In the CX camera series, can we please get back the option to only turn on the light at night when events are detected?

Víctor

Hi all.

I recently got some CX410 cameras, and generally speaking I'm very happy with their performance. The night vision is so good I basically never need the lights to be on, because everything is perfectly visible even in pitch black conditions.

I specifically got this model because I wanted to use the spotlight as a deterrent. That is, it should be always off at night, but come on as soon as it detects a person.

However, this feature was apparently removed at some point in the past, which is baffling to me. Now we can only use the "smart mode", which will keep the warm light on all night long, even when the cameras don't need it at all due to their excellent night vision.

I know the cooler light will still turn on when it detects a person, but this is still much worse than the old behaviour as I just don't want my house looking like an airport all night long.

Furthermore, the always-on light attracts bugs, spiders will tread their webs on the camera, etc. This is one of the main reasons I picked this camera over IR-based cameras, which have the same problem with bugs as the IR light is always on and visible to them.

I tried downgrading to the last firmware version that still had the old "Smart Night Mode", but unfortunately it doesn't seem to work properly anymore (not sure if there was a change in newer hardware revisions). What happens now is that the cameras will turn on the light whenever they detect ANY movement, not just people. Meaning the lights are on almost constantly due to bugs flying in front of them, which at the same time attracts even more bugs, which keep triggering the motion sensing... so in practice the light stays on all night long again.

Can we please, please get back the option to keep the lights 100% off unless a person is actually detected please? Why would you ruin one of the main selling points of a camera with such excellent night vision by forcing the light to either never be used or stay always on?