Buying advice: low light camera without IR or white LED

Do not be sold by some trademarked night color vision (Full Color, ColorVu, Starlight, etc.) that is a marketing ploy in a lot of ways lol. It is simply what a manufacturer wants to claim for low-light performance, but there are so many games that can be played even with the how they report the spec numbers. They will claim a low lux of 0.001 for example, but then that is with a wide open iris and a shutter at 1/3 second and an f1.0 - as soon as you have motion in it, it will be crap. You need a shutter of at minimum 1/60 second to reduce a lot of blur from someone walking.

All cameras need light. Simple physics.

Check out this video at midnight. You see this and it looks like daytime and be like WOW I want that camera. But any motion in the frame and it is crap and will be a ghost blur. You notice they do not show anything with motion. I can make all my cameras look like this at midnight with no other light, but we want good motion video, not still images video. This is a very nice cameras with enough light at night but do we have enough light? All cameras, regardless of what they are called, need light - either white light or infrared. Simple physics. If you know what to look for, you can see clues likely indicating motion will be a complete motion-blur ghost.

While this camera is not what we would call a consumer grade camera and this is a really good camera, it is these games that the consumer grade cameras of the world do to their camera to make it look good at night - but then a person walking by is a blur and people simply say well the camera isn't good at night. If you have the ability to change the settings, you can make it work. Just remember that every increase in shutter speed needs more light. So I can set mine to 1/250 second and eliminate blur at night, but then all that is visible is a 5 foot diameter around the camera IF I have enough light. And most of us find that the LED white light on these cameras are useless.

You can find reviews here of people that put them in dark settings with no light (like you would have at 2am) and then the ColorVu would be useless to you. And you cannot add

If your camera doesn't have enough light, a 24/7 full color camera will not be of much good and now you have a camera with no IR and even if you added external IR, the camera will not see it since it does not have an IR filter. So unless you know you have enough light at night, you are better off to purchase one that has the ability to see IR just in case.

Here is a recent one where a member posted their situation and the poor quality of a 24/7 color camera with no light and no ability to see IR:

Initial review of the DS-2CD2347G2-L(U) ColorVu 2.0 IP camera.

What about adding some additional landscaping lighting - this cam is awesome and with minimal light will do great. External lightning will have new power cable and new installation, cost lot of time and extra money. Not everyone like light at night. So select a good cam is very important...

In most instances, you want to get a camera that will perform at your location for the worse situation, which for most of us is at night when it is dark and there is little to no light. If a camera performs at night, it is easier to tweak settings to make it work during the day than it is the other way around.Do not be sold by some trademarked night color vision (Full Color, ColorVu, Starlight, etc.) that is a marketing ploy in a lot of ways lol. It is simply what a manufacturer wants to claim for low-light performance, but there are so many games that can be played even with the how they report the spec numbers. They will claim a low lux of 0.001 for example, but then that is with a wide open iris and a shutter at 1/3 second and an f1.0 - as soon as you have motion in it, it will be crap. You need a shutter of at minimum 1/60 second to reduce a lot of blur from someone walking.All cameras need light. Simple physics.Check out this video at midnight. You see this and it looks like daytime and be like WOW I want that camera. But any motion in the frame and it is crap and will be a ghost blur.. I can make all my cameras look like this at midnight with no other light, but we want good motion video, not still images video. This is a very nice cameras with enough light at night but do we have enough light? All cameras, regardless of what they are called, need light - either white light or infrared. Simple physics. If you know what to look for, you can see clues likely indicating motion will be a complete motion-blur ghost.While this camera is not what we would call a consumer grade camera and this is a really good camera, it is these games that the consumer grade cameras of the world do to their camera to make it look good at night - but then a person walking by is a blur and people simply say well the camera isn't good at night. If you have the ability to change the settings, you can make it work. Just remember that every increase in shutter speed needs more light. So I can set mine to 1/250 second and eliminate blur at night, but then all that is visible is a 5 foot diameter around the camera IF I have enough light. And most of us find that the LED white light on these cameras are useless.You can find reviews here of people that put them in dark settings with no light (like you would have at 2am) and then the ColorVu would be useless to you. And you cannot add IR light because the camera will not see it...If your camera doesn't have enough light, a 24/7 full color camera will not be of much good and now you have a camera with no IR and even if you added external IR, the camera will not see it since it does not have an IR filter. So unless you know you have enough light at night, you are better off to purchase one that has the ability to see IR just in case.Here is a recent one where a member posted their situation and the poor quality of a 24/7 color camera with no light and no ability to see IR: