What would be the easiest, economical way to test if my existing CCTV cameras are IR capable?
(Thinking to invest in one of them IR "flood light" things - but would prefer to *know* if it'll work or not in advance of pch:>))
Cheers JimK
Take your TV remote control and "zap" into the lens
You should clearly see the LED flashing.
Most/all cameras will respond to the IR from a remote, but some cameras are very sensitive to IR.
your CCTV. I spotted a camcorder aiming at my house this way.
Or read the manual from for your cameras:-)
Adam
Sometimes they have a filter to filter it out. You might have to remove that.
There certainly may be a problem. There seem to be a number of different IR frequencies used, and filters to exclude the wrong frequencies. I don't know why they use filters at all - surely any light is good light. Removing a filter may be one hell of a job. In order to focus correctly you'd have to replace it with optical glass of the right thickness, which may be hard to get. If you do what I did and try to move the sensor to refocus correctly, you may do some damage to the camera. Here's me try to remove the IR filter (the blue thing on the left)
left)
Given I would want the IR light "invisible" to humans/scrotes is there some sort of cheapo LED circuit I could "knock up" with my rudimenatry soldering skills and wave around in front of the camera? -- without costing more than tenner say?
Cheers JimK
You could buy a single IR LED and put it in series with a resistor. They are very cheap. I have two kinds - invisible and a dull red. Why the hell anyone would bother making the visible red ones is a mystery. I have some cameras equipped with invisible LEDs, and that is ideal. Fortunately the two shops I deal with here in NZ will allow items to be returned within 2 weeks.
How about EBay 280468481684. About a tenner delivered.
In article , Matty F writes
Infra Red will focus at a different point so if there is a lot of IR in the scene and you leave it in it will affect the conventional image.
ah that rather sounds like I'm on a non-starter then?....
JimK
If you are protecting inside your own property you'd be better to have sensor floodlights. You'll get a superb picture and the crims will run away. But I can't use those for the footpath and road outside my house!
yeah... I'm hankering after a "record motion detected footage at night" feature so my (amateur) hypothesis says I would need covert illumination to allow cameras to see that motion to allow the software to detect it etc...
Cheers JimK
I have one of these. It's great.
I have a couple of capture cards in an old computer (500MHz) and 8 cameras. Each card cost about EUR25 and can handle 4 cameras. The software is truly amazing - I can choose any of 192 areas of the picture to detect motion in. If motion is detected it can record up to 30 seconds of video before and after the motion was detected, on all 8 cameras at once. I have some cameras recording all the time and a few that just detect motion. I can then easily see what time something happened without fast forwarding on the main cameras..
Not sensitive enough.
Put the lights out and use your TV remote as a floodlight. Can you see reflected light?
I've got the other problem. 50 quid wi-fi two-axis steerable webcams from China, with good IR performance and built in illuminators. In outdoor daylight though, the image burns out and I can't see a thing.
The real NVD cameras are mil-surplus though. Damn, those things are good! Particularly the Gen2 Ferretscope.
Not at all, the differences in focus aren't that great so I'd say that it is worth a try to see whether the results are acceptable to you. The difference becomes more important in stills photography or high resolution video.
A top of the range CCTV cam might have a retractable filter for switching between day and night mode but we are not talking run of the mill domestic use for that.
Most of the cheapie (and not so cheapie) CCTV cams use threaded mount lenses that can be screwed in and out to vary the focus, once you have released a locking grub screw.
If it's a mono cam then it's unlikely to have an IR filter but if colour it could but it will likely be a disk under the lens which you can access and remove by releasing the lock and unscrewing the lens.
If daytime viewing is a priority then focus in daylight, focus under IR if that is what you want or mark the 2 focus posn's on the body and split the difference for a compromise.
Unless you've spent a lot on the cams then I doubt you'd spot the difference.
As to IR compatibility I think you could learn a lot from illuminating objects close to the cam with a TV remote, even given the pulsating light source, try it & see.
Also, most LED based IR illuminators glow red very faintly which may be an issue for you if you are trying to catch someone who is up to something. You can get ones that use a different IR wavelength which are totally invisible but they are not so common. A decent IR illuminator will have upwards of 20-50 leds. Also consider placing the illuminator closer to the target than the camera eg on a post in a drive if you are trying to cover a car but with the cam on the house.
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