Is the arlo pro 2 night vision really bad?

[chito2800]

So I own 4 arlo pro and they work amazing. Night vision is wonderful. I want to buy a extra camera for seeing the street where the cars park but I'm thinking if I should go with arlo pro 2.. the arlo pros I have now can see pretty far distance in night vision but I want to get the arlo pro 2 just cause it's newer but I hear all these bad reviews about night. Vision being bad but the pics I see of those customers complaining have the cameras position wrong where the ir is bouncing of the wall or a object too close to the camera. Can anybody help me out with some pics showing arlo pro 2 night vision of some far away distance views and normal views too.?Or any advice about the night vision. I also hear the arlo 2 pro looss connection a lot or video is really not that good when watching on biggger screen.

[brh]

I will let someone that owns the Pro2 answer that but initially my concern is that, since you cannot completely turn off notifications in Arlo, the number of notifications you would get would drive you crazy. I think also that you cannot switch from sending the notifications to an unused email account for those notifications that you don't want, and switch back to text depending on the mode .

I have the same dilemma. For that purpose, I don't think Arlo has an product.

Brian

[brh]

I am considering the Arlo Q Plus for that purpose but I am not sure how that camera will affect my bandwidth as it is always recording and I don't know if I would get an outrageous number of notifications.. If anyone who owns one of these would care to respond and elaborate, your answer would be greatly appreciated.

Brian

[brh]

When the soon to be released Arlo light with motion detection assist your view of the street at night?

Brian

[TomMac · Accepted solution]

First, the Pro2 is 1080 over the 720 of the Pro.... and yes it is newer and going thru it's birthing processes ( minor glitches ).

I am running 2 Pro2 cams and several Pro cams.... IMO , you are not going to get any more range from the P2 over the P1. Also, most of the better features require the P2 to be ac powered.  If there is a cost difference, it may be better to stick with what you have if running only on batteries ( it really depends on your usage )

Here is a PRO cam vs PRO2 ( no outside lighting, side by side , same conditions taken a few sec apart )... the PRO2 is a touch grainier but gives 1080 view over the Pro 720 , with the PRO2 wider IR..  The PRO2 tho does exceed the PRO in daytime lighting by quite a bit... so it's a trade off.  IF external lighting is present, the Pro2 starts to improve.  Have heard hints the night vision will get improvement as time goes by.

PRO;

PRO2;

@brh  As to notices and or pushes on any camera... it is a per camera option to turn them off or on so no issue with notifications if not wanted all the time... your choice , you just have to edit the mode.  ( or make two modes one

with alerts and one without , then use the one wanted at the time )

Yes , A q cam is streming all the time... it can peak at 1.5Mbs but mostly falls around <1Mbs ( you can lower rate also vs rez setting ) ... once again , you can turn off alerts but the Q cams do work great thru glass as they are pixel based detection .

[brh]

@TomMac

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Brian

[chito2800]

The night vision looks good. Have you had any glitches with the arlo pro 2? I don't mind paying the extra $30 for the pro2. All those bad reviews about night vision and turning off worried me. Does netgear have them working good now? Thanks for the pics.

[TomMac]

No real glitches with the Pro2s... like I said, the night vision is a bit off from the Pro, but Netgear is aware of it I believe and working on it.  In day the P2 is better overall.

[MichaelRo]

Netgear has been “working on this” since the release in October. Meanwhile folks are returning the product since they don’t want to get stuck with a defective product.

See examples here. FYI the better image is Pro 1.

What is the ETA?

[MichaelRo]

Pro 1 images

[TomMac]

yes, forgot the "2"

The Pro image is better at night then the P2.... But P2 is better in day and 1080.  As mentioned , right now it's a push.

No idea or eta when it will be fixed, just that Netgear knows about it.

Once again, IMO, if there is a price diff,  and it depends on your usage as many of the extra features are available only when plugged into ac, the Pro may be the choice

[paulmathijs]

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chito2800 wrote:
So I own 4 arlo pro and they work amazing. Night vision is wonderful. I want to buy a extra camera for seeing the street where the cars park but I'm thinking if I should go with arlo pro 2.. the arlo pros I have now can see pretty far distance in night vision but I want to get the arlo pro 2 just cause it's newer but I hear all these bad reviews about night. Vision being bad but the pics I see of those customers complaining have the cameras position wrong where the ir is bouncing of the wall or a object too close to the camera. Can anybody help me out with some pics showing arlo pro 2 night vision of some far away distance views and normal views too.?Or any advice about the night vision. I also hear the arlo 2 pro looss connection a lot or video is really not that good when watching on biggger screen.

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Apperently this topic has been marked as solved, but when I click on the solution link I do not find the answer. It seems the answer is "arlo pro 2 is better during day and worse during night, compared to arlo pro 1".

I just returned the arlo pro 1 to get two arlo pro 2's, because I understood they were better, but I am disappointed. So the question remains: is Netgear going to fix the night vision issue of the arlo pro 2 or should I return the two units I just purchased and get two arlo pro 1's instead (in Europe that would save me 2x € 50 = 2x 60 dollars).

So Netgear support, what is going to happen?

