Infrared, Color Night Vision, or Thermal Cameras: Which Night Vision Tech Do You Trust the Most?
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Night vision technology has come a long way, offering homeowners and businesses various ways to monitor their properties after dark. But not all night vision technologies are created equal—each has its strengths depending on your security needs.
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What’s your go-to night vision tech for different scenarios?
Have you noticed limitations in any of these technologies?
If you could improve one type of night vision, what would you change?Reply QuoteShare0- Share this Post
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@reolink-oskar This all boils down to costs. One of the key advantages of full colour night vision technology is that it offers clear and vivid colour images, even in near complete darkness say as low as 0.0005 lux. This is made possible by having a massive 1/1.2'' CMOS image sensor to capture more light, as well as a warm light that reaches up to 200ft. The technology has come a long way in recent years and continues to improve, making it a popular choice for cameras. There are also a couple different technologies to achieve full color. Some of the more affordable full color cameras use a built in warm light that can go as far as 100ft. More advanced cameras utilize two lenses. One lens captures visible light and the other captures infrared, both are then combined with clever programming to achieve a multi-spectral image. This means that with the same 100ft warm light, you can see even further in the dark.
Another technology is thermal imaging technology which captures the temperature difference between objects. They use microbolometers to detect different amounts of infrared light which are then converted to images of heat signatures. Since these cameras can identify heat patterns, they can see even in zero light and when there’s smoke present. So thermal night vision cameras are very useful for security where visual clarity is important regardless of the lighting condition. -
@reolink-oskar I have some WP DTNVG's for running around in the dark but that tech is far too cost prohibitive for residential and commercial cameras. I think low LUX cameras are the way to go. My RLC-843A's far out perform my 1240A's in low lighting. In the suburbs with skyline glow, my 843's do not need IR while my 1240's do. I don't like color NV as it requires white light. As a result, depth of field is only as good as the throw of the light. On one of my 843's I have disabled the spot light for this reason. If low LUX cameras are not an option, external IR flood lights. I have a Duo2 mounted on my second story roofline for overwatch of my back yard. At that distance, the built-in IR is useless so I splash the property with two IR floods.
For tactical use, companies are mixing thermal over one eye and NV over the other. The tubes are matched and calibrated and the end result is amazing recognition ability in the dark for the operator. Not sure if that could be incorporated cost effectively into a security camera, but it would be sweet.