What IR illuminator would be best?

[klasipca]

Here is another IR light for $60 (although shipping is quite high) which will do wonder to those Hiks or any cam with crappy night vision

http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/l3bfELW

Atom posted sample images comparing with Longse here:

https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php/6964-5-MegaGixel-1-1-8-quot-low-light-destroyer-for-90?p=69348&viewfull=1#post69348

 

[atom]

I'm sold on IR, personally. I think if people talked IR as much as they do about cameras on this forum, we'd have people spending more on IR and less on cameras.

Agreed, as his is what I've done.

 

[hiky]

have a look for this in whatever country you are in IRN60B8AS00

or

IRH60HWA white IR light for night colour

 

[pozzello]

it sure looks cool. they actually spent money on ID... how does it work?

 

[hiky]

it sure looks cool. they actually spent money on ID... how does it work?

No idea and i have never seen one work, tbh i cant even find any decent video of the things working other than odd bits on utube relating to white IR

Given a choice i would love to use one over normal IR or bright standard illumination

actually check here, tbh forget the actual manufacture and looks of the camera, i think it gives a good idea of white light
http://www.redvisioncctv.com/x-series-video-4/

 

[nayr]

given the cost it'd be cheaper to dedicate a used car running all night with its headlamps on

i just put standard security lights up and wired them into z-wave, and wired the cameras into that.. so cameras see motion, they turn on the lights.. actually works pretty well.

 

[hiky]

given the cost it'd be cheaper to dedicate a used car running all night with its headlamps on

Yeah but... not everyone wants actual daylight in the dead of night, neighbors and surroundings sometimes do not allow for sufficient bright lighting, something invisible to do the same job has got to be worth a look

spec sheet says 30w state of the art SMD LED with adjustable in built photocell, ip67 with 10,30,60deg pattern options
60 deg white light 90m ( 295ft)

 

[atom]

No idea and i have never seen one work, tbh i cant even find any decent video of the things working other than odd bits on utube relating to white IR

Given a choice i would love to use one over normal IR or bright standard illumination

actually check here, tbh forget the actual manufacture and looks of the camera, i think it gives a good idea of white light
http://www.redvisioncctv.com/x-series-video-4/

White IR? I think you'll find all of the references to 'white light' are normal, visible spectrum white light. In which case using these lights achieves the same that @nayr is with his system.

 

[hiky]

looks like you are correct atom except white IR which should really be called white LED seems really concentrated instead of a dispersal field which most security lights tend to do, at the very least it appears to give a longer reach of light... i have LED lighting outside my place but its nothing like the videos i have seen

60degree white light at 90 mtrs is not shabby and they look better than a car with its headlights on
and i just noticed they have adjustable light intensity

 

[atom]

Speaking of a car with its headlights on; I use a Wurton mini light bar (intended for 4X4s), with a 12v adaptor plugged into a remotely controlled switch as a driveway security light. It's a very concentrated, powerful spotlight, indestructible and cheaper than any equivalent high-quality security white light illuminators I could find to match it.

Edit: here is what it looks like (the Hik bullet has now been replaced with a Huisun 10x PTZ)

 

[hiky]

It looks better than i thought it might... i had an image in my head of 2 Kc day lighters on a bar attached to a pole or something

which would be more effective for facial recognition using your setup, the white normal light or IR, i find IR created glare on faces

 

[jimg]

Here is another IR light for $60 (although shipping is quite high)

Ouch! Isn't there a more cost effective shipping option?

 

[atom]

It looks better than i thought it might... i had an image in my head of 2 Kc day lighters on a bar attached to a pole or something

which would be more effective for facial recognition using your setup, the white normal light or IR, i find IR created glare on faces

Overall the white light it better, but you should be able to configure the camera to eliminate the glare/whiteout of faces. There's a lot of IR in the view of that camera, from there and other cams/illumniators, but to look at the image at night you'd wonder why it appears quite dark, until someone or something comes into view and is clearly illuminated without being too bright, with no ghosting/blurring, at any zoom.

 

[Kawboy12R]

Anybody running 940nm IR + cams? That's the invisible ('no glow') spectrum. Seems like everybody's standardized on 850nm spectrum (red glow) for cameras.

I run some 940nm. I think that red glow is more noticeable or more "offensive" or something than white light (my neighbours' opinions are more important than prowlers' opinions), so if there's a cam running IR (most of mine don't) and it's not enough combined with the white light (street light plus my own dusk til dawns plus motion light) then I add some 940nm if it's pointing towards the street. Back yard? Anything goes plus the 24/7 white light spotlight at my back door and the motion light. If I could nuke the prowling bastards instead of the deer/raccoons or my paper guy then I would, but those false positives suck.

 

[atom]

Anybody running 940nm IR + cams? That's the invisible ('no glow') spectrum. Seems like everybody's standardized on 850nm spectrum (red glow) for cameras.

I run some 940nm out the front of our place too (including the one in the above pic). They do the job well, and are pretty much invisible to the eye, but they need to be pretty powerful to do the job. As a rough estimation I'd say with most of the cams I've used them with over the years a 940nm illuminator provides about half the illumination and throw of an otherwise identical 850nm unit.

 

[riceandbeans]

Interesting - thanks. I'm surprised that I can't seem to find cameras geared toward the 940nm spectrum. You'd think they'd align light source, lens characteristics, and CMOS sensitivity... :stupid:

 

[Chust]

given the cost it'd be cheaper to dedicate a used car running all night with its headlamps on

i just put standard security lights up and wired them into z-wave, and wired the cameras into that.. so cameras see motion, they turn on the lights.. actually works pretty well.

That's a great idea! I will give this a whirl here in a month or so. Thanks Nayr!

 

[Kawboy12R]

Interesting - thanks. I'm surprised that I can't seem to find cameras geared toward the 940nm spectrum. You'd think they'd align light source, lens characteristics, and CMOS sensitivity... :stupid:

Yeah, but then they'd be snowed under with Joe Blow customer complaints that the lights weren't working. Add in another part of the market that wants red lights as a deterrent and I'd think that the demand would be fairly small. Still, there's a niche market out there that seems to be under-supplied for sure. I bet that there's test data showing IR sensitivity across the band of all camera chipsets so a fellow could pick a cam like that and replace the 850nm LED ring with a 940nm one. They're available but not terribly common. Much easier to buy a camera with switchable IR so it can be turned off and then use an external 940nm illuminator. They're available in everything from big floodlights to the most ingenious and mundane hidden contraptions.

 

[Dragon]

So what are your thoughts on this? Based on what I see I am not impressed with the results considering $90 price. Personally, I would use just buy another cam for this price or just add a motion flood light then trying to improve the view with this one.

It seems to me that this light is producing more light at 10W power usage than the 20W array he posted photos of earlier. The product page does mention its small LED arrays are 35% efficient vs 10% on traditional small LEDs (although the 20W array is using large LEDs and I don't know the efficiency of those) and put out much more light. It is annoying to have the strong edges around the lighted area but the brightness within the circle is pretty even. They show an image on the product page of brightening a whole giant courtyard with it. It would be nice to have one of these lights that could spread the beam even farther in a shorter distance. There are some other LED array lights here that I'm thinking about trying for that effect. One has a 180 degree spread.

 

[t_andersen]

Has anyone used one of these ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331703693597

I need to get more light for the cam below

I have bought three of them. Two ran hot and stopped working after 30 minutes but one has worked well for six months and I am happy with it.