You might be in the market for a new camera with great night vision, or perhaps unhappy with your existing cameras night vision. Crime often happens at night, so getting a camera that gets good visuals at night is essential.
Most buyers looking at night vision cameras ask one question: how far can this camera see at night?
That is understandable, but it is not the most useful question.
A better one is: can it capture a moving person clearly at the distance I care about?
A camera can make a driveway look bright and wide and still fail to produce a usable image of someone walking through it at 10 metres. That gap between "the scene looks lit" and "the footage is useful" is where most night vision disappointments come from. The sections below explain where the gap comes from and how to spot it before buying.
This article covers the different types of night vision and how to determine which cameras perform well at night.
by Bryce Whitty
Bryce has a background in the security industry and founded ProtectFind as an independent information site.
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Types of Camera Night Vision
Infrared Security Cameras
Infrared night vision creates black-and-white footage that will capture more fine details of a person or vehicle than colour night vision. Infrared security camera systems can work in complete darkness, and it does this by emitting an infrared light that is invisible to humans.
Infrared will provide the sharpest image at night but lacks colour information. Like the colour of the shirt a thief was wearing or the colour of the car they were driving.
Colour Night Vision Cameras
Colour night vision will produce an image in colour, so you could see what colour clothes the person was wearing or what colour the car was. However, colour night vision tends to be blurrier than Infrared.
You can describe what a thief was wearing or what colour car they drove with the colour information. But finer features such as facial details won't be as sharp as infrared.
Colour night vision needs some light to work and will not function in total darkness. In very dark streets, additional lighting may be needed to produce a usable colour image.
Another benefit of colour night vision is if it's not using any lights, it won't attract insects.
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How Do Night Vision Cameras Work?
How do Infrared Night Vision Cameras Work?
Infrared night vision works like a spotlight to light up an area, but instead of it blasting visible light, it is invisible to humans.
We can usually see faint red lights coming from the LEDs on the camera. That said, not all night vision cameras have red lights visible. Some trail cameras have no or "low glow" infrared lights.
The footage Infrared night vision creates is black and white because humans can differentiate between black and white much better than we can between colours.
How do Colour Night Vision Cameras Work?
Colour night vision is just cameras getting better at operating in low light as the technology progresses. Without some ambient light for it to work with, it won't work at all. So you cannot use it in total darkness. Some colour night vision cameras supplement the available light with their own LED's which need to stay on all night.
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Watch Out for Colour Night Vision Examples
There is a ton of B.S surrounding in the marketing of good night vision cameras.
Example footage from manufacturers often shows beautiful streetscapes, or even just a random Youtubers backyard. The colours are vivid, you can see a ton of detail, and it really looks great.
But none of it matters unless there is an object (ideally a person), moving through the scene in the footage.
Some camera manufacturers "cheat" to make their colour night vision images look really good. They lower their shutter speed to let lots of light in, practically turning night into day. However, if something moves through the scene it will be blurry and ghost-like making it difficult to identify fine features, despite how beautiful it looks.
Additionally, some examples are so well lit that it might as well be daytime and does not demonstrate the camera's nighttime capabilities.
Whatever sample footage you watch, make sure it shows a person moving through the scene in colour night vision mode. That is the true test.
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The Shutter Speed Detail the Existing Warning Does Not Cover
Shutter speed for night vision is often not listed on product pages. Manufacturers choose the shutter speed that makes their sample footage look most impressive, and a slow shutter produces a brighter, more colourful image in a still scene.
At 1/3 of a second, a driveway might look like late dusk. A person walking through at normal pace will appear as a blurred streak or ghost shape. At 1/30 of a second, the image is darker, but a person walking at normal speed will be much cleaner.
When asking about or comparing sample footage, two questions worth asking are: does this footage show a person walking through the scene, and what shutter speed or exposure setting is the camera using? A sample at 1/3 second looks better in a screenshot. A sample at 1/30 second is more honest about what the camera will actually do.
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Camera Sensor Size
One of the Most Important Factors for Good Night Vision
It is amazing how little attention the image sensor size gets on sales pages.
The size of the sensor on the camera plays a huge part in the quality of the cameras night vision, yet most consumer brands don't even mention it on their sales pages.
Ignore the Marketing B.S, Look at the Specifications
Many brands show these wonderful, bright and clear pictures of nighttime colour, but much of it is misleading.
One of the best ways to check and compare is to go into the camera specifications and see the sensor size. You will often find it on the "Specifications" page or the product PDF you'll have to download.
From the Dahua specifications PDFs:
From the Reolink website on the "Specs" tab:
The Large the Sensor, the Better the Camera can See at Night
When we think of electronics, we are trained to believe that the higher number is better or an upgrade. For example, the iPhone 13 is better than the iPhone 12.
But camera sensors are in "Fractions of an inch", so a LOWER number is better.
The Dahua 1/1.8" sensor is better (larger) than the Reolink 1/3" sensor in the images above.
Time to remember our fractions:
- 1/1" is just one inch.
- 1/2" is half an inch
- 1/3" is a third of a inch
So half (1/2") is larger than a third (1/3") of an inch.
That's not so hard, but camera sensors are often not in whole numbers.
So it gets a little confusing. You are more likely to see:
- 1/1.2" (BEST - almost an inch)
- 1/1.8" (nearly half an inch)
- 1/2.8" (nearly a third of an inch)
- 1/3" (WORST - a third of an inch)
Actual Security Camera Sensor Sizes Example:
So What Size Sensor Should I Get for Good Night Vision?
For good night vision, you will need a larger sensor the higher resolution you go:
- For 2MP (1080p), you'll want at least a 1/2.8" sensor
- For 4MP (2K), you'll want at least a 1/1.8" sensor
- For 8MP (4K), you'll want at least a 1/1.2" sensor
The camera sensor is one of the first parts that budget security camera brands will reduce in quality.
