Insane amount of particles causing false alerts at night. Is it due to where my camera is?

Bmr4life

Young grasshopper
Oct 14, 2018
41
20
Georgia
It took me months to figure out that this is not sideways rain. It's tiny particles that travel in every direction, but mostly upward right towards the camera. It's impossible for me to dial my settings down low enough to ignore this and still capture animals that have come through my backyard.
 

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+1 on what @bigredfish said and his IR idea is spot-on (no pun intended)

I get it here as well, especially being 500 yds. uphill from a 21,000 acre lake in NW AL.

It's so constant and damp here because of it that in the summer you'll sprout moss on your leg if you stand in one place too long. :lol:
 
Question.

How much of an offset are we talking to prevent rain and fog from bouncing back to the camera?

What if an IR light through the window below the camera? Would that work?
 
Question.

What if an IR light through the window below the camera? Would that work?
You'll likely get too much IR bounce-back but you can try. You could also try mounting it on a 2x4 in a bucket of rocks like you would when trying new cam locations; just try not illuminate directly in front of cam but rather toward the ground past the cam. I'd first try at cam height or above, to the right of cam maybe 10-12 feet (when facing it) pointed out toward target. Experiment! You'll likely have to move it several time before you get the best results.
 
It’s a 4K camera that isn’t going to have the best low light performance unless you add a lot of light.
 
Well that's about to happen. Going to put up two or three these.
 
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Alright, I've done a temp install with two IR lights and turn the lights off that are built into the camera.

One of these about a foot beneath my camera

and one of these shinning off the rear deck to the right building adding light just beyond where the first lights begin to fade. I plan on adding a second one of these to shine down on the far left side of my backyard.

Now I'm just waiting for rain or fog so I can test the IR bounce back.
 

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Significant improvement in visibility at night to my tired, old, eyes!
 
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Got some fog tonight. Turned the lights on the camera to see how bad it is and the comparison pictures don't lie. All of the external IR are on in both pictures. The first picture shows the fog bouncing back at the camera with its lights on. That fog is also moving around a lot.
 

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I'm getting closer to final config.

This is one $25 light under the camera and three $15 lights. One mounted under the deck pointing down and two other aimed at different parts of the backyard.

Nice improvement for about $100 including extensions and splitters.
 

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Don't over do it. Take a stroll out there and make sure you're not washing out details, like faces, due to too much IR. The camera may compensate, but double check!
 
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Thank you both. I'm adjusting the lights and I'll be moving the underdeck light to the backyard to point and the dark area I just made.

I'm also reviewing videos of me walking around. :)

Sucks that all of this can only be done at night.
 

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