Alert Security Systems

[mmahoney626]

Would there be any issues with using the new 700n with night vision facing out of a window instead of into a room?  I've always liked the night vision feature of the outdoor cameras, but didn't want anything so obvious.  I have cameras now mounted on the glass facing out, and there are shades/blinds over the window, so I want to know if there is any degredation in functionality of the night vision by using the camera like the outdoor model, just mounted inside on the window facing out.

[SteveGB · Accepted solution]

Take a look at the link below:

http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/31545

[F4U_Corsair]

Yeah, looking back out a window at night with IR won't work.  The dark outside and window glass will create a form of mirror at night and reflect all the IR back at the camera.  

[mmahoney626]

Understandable.

Excellent and concise answer with a quick response!

Many thanks!

[lifer99]

I would say a similar image degrading reflection behavior happens on the 7xx outdoor cameras even when outdoors because they all have a clear plastic front window which both the lens and the IR LED's are behind. There is no way to shield this because the  plastic reflects some of the IR light internally (within the material thickness) and some of the rays eventually transmit through the plastic back into the lens. The solution is to allow the user to turn off the internal IR LED's and let the user provide his own external IR LED floodlights. They are quite inexpensive and can light up a much larger field of view than the ones inside the camera.

[mmahoney626]

That's uncanny.  I was thinking along the same lines with the IR floodlights, since I have motion activated floodlights on each corner of the house.  The windows are double pane, so the reflection/scattering effect answer gave me enough doubt to reconsider. 

This seems like a great idea and easy to implement, but how would the camera know to trigger if the internal IR is shut off?

If your IR floodlights are on all the time, would the camera default to triggering when motion detected?

[Netbones]

Ran into the same problem and I used a simple hack to fix the back-reflextion - a black sharpie. Trace it around the edge of the plastic outside the lens the covers the IR LED's.  No more back-reflection on the outdoor cameras!

[georgebnk]

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Netbones wrote:

Ran into the same problem and I used a simple hack to fix the back-reflextion - a black sharpie. Trace it around the edge of the plastic outside the lens the covers the IR LED's.  No more back-reflection on the outdoor cameras!

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Wow......interesting.  So you trace onto the glass window itself? Around the plastic that is on the outside of the lens that covers the LEDs ......onto the window itself? I just want to make sure I understand.  Can you explain in detail?..and thanks! This may be what I will need since I was planning on using the indoor night vision for the front door porch but mounted on the inside of the house up on the window above the door.

If you can explain in detail......appreciated. Thanks!

[Netbones]

Yes, along the rim of the plastic outside the lense.  Works great!

[jeffopus]

I have two cameras on one system and found one window setup works perfectly while another does not. Does your window also have a screen, the cameras do not work so well thorugh a screen for nightvision. My front window camera works very well but my back camera that looks thorugh a screen as well as a window does not work well enough for identifying a person through.