Night Vision Too Dark

[ericmcgovern]

Ran into an interesting problem last night...

Walked onto my patio, which triggered the camera at about 9:30 last night. I looked up at it, and saw all the of LED's come on. For the heck of it, I took a look at the picture and realized it was nearly pitch black and wouldn't be usefull if I was attempting to catch a real event. 

So I got up on my ladder and started looking at the camera, which of course triggered it agian and the image was again nearly all black. After not seeing anything wrong with the camera, I got off the stool and walked away, which again triggered it. However, this time the picture is what I am used to seeing. I could clearly see my patio and everythong on it. Nothing changed about the lighting or positioning This caused me to look at all my cameras, and I noticed another one was having the "nearly black" issue. I messed around with, but never could get it to snap into actual "nigh vision". I have posted a before and after image, hopefully someone can give advice. 

Too Dark

VS

Just Right

[TomMac]

Sounds like a glich... first and easiest thing to do is open the battery door for a couple seconds and reclose... do not reopen if any front leds are blinking.

If it continues, I'd contact Netgear re the problem.

As you know, you should be able to see the slight glow of the IR illuminators ( they run at 850 nm )

[Shirley2015]

I'm having the same problem on all 3 cameras 😠

[jguerdat]

For a first attempt, try disabling night vision on each camera, save and the enable it and save again.  Maybe it's that simple - or not.

[Shirley2015]

Hi

Still no luck. I've deactivated the system and tried to activate it and now nothing is happening at all. The Base station is only showing an orange/amber light.  I have factory reset the base station and still nothing.  I have rang Netgear for support and was told someone from Arlo will be in contact in 42-72 hours. Just great.

Shirley P

[jguerdat]

There's 3 LEDs. What is lit and what color? A factory reset is done now by simply using the recessed button next to the power switch for about 10 seconds or until the LEDs start flashing. Maybe a hardware problem or some electronics have gone stupid.

[Ford]

Mine doing the same thing frustrated

[JamesC]

Ford,

Consider adjusting the brightness level for the affected camera(s). Click the play button on the cameras page to initiate a live stream, click the "sun" icon to adjust brightness. After a short pause, the brightness adjustment will save on it's own.

Does this help?

JamesC

[SteveDT]

I've been having the same problem.  First week, the night vision worked very well.  The last few nights, however, I'm seeing this.  It's much too dark, and I've tried tweaking the brightness setting as well.  Frustrating to say the least!

[jguerdat]

In some/many cases, auxiliary lighting may be required for better coverage.  This could be the use of IR spotlights (Google them) or maybe motion-activated outdoor lights.

[SteveDT]

Makes complete sense, but similar to the OP's comment, originally the night vision was very clear and quite impressive, and then for no apparent reason the quality deteriorated dramatically.

[usapw]

I'm having the same issue, could someone from the staff post an answer?

[JamesC]

usapw,

Consider adjusting the brightness level for the affected camera(s). Click the play button on the cameras page to initiate a live stream, click the "sun" icon to adjust brightness. After a short pause, the brightness adjustment will save on it's own.

Does this help?

JamesC

[ericmcgovern]

Just to re-iterate the original issue (that others appear to be having) - the night vision quality was outstanding, then suddenly degraded. Removing the batteries or somehow triggering a reboot appears to solve the problem temporarily, but it does seem to eventually come back. This has nothing to do with adjusting the brightness as some have suggested. 

My cameras aren't the easiest to get to, so climbing up on a ladder every 2 weeks is a huge hassle. At this point I have just let it go...

[datadink]

I am having the same issue.  Adjusting brightness, resetting the base station and power cycling the camera (opening the battery cover), seem to have no effect.  This seems to have started shortly after the last app update. 

[jguerdat]

An app update won't do this but a firmware one could.

[slickman]

I'm having the same problem, it was fine till the firmware update. Sigh..

[Port]

Same problem here but only one camera out of three. Night vision is turned off. Outside lighting adequate. Brightness has litttle effect. Base station power cylcling no effect. Swapped camera and the same view is black while camera moved to new location is now fine. Sounds like one channel has been corrupted possibly by firmware update.

Please help!!

[HouseApe]

Same issue also on one camera. I have it inside and can toggle the room lights on and off.
What I have noticed is the IR lights on the camera always work.

When it's working correctly (after a battery pull) and I toggle the room lights on/off you can hear the camera make a "click" sound as it transitions to/from night vision.

When it's not working (IR lights on but image still dark) it doesn't make that "click" sound as I toggle the room lights on/off.

[HouseApe]

Well I just picked that camera up gave it a shake (can hear something inside moving) put it back down and then I head it click and my night vision is working again.

So it appears to be a rely or some sort of shutter that is sticking?

Edit: I think pulling the battery's causes movement that fixes the issue temporarily.

can someone else confirm that just shaking the camera fixes it?

[slickman]

I have the Arlo standard brand new two days ago (Arlo pro base coming) and with three cameras outside the night vision is the worst I have seen. 

[slickman]

It was great till the upgrade to the firmware.  Sigh, I should bave known better.

[MrGeorgeLynch]

I'm having the same problem with my cameras, being too dark when they we much brighter... I'm going to try a few things to see if I can get it working the way it should... I'll post a fix if I'm successful.

[slickman]

Mine worked fine till the firmware update this week.

[MrGeorgeLynch]

I've got three outdoor cameras.. Two are hardwired using ethernet, and one WiFi.. Two of them (one hard wired and one WiFi) got much darker about two nights ago for no particular reason...  I've already rebooted the cameras and also rebooted the router. No success, still too dark. Now, I'm going to reach up and smack it a couple of times with a broom handle to see if that does anything.. I'll keep you posted.