Starlight Night Vision

Woody70

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Can you use both starlight and IR in the same area with no problem. It would be the IR camera crossing the starlight camera some 10 yards in front of it.
 

tangent

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Cameras that are sensitive to IR light generally have an electro-mechanical IR cut filter that activates when in night mode and operate in greyscale at night. You can force a camera to stay in color mode but without enough light it may not see too well.

There are no issues mixing cameras that are in color mode and ir mode other than potentially seeing a bit of purplish light from ir emitters.

Most 'starlight' cameras can operate in IR mode, so your question is a bit confusing. At some point we may see security cameras that operate in a combined color + ir mode made possible by 4 channel image sensors (RGB+IR), these sensors have been out a while but few have made it into cameras
 

Parley

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Cameras that are sensitive to IR light generally have an electro-mechanical IR cut filter that activates when in night mode and operate in greyscale at night. You can force a camera to stay in color mode but without enough light it may not see too well.

There are no issues mixing cameras that are in color mode and ir mode other than potentially seeing a bit of purplish light from ir emitters.

Most 'starlight' cameras can operate in IR mode, so your question is a bit confusing. At some point we may see security cameras that operate in a combined color + ir mode made possible by 4 channel image sensors (RGB+IR), these sensors have been out a while but few have made it into cameras
Heck, I am still waiting for the 1/1.2" sensor to make it's way into a vari-focal camera, and that sensor has been out for a while now.
 
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Mike A.

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Depends on that you're calling "Starlight" and how the cameras are installed and set up. Starlight cams are IR cams so there's not a distinction as you seem to be wording it.

In any case, you can use either way. You might have issues from IR glare if running both in IR and there's too much hitting the lens from the other camera. Depends on the angle, reflection, etc.
 

wittaj

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Starlight is simply a marketing term. Reolink has starlight and nobody here would use those if night performance is your criteria.

Starlight can still be on the less than ideal MP/sensor ratio.

You have now entered the paralysis by analysis phase LOL.

I have suggested to you the recommended cameras for your purpose in your other thread and thread LOL.

If you start chasing phrases you will be disappointed.
 
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wittaj

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Do not get caught up in the name of the sensor. As an example, Reolink puts Starlight and Starvis sensors in their cameras, but at the end of the day it is what they do with the firmware algorithms that determine if the camera will work well at night. And they have favored a nice bright static image over quality of image with motion at night.

It is best to chase sensor size. You want a camera on the proper MP/Sensor ratio. We have found if manufacturers adhere to these MP/sensor ratios, they tend to also have firmware that allows you to get clean captures at night and be able to adjust parameters like shutter and the camera adheres to it.

8MP on a 1/1.2" sensor or larger
4MP on a 1/1.8" sensor or larger
2MP on a 1/2.8" sensor or larger.

Can't really go by LUX ratings either because there are so many games that can be played even with the how they report the Lux numbers. They will claim a low lux of 0.0005 for example, but then that is with a wide open iris and a shutter at 1/3 second and an f1.6 - as soon as you have motion in it, it will be crap. You need a shutter of at minimum 1/60 second to reduce a lot of blur from someone walking. So the "specs" don't mean much. It is why you need to look at reviews here where people actually show what the cameras can do with motion. Unlike Amazon reviews that are based on static images. You are already looking at the best in class 4MP and 8MP camera...

To prove how meaningless Starlight is, this is an example from Reolink's marketing videos of their Starlight camera - do you see a person in this picture...yes, there is a person in this picture. This is why you cannot buy a system based on marketing terms like Starlight.... Could this provide anything useful for the police? Would this protect your home? The still picture looks great though except for the person and the blur of the vehicle... Will give you a hint - the person is in between the two columns:


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Bad Boys
Bad Boys
Watcha gonna do
Watcha gonna do
When the camera can't see you
 
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