Why is Arlo Ultra 2 night vision so terrible? See screenshot.

[SuperUnknown1]

Why is Arlo Ultra 2 night vision so terrible? I recently purchased an Arlo Ultra 2 bundle from Costco, and the inherently poor battery life caused me to check out other options right away. Now that I'm comparing the picture quality of the 4K Arlo Ultra 2 against the 2K Eufy 2 Pro, I am noticing that the night vision from the Arlo is really, really bad. Like I can barely see anything.

Can anyone from the community or the manufacturer help me? I hope this can be patched, otherwise the Arlo is definitely going back to Costco. Thanks in advance for your help!

Attachment shows Arlo Ultra 2 (4K) at top and Eufy Pro 2 (2K) at bottom

[jguerdat]

For starters, the overhang for the Ultra 2 is reflecting light, causing the camera's autoexposure to darken the video. Second, it appears that you're using night vision (IR LEDs) which are causing the above issue but not the external lighting visibly in use with the other camera. You can turn off night vision and just use the external lights and/or use the built-in spotlight.

[SuperUnknown1]

Hello jguerdat,

Thank you for your response. I had not thought of the bright spot on the soffit being an issue, but I will reposition the camera and report back after tonight.

To be clear, both sample images are using the respective cameras' IR LEDs, and there is no difference in external light between the two. The visible shadow in the Eufy image is caused by the neighbor's front porch light. This is no different from the Arlo. When I turn off night vision for Arlo, the entire picture (except for neighbors' lights off in the distance) turns pitch black.

Again, thank you for the suggestion about repositioning. I will report back tonight or tomorrow to post whether or not that worked.

[LandJS]

I have 7 Ultras for more than two years now and have never gotten as good a night vision as your Eufy is showing so what I did do was a motion light on the front porch, back porch and patio.  On the ends with no power and out on the driveway I used solar motion lights and when they come on the pics are almost as good as daytime.  The only thing with the solar motion lights was it took 3 swapouts to find ones I was happy with  Arlo does have cameras with lights but I haven't spent time checking out what people have said about them.

[LandJS]

I have 7 Ultras for more than two years now and have never gotten as good a night vision as your Eufy is showing so what I did do was a motion light on the front porch, back porch and patio.  On the ends with no power and out on the driveway I used solar motion lights and when they come on the pics are almost as good as daytime.  The only thing with the solar motion lights was it took 3 swap outs to find ones I was happy with  Arlo does have cameras with lights but I haven't spent time checking out what people have said about them.

[SuperUnknown1]

Hi again jguerdat,

I'm pleased to report that your suggestion of removing the soffit from view made a considerable difference. I also changed the FOV on the Arlo from "Super Wide" to "Wide" to ensure the comparison to the Eufy is 100% fair (aside from the resolution). That said, I'm still not satisfied with the night vision performance. Short of adding additional hardware or turning on the spotlight as LandJS suggested, is there anything else you can think of that might improve the quality?

On another note, do you know what the aperture of Arlo Ultra 2 is? The website for the Eufy model I'm using says it's f/2.0

Again, thank you for all your help. I appreciate your time.

[jguerdat]

No idea what the aperture is. I may have seen something someplace about one Arlo camera but it was a while ago if I did indeed see something. I suspect it's comparable to a large degree with others but can't be sure.

Having never had a Eufy, I can't comment on any comparison. I would say that it strikes me that it's the neighbor's light causing the Eufy's better image. WHat happens if you disable the IR LEDs on the Eufy? What does it look like then?

[SuperUnknown1]

This is what the Eufy captures with the IR LEDs switched off. The Arlo produces an almost pitch black image in the same position at the same time of day with the same tiny amount of stray light (streetlamps, neighbors, etc.)

Do you suppose there is any way to patch the Arlo to perform better or does it simply have inferior hardware?

[SuperUnknown1 · Accepted solution]

I decided to return the system to Costco today. I am much happier with the night vision performance and notification delay with the Eufy. Thanks to everyone for your input.