Image Too dark

[neilapudney]

Hello

I've got a problem with my new setup. In Video settings mode all looks great with my camera but as soon as I go to live view the images apears unusable. Doesn't matter if its night vision mode or normal.

[neilapudney]

Video settings view

[neilapudney]

First image is Night vision and this one is normal mode

[jerseyjoe66]

I'll add to this.  I just noticed the same thing tonight.  I have a camera mounted near a tree that has some leaves in view nearby.  When I checked the camera in the dark, the IR lit up the leaves and I couldnt see anything past that.  I went into video settings to turn off the IR, and the low light picture was perfectly usable and exactly what I'd expected.

When I went to live view, just like the OP, its way too dark and unusable.  The two views should be the same.

[jguerdat]

If you have something nearby (leaves, walls, whatever) that reflects IR well, the camera auto-exposure is doing its thing to try to normalize the image.  Put those reflectors further away or minimize their  significance in the view and the image will improve.  It's exactly the same thing as using flash photography - put a reflector prominently near the camera and the picture will be dark.

[jerseyjoe66]

I understand what jguerdat is saying, but that isn't what I'm asking about. And I think the original poster is talking about the same effect. To help explain better, I'll post screenshots from the live view and the video settings pages of the same camera taken one after the other.  The video settings view is much brighter and has more detail than the live view.  I should see the same useable picture quality in the live view as I see in the video settings...

Video Settings viewLive view

[jguerdat]

At least part of the issue is that bright light which may be affecting the exposure.  I don't know how the camera/software may handle live view/recording vs. video settings - perhaps the camera changes a setting for some reason.  You can use the brightness control while live viewing to see if that helps (maybe that's what happens with video settings).

What happens if you temporarily remove the bright light from the camera view - do you get a brighter video?

[jerseyjoe66]

Thats a good idea. I'll re-aim the camera a bit and check.  It would sure be nice to have the low light performance that seems possible in the settings pane reflected in the live view.  I've played with the brightness there but there is minimal change.