The night vision problem

[Johnny290]

I just received one arlo pro 2 camera, to add to my arlo pro system. The night vision is very poor compaired to arlo pro. If there is no fix ,i will return the arlo pro 2 camera. Sorry to say

[Johnny290]

Okay I think I'll just go pick up another camera and see if I can get things working right

[AncientGeek]

Good luck!

[Johnny290]

No good new camera at Best Buy same thing very dark compared to Pro 1

[Johnny290]

Can anybody from Netgear tell me if you are able to fix the night vision problem with the Arlo Pro 2 cameras I bought one from Amazon and your night vision is very dark I bought another from Best Buy same problem night vision is very dark compared to Arlo Pro 1. If there is no fix I will return both

[jguerdat]

My P2 has pretty good night vision but the distance of the IR illuminators is limited - it is a battery-operated camera after all. Here's a sample which will disappear in 24 hours:

https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/2879DCF146F42812_201711

[jguerdat]

Are all firmwares up to date compared to what's in the Release Notes section here? Here's a sample of mine (it will break in 24 hours):

https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/2879DCF146F42812_201711

[Johnny290]

Compared to Pro 1 this is not very good do you have a light on in the background looks pretty dark

[Johnny290]

Check

[Johnny290]

Compare it to my still image

[Johnny290]

This is pro 1 still image

[steve_t]

If anything, I'd say the Pro1 is hazy and the Pro 2 is OK but without anything decent to reflect the IR illumination off and thus quite grainy due to very low light

[Johnny290]

Now put the pro2 where the pro 1 was look how dark

[Johnny290]

Now pro1 where pro 2 was

[steve_t]

I still reckon the Pro 2 looks better. Pro 1 looks washed out and low contrast

[Johnny290]

my option pro 1  has more range with night vision then pro 2

[AncientGeek]

Two things come to mind when viewing your images.  First, the Arlo is only rated for 25' of night vision with the built-in IR illuminators.  The long distance image you uploaded looks like a much more distant shot.  Second, the back yard and walk photos show the wider angle of the Pro 2 that I mentioned in my photo postings.  I can see much more to the left in your Pro 2 image.  Very clear images of your hose reel and grill.  Those close objects affect the exposure of the image and keep the camera from "seeing" deeper into the dark areas.  It has to chose what to correctly expose.  Either "over expose" the closer and brighter objects or "under expose" the darker objects.  I have seen this a lot in my images.  I just located a camera in the front yard of my lake home on a kayak rack, facing the home.  I realized after I was back home that the Kayak was just a couple of feet from the camera and it reflected a lot of IR.  So I can't see the yard at night...just the Kayak.  I have the same problem in a peak over my entry...reflections off the house trim.  So my point here is that the Pro 2, while supposedly having the same viewing angle as the original Pro, actually has a wider viewing angle and it "sees" objects on the left and right side of the image that the original Pro does not see in the exact same posiiton.  Since we often mount our cameras on our homes and in corners, this additional viewing area is usually closer to the camera than objects in the center of the image.  So we are going to see the brighter objects on the sides and the more distant objects will be dark.  We have three options:  1.  Move the camera to ensure that objects in view are a more consistent distance from the camera...none significantly closer than those we really want to see.  2.  Buy an IR illuminator and "light up" the distant objects using this secondary light source.  3.  Use a camera with a narrower field of view so the camera can be more targeted on the distant objects.  (I suspect this is why there are still a lot of 90 degree FoV cameras on the market.  They have their purpose.)   Even with a narrower FoV, we have to watch out for IR scatter, but short of that, we should see more distant objects correctly exposed.

[Johnny290]

Thanks for the information that was very interesting I will try to move the camera so it is not reflecting off the house and see if that helps. Also that camera with the shot of the barbecue that's the Pro 2. That's my Breezeway and there is a light on right behind the camera so that might be affecting to

[AncientGeek]

That sounds like a good approach.  I think the IR LEDs are likely to be exactly the same in the Pro and Pro 2.  I suspect the difference is in exposure control and what happens to be in the field of view of the camera.  1080 versus 720 could also be an issue.  I do think higher resolution cameras require more illumination...so there could be a few things in play here.

[jguerdat]

It's very similar using a P1 since the distance is about 10 feet to the bushes and 25 feet to the car. Also, the reflectance of the bushes may be diddling with the exposure but I don't want to change that. These are battery-operated cameras and the IR illuminators on any model are not supposed to be capable of throwing light 50 feet.  That's where the external lights, normal or IR, come into play. Amazon has a ton of 850nM lights that all talk about their improved distance.  Light falls off as the square of the distance (3x the distance needs 9x the power) - the built-in LEDs simply can't get you great distances.

[Johnny290]

I understand what you're saying but this does not happen with Arlo Pro 1. And other cameras like the nest cam which is one 1080 resolution has much better night vision. I hope they can fix this with the phone where update

[dezi]

There is contract (brightness) setting on each Device when watching Live. Adusting it seems make a persisting change on the camera. I can tune it to right high bright (result in grey wash out) or lowest (result in very Dark).

Try changing it to see if it helps. However, applying the change seems have very slow response. 

---

AncientGeek wrote:

That sounds like a good approach.  I think the IR LEDs are likely to be exactly the same in the Pro and Pro 2.  I suspect the difference is in exposure control and what happens to be in the field of view of the camera.  1080 versus 720 could also be an issue.  I do think higher resolution cameras require more illumination...so there could be a few things in play here.

---

[Johnny290]

I've already tried adjusting the brightness with negative results. Other cameras with 1080 resolution do not have this problem like Nest cam for instance

[AncientGeek]

I will have to try a Nest outdoor cam to compare the two with close up objects in the IR field of view.  I have one NestCam indoors, facing out a window, but I have to leave the night vision turned off due to reflection of the window.  I have another indoor nest in a 3rd party outdoor enclosure, but I don’t have objects at different ranges in the field of view, so that isn’t a good test...and the 3rd party enclosure muddies the waters also.  I think it is possible for a camera to do the night-vision equivalent of HDR (high dynamic range) processing where the image is exposed optimally based on the objects in the image rather than the image as a whole.  I suspect it requires more power for the computational demands of HDR, so that could explain the difference between a powered and battery operated camera like the Arlo wireless cameras.

[Johnny290]

I mean i hope they can fix night vision with a firmware update