Pro 2 Night Vision Unusable!

[Loubob]

It’s a joke to say this product has night vision! And it appears that the product development team is just ignoring it in hopes it will go away. I had a 3 camera set delivered yesterday and I installed it right away. Was thrilled.... until the sun went down. I was sure something wasn’t configured right, but after further research I learned that they’re only good for 12h/day. Too bad. I’ll be returning them in a day or two.

[StephenB]

They do switch to IR at night, and there are IR Leds that will light the areas near the camera.  How well that works depends on how close things are to the camera.  

The Nightvision works ok for me.  My cameras are aimed towards my house - the furthest one is about 30 feet away.  Generally speaking, if something is close enough to trigger the motion, then it should show up with Nightvision.

Can you give some more info on the specifics (perhaps even posting a screen shot)?

[Loubob]

This image is looking at my back deck. You can barely make out the handle of a furniture dolly about 6’ in front of the camera. Worthless! The other camera in our driveway barely picks up the reflective license plates on the vehicles - no chance of facial recognition let alone detecting color of clothing if a person were to trigger it. Did I mention Worthless?

[Loubob]

I am using the cameras wireless. Do they need usb power for the night vision, or does usb power help the night vision?

[AmericanZulu]

There is a clear plastic protective film on the front of the cameras when you unpack them. If you didn’t peel that off, then the infrared LED lights would probably reflect off of that and render your nighttime image hazy and overexposed, much like the image you shared. Try peeling those off and see if things don’t improve.

[StephenB]

Definitely remove the protective film.

I do want to add that the Nightvision doesn't show color - a comment above suggests that @Loubob might be expecting that.  

[Loubob]

Remove the protective film. Really? Huh, should probably take them out of the box too I guess. You must work for Arlo. And I made NO assumption of color, just basic usability in the dark.

Maybe I should unplug then plug in my router, and reboot my pc a few times....

[michaelkenward]

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@Loubob wrote:
....I learned that they’re only good for 12h/day.

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What does that mean?

Unless you have created some sort of schedule, night visions has nothing to do with the time of the day. It depends on the ambient light.

In other words, night vision kicks in at, er, night, when it is dark. Come daybreak, it will turn itself off.

[NewfieDrool]

Have you enabled night vision under the settings for the camera?

are you getting the awful  Pixelisation issue I suffer with using the new app.  It’s horrendous and online view very hard for any type of recognition but once recorded it’s fine.

[rolandgenovese]

I've the same issue. 
how did you solve?

thanks

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@Loubob  ha scritto:
This image is looking at my back deck. You can barely make out the handle of a furniture dolly about 6’ in front of the camera. Worthless! The other camera in our driveway barely picks up the reflective license plates on the vehicles - no chance of facial recognition let alone detecting color of clothing if a person were to trigger it. Did I mention Worthless?

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[Loubob]

I mean they only work when the sun is up!

[Loubob]

Have not solved the issue. Will probably be returning them Monday! They’re junk

[Loubob]

I have toggled night vision on and off repeatedly. I have played with brightness. Today I will sacrifice a chicken to see if that helps.

[StephenB]

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@Loubob wrote:
And I made NO assumption of color, just basic usability in the dark.

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You did say this

@Loubob wrote:
 ... let alone detecting color of clothing if a person if a person triggers it ...

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It wasn't clear if you were talking about Nightvision or not in that remark, so I wanted to clarify.

Something is definitely wrong with the camera image that you posted the nightvision image for.  I haven't seen anything like that from any of my own cameras. 

Some of the skins can also interfere with Nightvision.  But of course it could easily be a defective camera.

[mchromiec]

The milky colour you are getting looks the same to my camera when i have it seating to close to an edge of some sort. I found the infrared light to be reflecting somehow. Try moving the camera a little and see if that helps. I personally have purchased infrared flood light of ebay to help with the lighting at night.
Overall they are not bed at night.

[Boead]

So this is your first camera then. That is as good as it gets unless you spend MUCH more money. 
The Logitech Circle2 aren't any better and honestly none really are at this price point. 
So cough up a couple of thousand dollars and get a hard wired security system, you'll be happy then. Just Say'in... 

[Loubob]

Nope. Planned to replace a couple of Samsung SmartCams I originally bought in 2012. 640x480, but excellent night vision. Main reason for replacing was wireless capability and better app. Had a couple of Cisco cameras inside, but never really used them. 

From all I’ve  read since my mistaken purchase, the night vision of the Pro cameras are much better than the pro2. I might try an IR floodlight and see if that’s the answer. 

Just sayin....

[StephenB]

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@Loubob wrote:

I might try an IR floodlight and see if that’s the answer. 

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I think that's a good idea if you have one, though I am still thinking something else is going on with the one on the deck.  I'd try swapping that camera with one of the other two.