need a day/night camera??

Almost all my installations required night time viewing, and the last couple we went through a few different cameras. Still use Provideo IR Bullets in a local nightclub application though as they work well at the bars and the dance floor. For outdoor IR though, with color in the day, ExtremeCCTV's EX82 is one of the best. (at my apartment though i use the provideo IR bullets, cheaper and do the job, though i do have some lighting)

Post your tests / experiences with different day/night cameras, so we can see and maybe test one four ourselves.

All those instances had good lighting, there are many cameras on the market offering a switch mode to either second sensor or black and white imaging on low light levels, however I prefer the wide dynamic digital cameras as they will allow you to take light from areas of light in the picture and enhace it to other areas without light.... For example a glass table top bar with fluro lights built into it in a bar that has ambient (low lighting) will result ina wash out of light in the area of the bar and no real identification, to fix this with a wide dynamic range camer you mask out the light of the bar and transfer it to the darker areas, works great to get faces as people walk in dorrs with sun at their backs,, not cheap though around $600 Australian Retail which I think is about $400 US, you must make sure you have a suitable F Stop lens though

All those instances had good lighting, there are many cameras on the market offering a switch mode to either second sensor or black and white imaging on low light levels, however I prefer the wide dynamic digital cameras as they will allow you to take light from areas of light in the picture and enhace it to other areas without light.... For example a glass table top bar with fluro lights built into it in a bar that has ambient (low lighting) will result ina wash out of light in the area of the bar and no real identification, to fix this with a wide dynamic range camer you mask out the light of the bar and transfer it to the darker areas, works great to get faces as people walk in dorrs with sun at their backs,, not cheap though around $600 Australian Retail which I think is about $400 US, you must make sure you have a suitable F Stop lens though

Good lighting? The Infrared images were taken in pitch dark. The nightclub is very dim, no color cameras would produce a clear enough picture, even the lowest light color camera with all the tweaks. It would produce a more pixelised image which is the norm with those cameras.

All the low light cameras i have used take light from other areas of the image and spread it out to the darker areas, thats how low light color cameras work, and why they can generally be pixelised when it is very dark.

Sanyo Cameras have the multi zone light measuring system for backlighting. I learned the hard way with the f-sop lens level, i was using a too bright lens, f1.0.95 (i think) lens, and with the 2 large UF500 LEDs, the camera kept switching from BW to Color, so i raised the level and then it worked fine.

Sanyo's day night camera, has a switch to change BW mode. Also has multiple back lighting. Its a good camera for the price.Im using it along with 2 ExtremeCCTV UF500 IR LEDs.

(http://www.sanyosecurity.com/pdf/cctv/cat/ccd(ntsc)/vcc4594.pdf)

The EX82 though, is currently deployed by the US armed forces in afganistan, Iraq, and along with other exreme cctv IR cameras and LEDs, used all over London, and at UN offices worldwide. (www.extremecctv.com)

Rory Sanyo Cameras have the multi zone light measuring system for backlighting. I learned the hard way with the f-sop lens level, i was using a too bright lens, f1.0.95 (i think) lens, and with the 2 large UF500 LEDs, the camera kept switching from BW to Color, so i raised the level and then it worked fine.

Sorry bad explanation again.. what i meant to say is that yes good pictures but with IR Illumination! you can use a low F Stop lens with IR as long as you have a camera that has a photcell sensor built in to determine the difference between IR light and visable light. The ganz at 32x boost is at 0.012lux which is pretty low light.

Rory Sanyo Cameras have the multi zone light measuring system for backlighting. I learned the hard way with the f-sop lens level, i was using a too bright lens, f1.0.95 (i think) lens, and with the 2 large UF500 LEDs, the camera kept switching from BW to Color, so i raised the level and then it worked fine.

 

Sorry bad explanation again.. what i meant to say is that yes good pictures but with IR Illumination! you can use a low F Stop lens with IR as long as you have a camera that has a photcell sensor built in to determine the difference between IR light and visable light. The ganz at 32x boost is at 0.012lux which is pretty low light.

yep, they are no low light, i know that now after testing, actually they are terrible as far as low light, they only work with IR light. I asked about this after i (client) paid $700 for a IR day night dome camera and it would give inferior picture in the night club (wasnt bought for the nightlcub, but only for use with IR anyway which it worked good for) but I was testing and figured it should have also have low light, anyway I know better now! Thanks to the 2 clients of mine that allow me to test new products with them, im going to get a ganz for one of them, probably the night club.

By the way, re: extremecctv.com, some great cameras, high prices, but are worth it for IR situations, though not low light or normal. The EX82 though gives a great color daytime picute but it is a seperate camera from its BW IR camera (2 in one), and costs $1250 US.

They have a LRX version, color where there is light in the Picture, and IR BW where it is pitch dark or low light. But i would only use them if you need video in pitch dark. Ill try to get some new digital pictures.

Rory

I would post some pictures up here for the Wide Dynamic, but I have no where to post the images publicly and this forum does not take FTP at this stage.

If you like I can email some to you.