IR Lights / LED's Visible

mr robertotaylor

I purchased a Reolink NVR system with the 5MP dome PoE cameras. When the IR lights turn on at night, I can see red LED's where the IR lights are. Now, I know that IR lights are not visible to the human eye, so these are definitely red LED's turning on when the IR lights turn on, but I can't find an option to turn them off.

My brother has a similar Reolink system with 6 bullet PoE cameras and one of the 4MP PoE dome cameras, and none of his cameras have red LED's that turn on at night with the IR lights.

Can anyone help me out with this issue? I don't want the red LED's on because that makes the cameras highly visible at night, and I don't necessarily want them to be that noticeable at night to people.

The image attached are probably the IR lights, but they're also the LED's that I'm able to see with the naked eye.

Thanks!

fishki

You can't turn off the IR LED's, if you did you would lose the night vision.

The reason you can see the red glow of the IR LED's is due to the wavelength (850nm).
This is just the light spectrum which the infrared lights in the camera use, they give the camera the best possible night vision as this spectrum is seen much brighter by the technology inside the camera.

As IR becomes more covert it becomes more difficult for the camera to see and consequently distances are reduced unless you are using highly sensitive cameras fitted with high performance lenses.

Mike

It's spillover of the IR LEDs into the human visible spectrum. IR LEDs put out a spectrum of light, not just a single frequency. The peak of the IR LED's output is 850nm, but its spectrum of emission is from about 750nm to about 925 nm. Chances are the LED it outputting light at just the edge of the human visual spectrum, which is what you are seeing. The only way to avoid this is to use 940nm IR LED's, their spectrum of emissions doesn't spill over into the human visual range, but, as was said above, their utility is limited.

mr robertotaylor

Thanks for the answers guys. I guess my main concern was why my brothers Reolink cameras don't have the visible IR LED's but mine do. Is it safe to assume that his Reolink cameras are using different IR LED's than mine?

Mike

Yep

guero jose

How about a gel filter to block the visible red, but pass the NIR? Maybe somebody savvy can suggest a blue photo filter or something that could be applied over the camera, perhaps cut to a ring which blocks the LEDs but not the lens? This is definitely buyer's remorse-worthy, and something I wish I had seen earlier when reading up on Reolink before purchase.

Cynthia

We are quite sorry for your situation. Could you please send an email to support@reolink.com? Our technical support team will help you. Have a nice day.