 2 sides.
How high is the eve ?
These car intruders tend to wear caps/hats whatever to cover their faces, so if your camera is installed to high you not get a good facial view.

And with my limited experience i agree a bullet type is better than a dome when it is out in the elements.
As for moths, i see those before dome, turret and ptz once in a while.

Other point to think over might be that if yu now install 3 cameras, you will find out you missed something on other position where you do not have a camera..

 

[Ryan00]

recording only based off video motion processing is for chumps.. hdd's are cheap as fuck.. record 24/7/365 @ max quality and the spiders will just pollute your timeline.

alarms/alerts off video outdoors is even worse; but the Starlight cameras come with IVS features to help with that.

I agree just record 24/7 no reason not to

 

[MakoMillenium]

Dahua NVR can record full time and save motion events. Playback can then be set to show only motion events when required. If additional white light is being used to light the scene the onboard infrared is less attractive to moths etc. If enough white light is used IR will be off anyway.

 

[nayr]

back to the OP's original question, check out the: IR Cannon w/Adjustable Focus

the adjustable focus will work very well with a Varifocal Starlight; many of the images I posted up in the review show that it basically eliminates all noise and gives you a very detailed image even at high shutter speeds.. I installed the IR Cannons to help w/the 4MP Camera's poor capabilities; but I will keep them long after I replace all these cameras w/Starlight equivalents..

I would not run it in color mode at night unless its an alternate angle or if you just had badass visible dusk2dawn lighting that allowed a decent shutter speed.. Visible lighting is not always better, if the area was otherwise completely dark it really slows people down when they cant see shit.. dont provide em light to work with if you can help it, if you force em to break out there own flashlight then they are alot less discrete and someone is likely to notice it.. motion activated lights havent scared off anyone in decades, its not like they have never encountered them before and actually think someone is physically watching em.. that ship sailed long ago, there is zero psychological advantage to having the lights turn on since they will do so all the time even if nobody is out there to trigger em.

Disabling the onboard IR and using external IR does have advantages if you can cope with the aesthetics of it all.. if your watching a parking area and you move the source far enough away from the lens none of the reflectors will flare up for example.. but doing all this to get better motion detection results is not the path a wise man will travel.. You add more lighting to improve quality and reduce noise, the rest is just icing on the cake.

Any camera, starlight or naught will benefit from additional lighting Visible or 850nm IR.. the difference was night/day w/my non-starlight cameras and a bit less so with my starlight cameras but still worth the performance increase.

 

[j4co]

My tests are perhaps usefull for you..
Thoughts on this mains powered IR illuminator

These are $34 ir units from China available in different angles. I also tested a 3.6 watt light cannon there.
The video quality is not very good (non starlight mini ptz), it was a quick test and it is about 20 meters away.