[Suitsme32]

Bought the pro 2, 4 pack. Installed 2 cams front door and garage door. Both are have lights any cams work ok. Yesterday I put a 3rd cam out the 2nd floor window. Back yard not lighted. Cam view was terrible. Like no night vision at all. Only dark images no definition. I started thinking aboit it, then i turned off outside garage lights and same thing . Basically these pro 2 cams dont work without other lighting. Plus the batteries dont last. With the cam set on battery saver, low video setting, low motion activtion i get 2-3 weeks out of the battery. Not the 6 months advertised. How ever, the specs on range of operation for temperature is right on. I live near st louis. It got cold . -4 and error message said cam had to wsrm up to activate. Specs states operating range -4 to 110 . Then there is off line problems . My conclusion is if you need a secuity system get one installed and hard wired. This arlo pro 2 is a quick install and really only works in well lite areas. More of a security toy than equipment. Pic post to follow.

[MichaelRo]

Return return return.

2 calls to customer service about this issue, both with the end reaponse as “we are looking into it”. This was over a month ago.

Shocked at the treatment of the customers. Don’t they realize we have 30d to return this junk?

[jguerdat]

2nd floor mounting will always be an issue due to the increased distance caused by this mounting. While I agree that the P2 cameras typically have less lighting than the P1, it's not like it's totally unusable unless the distance is great. Here's a P2 night shot with no real external lighting to help (those Christmas decorations are too far away to help with lighting and the cars block it anyways, not to mention they possibly cause the autoexposure to darken the image some).

[MichaelRo]

That image looks really dark. There are numerous side by side comparisons of the Arlo Pro and Pro 2 showing marked reduction in resolution and visibility at night with the same cameras.

At this point shall we assume Netgear is unable to solve the issue? We have been complaining to customer service for more than 3 months about this.

[jguerdat]

It is darker than a P1 video but I've also posted side-by side shots with only differing contrast amounts changed (not brightness) implying that it's a smaller contrast range that makes the difference. In any event, the image of what I'm really after (the sidewalk) is clearly visible. Changes can hopefully be made to enhance the P2 videos without the need for 3rd party manipulation but for now just realize that you're not going to be able to light up a yard with a battery-operated camera. It's in the image processing that will make the difference.

[MichaelRo]

I have side by side comparisons of an entrance door (which actually has a little lighting from the front of the house at night). Image darkness and resolution is much worse on the Pro 2. To the point that if an animal runs past the door (about 8-10ft from the camera, it’s hard to tell what animal it was (you just see a faint grey blob).

I really hope this is just a software/contrast adjustment issue. But if it was, then by are the engineers “looking into it” for 3 months.

[Morten-Kroejby]

if the IR is reflecting of a surface near the pro2 then YES the night vision is wors than the Pro1.

if the Pro 2 is mounted withOUT any reflecting surfaces withing 10cm-300cm both cameras is preeeety much the same at night, but pro2 is slightly better at daylight. it is correct it is a liiiitle bit darker than the pro1 if both are positioned correct, but it does not make the visibilyty better or wors, just a litle darker. ( you cant regonice peoples face on eny of them, anyway.).

Video / images compairison:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2P3VL3p06Q

NOTE that it cant be a bit hard to position the pro 2 without any surfaces reflecting IR within approximate 300cm, so keep that in mind when choosing your product.

[Arlodog6578]

In the comparison video they say the pro 2 starts recording 3 seconds sooner.  Does that feature require it be plugged in, or does it do that on battery?

[Johnny290]

Must be plugged in

[Morten-Kroejby]

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wrote:

In the comparison video they say the pro 2 starts recording 3 seconds sooner.  Does that feature require it be plugged in, or does it do that on battery?

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In the video two examples are displayed. One at night and one at day. BOTH examples are ON BATTERY.

[JamesC]

Arlo Pro 2 ups the game by introducing 1080p resolution, a wider field of view compared to previous generation cameras, along with a host of new features that include versatile power options, 2-way audio, and advanced motion detection with activity zones.  All of the above is done while maintaining the things our users love and have become synonymous with Arlo:  Simple wire-free setup, Weather-resistant ruggedness, Optional 24/7 continuous video monitoring, local backup storage, and up to 7 days of free cloud storage.  Not to mention, Pro2 is backwards compatible with all previous generation accessories and base stations. 
 
The same applies at night time, where in each frame, a user can literally see more in every shot.  By upgrading our image technology, we also upgraded our motion and night vision capabilities.
 
Some users have requested that we increase the overall “brightness” of our cameras.  While seeing brighter, albeit subjective, is a valid request - simply making images brighter may not always apply to the scene that is being recorded.  Every user’s setup is different, as well as the type of scene and image being captured.  One fix for all situations can often result in tradeoffs in other aspects of the image quality.  As an example, simply going brighter can result in oversaturated images dependent on the user’s scene.
 
What we did focus on addressing however, was overall image quality during high motion.  Especially in security driven use cases where the action being captured could be a vandal at your front door trying to run away, we wanted to enhance the overall quality in those situations.  Over the weekend, we released a FW update that reduces the amount of compression when fast motion is detected.  This results in better quality videos, with minimal change in overall file size being allocated to capture that motion event. 
 
Arlo aims to up the game in image quality with each new generation of product, and we know our users will enjoy literally seeing more in every shot, seeing more details, as well as crisper video even in fast motion scenes. 

-Arlo Development Team

[Somerset3]

I am at a loss. As posted before, I purchased a hub and two cameras in November and was so pleased with both day and night vision, that I purchased two more cameras in January. The night vision on the second two was terrible, foggy dimmer and unfocused. Many wasted hours spent on the help line, so I finally exchanged the two earlier this week. They are just as bad!!!!

There was a firmware update last night, but negligable improvement noticed!

[jguerdat]

Did you try swapping cameras around between positions? Gotta ask if you also removed the plastic film from the camera face.