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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => IP Cameras => DCS-932L => Topic started by: appliancejunk on June 27, 2012, 05:11:37 PM

Title: Covered up red IR(?) lights and can still see in the dark, why?
Post by: appliancejunk on June 27, 2012, 05:11:37 PM

So I was wondering how well the night vision would work on my DCS-932L with two of the four red IR lights covered up.

I covered up two of them and could not notice any difference in the night vision so I covered up the other two and still had great night vision.

I covered them up with camo duct tape and could see a bit of the red light shining through yet so I covered them up with a second layer of duct tape.

Now I can't see any red light shining through the tape, but my night vision inside the house still looks awesome!

How could that be?

It's not 100% dark in the house yet, but it's dark enough that with the camera in daylight mode it's hard to see anything, so I manually put it on night mode and then started covering up the red lights.

Is the IR not being blocked by my tape or what?

Edited to add: Also what's the clicking noise I hear when it switches from daylight to night vision?
I understand from reading other threads that is has to do with it switching from daylight to night vision, but what is making the noise. Is a shutter opening up or what? Sure seems like a lot of noise just to turn on some LED's. :)

Thanks,

Title: Re: Covered up red IR(?) lights and can still see in the dark, why?
Post by: appliancejunk on June 27, 2012, 06:30:01 PM

Ok, should have done some more testing before I posted about the IR lights.

Once it got darker in the house I uncovered the four lights and you could tell a big difference, lol...
The dark room is a lot brighter with the IR lights uncovered. Still wondering just what is going on mechanically with the camera when you hear that clicking noise.

Title: Re: Covered up red IR(?) lights and can still see in the dark, why?
Post by: JavaLawyer on June 28, 2012, 05:23:59 AM

As I'm sure you surmised, the clicking sound is normal whenever the DCS-932L transitions between day and night modes.

Regarding your observations with the IR illuminators covered up. . . When you forced the camera into night mode, the camera switched from color to black and white. In low light levels, black and white cameras perform much better than color.  Black and white cameras can operate at lower light/lux levels. Your observation that the DCS-932L video looked brighter in night mode (with no IR illuminators available), is probably due to the fact that you were looking at a b/w image rather than color in a relatively dark (but not completely light deprived) room. As soon as all of the light was removed, the camera needed the IR illuminators to "see".

Title: Re: Covered up red IR(?) lights and can still see in the dark, why?
Post by: appliancejunk on June 28, 2012, 05:35:42 AM

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I understand it's normal with the DCS-932L, but I'm still wondering what inside the camera is making the noise.

Does anyone know if all D-Link day/night model cameras make that clicking noise when switching from day to night?

I like being able to schedule the day/night mode in the admin panel for the camera.

Title: Re: Covered up red IR(?) lights and can still see in the dark, why?
Post by: JavaLawyer on June 28, 2012, 06:08:03 AM

The clicking is present in at least the DCS-932L and DCS-942L. I can't speak to other D-Link models.

Title: Re: Covered up red IR(?) lights and can still see in the dark, why?
Post by: Reddok on July 26, 2012, 06:49:43 PM

The clicking is the IR filter that is present in daylight mode moving off the lens.