[Solved] Strange floating specks on infrared camera
Forum Other Consumer Electronics : General Discussion [Solved] Strange floating specks on infrared camera
Hello, I have recently set up a camera on my front porch, set to view the driveway and any (dropped, banged, kicked, smashed) package deliveries. The Camera is under a roof and protected from weather. Tonight, it is 14 degrees f and there is no snow or rain or anything like that. The camera uses near infrared led's for night vision. When viewing in the dark (the effect stops if I turn on the porch light) I can see little specks floating upward across the camera image. When watching, it looks like gnats or fruit flies flying close to the camera, but it's far too cold out for bugs. The specks always move in generally upward motion, sometimes zigzagging or curving across the screen. I also thought that it looked a bit as though there were a fire under the camera and we were seeing floating embers, but of course there's no fires on my porch!! Standing on the porch I can't see any kind of floating specs, there's no dogwood trees shedding bits of fluff or anything... We've observed these little "floaters" every night, any time that the camera is using the IR for illumination. The specks are blurry and appear to be very close to the camera lens. I tried to google this but just got a bunch of ghosty paranormal nonsense, and I wasn't able to find a video that looked like mine do. Does anyone have and idea what I'm seeing? Is it a video artifact? Thank you!!
Message edited by mikaselm on 02-12-2012 at 06:25:24 AM
| mikaselm wrote : Hello, I have recently set up a camera on my front porch, set to view the driveway and any (dropped, banged, kicked, smashed) package deliveries. The Camera is under a roof and protected from weather. Tonight, it is 14 degrees f and there is no snow or rain or anything like that. The camera uses near infrared led's for night vision. When viewing in the dark (the effect stops if I turn on the porch light) I can see little specks floating upward across the camera image. When watching, it looks like gnats or fruit flies flying close to the camera, but it's far too cold out for bugs. The specks always move in generally upward motion, sometimes zigzagging or curving across the screen. I also thought that it looked a bit as though there were a fire under the camera and we were seeing floating embers, but of course there's no fires on my porch!! Standing on the porch I can't see any kind of floating specs, there's no dogwood trees shedding bits of fluff or anything... We've observed these little "floaters" every night, any time that the camera is using the IR for illumination. The specks are blurry and appear to be very close to the camera lens. I tried to google this but just got a bunch of ghosty paranormal nonsense, and I wasn't able to find a video that looked like mine do. Does anyone have and idea what I'm seeing? Is it a video artifact? Thank you!! |
most likely caused by the ir led's themselves, go outside without turning on your porch light and stare closely into the camera, if you see the ir led's flickering up like the image then thats your problem, glass in front of the leds will also produce this effect
this is a problem with many cheap "night vision" cameras on the market, although ir leds do work to illuminate the night for cctv, the cameras that have them built in are built like garbage in 90% of the cases, the ir illumination actually causes a reflective effect on the image, good ir cameras have ir cut off filter that filter out the reflections, the best way to utilize infrared for night time illumination is to use a good day/night camera with ir filter lens built in (color day- black and white night) without ir leds and use a separate ir illumination modules or ir lamps.
hope that helps if not, post again and well try something else
| mikaselm wrote : Hello, I have recently set up a camera on my front porch, set to view the driveway and any (dropped, banged, kicked, smashed) package deliveries. The Camera is under a roof and protected from weather. Tonight, it is 14 degrees f and there is no snow or rain or anything like that. The camera uses near infrared led's for night vision. When viewing in the dark (the effect stops if I turn on the porch light) I can see little specks floating upward across the camera image. When watching, it looks like gnats or fruit flies flying close to the camera, but it's far too cold out for bugs. The specks always move in generally upward motion, sometimes zigzagging or curving across the screen. I also thought that it looked a bit as though there were a fire under the camera and we were seeing floating embers, but of course there's no fires on my porch!! Standing on the porch I can't see any kind of floating specs, there's no dogwood trees shedding bits of fluff or anything... We've observed these little "floaters" every night, any time that the camera is using the IR for illumination. The specks are blurry and appear to be very close to the camera lens. I tried to google this but just got a bunch of ghosty paranormal nonsense, and I wasn't able to find a video that looked like mine do. Does anyone have and idea what I'm seeing? Is it a video artifact? Thank you!! |
most likely caused by the ir led's themselves, go outside without turning on your porch light and stare closely into the camera, if you see the ir led's flickering up like the image then thats your problem, glass in front of the leds will also produce this effect
this is a problem with many cheap "night vision" cameras on the market, although ir leds do work to illuminate the night for cctv, the cameras that have them built in are built like garbage in 90% of the cases, the ir illumination actually causes a reflective effect on the image, good ir cameras have ir cut off filter that filter out the reflections, the best way to utilize infrared for night time illumination is to use a good day/night camera with ir filter lens built in (color day- black and white night) without ir leds and use a separate ir illumination modules or ir lamps.
hope that helps if not, post again and well try something else
There are 50 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.
2000-2009 Bestofmedia Group