Almost all consumer brands do not meet these recommended minimums. Some models of Prosumer brands do.
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Lower Resolutions
"What?! I thought a higher resolution was better?". In the day yes, at night, not so much.
People generally see the higher resolution number as being better and will jump straight to 4K as the "best" resolution to get.
However, 4K actually performs worse at night than lower resolutions (all other things are the same).
An 8MP (4K) camera has eight times the pixels as a 2MP (1080p) camera.
That means that you have 8 million pixels are trying to absorb the same amount of light as the 2 million pixels in the 2MP camera.
Since the amount of light in the area is the same for both cameras, the 2MP camera is getting more light per pixel since it has to divide it over fewer pixels, resulting in a lighter image.
This is why many security camera enthusiasts choose 4 Megapixel (2K) cameras over higher resolution 8 Megapixel (4K) cameras.
4 Megapixel cameras have a high enough resolution for good daytime quality and a low enough resolution for good nighttime quality.
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Low Light Technologies Make Buying Easier
Hikvision ColorVu 3.0: Full-colour night vision using a wide-aperture lens and warm-light LED. Best suited to properties with some ambient light where colour footage is the priority.
Hikvision DarkFighter: High-sensitivity sensor technology for near-total darkness without supplemental lighting. Produces monochrome footage with no visible light emitted. Better suited to longer distances or locations where the camera should remain covert.
Hikvision Smart Hybrid Light: Combines infrared (black and white) as the default with white light activating on detection only. A good middle ground for residential use.
Dahua WizColor: Dahua's current full-colour night vision platform, available on the Pro series. Comparable performance to ColorVu in most residential conditions.
Dahua Starlight: Dahua's older low-light platform, found on the LightSeries range. Handles low-light conditions but is not a full-colour solution in the same way as WizColor.
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Useful Night Vision Features
Infrared Light Range
Most manufacturers of any camera grade mention the "IR Distance". This is a rough guide on how far the camera can illuminate an object in its infrared mode. But don't get confused with IR range and Identification range. While it may illuminate a person at 10 or 50 metres, it doesn't mean you will have the appropriate level of detail to make out facial features.
Smart IR
So more infrared light is better? To see objects in the distance, yes. But it can become a problem when an object is up close.
An infrared security camera will likely emit infrared light at its maximum intensity to illuminate objects as far away as possible.
However, this light is too powerful when an object like a person is close to the camera, resulting in them getting overexposed and just becoming a white shape.
Here is an example of a camera without Smart IR:
Cameras with SmartIR can "turn down" their infrared light to the appropriate level depending on how washed out the object is. When that object leaves, the IR LEDs will return to maximum power again.
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Three Different Night Vision Jobs
Most articles treat night vision as one thing. In practice, there are at least three different jobs a camera might be asked to do at night, and they do not all need the same setup.
Overview camera: shows what happened across a yard, driveway, or entrance area. Wide field of view, reasonable IR coverage, enough detail to describe what occurred. Most standard outdoor cameras do this adequately.
Identification camera: captures usable detail of a person's face, clothing, or body shape at the specific point that matters, such as a gate, front door, or entry path. Needs a tighter lens aimed at that point, appropriate sensor quality, and controlled lighting. A wide overview camera aimed at the general area is often not enough.
Licence plate camera: captures reflective plates at night. Needs specific lens choice, controlled shutter speed to avoid plate washout from headlights, and often needs a separate or dedicated IR setup. A standard wide camera aimed at a driveway often fails this job even when it performs well as an overview camera.
These jobs can conflict. A camera optimised for a wide overview may not identify a face well. A camera set up for plates may produce a dark image of the surrounding area. For driveways, gates, or any access point where evidence quality matters, one camera may not be enough. A common effective setup is one wide overview camera and a second tighter camera aimed specifically at the entry point or access zone.
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Add Some Lights
All cameras work better with more lighting, whether that is visible light or infrared light. Here are a few different options to improve your footage:
White Light LED
Some CCTV cameras have built-in white light LEDs for use in low light conditions. These can be set to be always switched on, or only turn on when it detects motion which can also act as a deterrent.
IR Illuminator
You can supplement infrared security cameras with extra infrared lights. These are known as IR Illuminator Lights which brighten up a scene and possibly allow you to see further. These are good to use when you want your cameras to be more covert or not to annoy yourself or neighbours with constant white light.
Some will shoot IR light in a wide pattern like a floodlight, while others are more focused, like a torch or spotlight. An additional benefit of IR illuminator it allows you to turn off the Infrared lights on your camera, keeping bugs away from the camera.
More Outdoor Lighting
The better lit an area is, the better a camera will work at night. Any regular floodlight, downlights or garden lights will help you get a better picture at night, in both colour and infrared night vision.
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IR Range and Beam Shape
The IR range specification on a camera is a useful starting point, but it does not tell the full story.
IR range describes roughly how far the camera can throw invisible infrared light. It does not describe whether the beam pattern suits the specific area being covered.
A narrow IR beam can over-light the centre of the scene and leave the edges dark. This is useful for a long driveway or gate at distance but creates uneven lighting in a wide yard. A wide-spread IR beam lights a broader area but may not reach as far.
Some examples of how this plays out in practice: a wide front yard needs even spread illumination, and a camera with a narrow IR beam may produce a bright centre with dark sides. A long driveway benefits from a narrower view and tighter IR, which may be best served by a varifocal camera or a separate IR illuminator. A close porch or eave position may have too much IR bouncing back off a wall or roof, producing washed-out footage close to the camera.
Matching the IR beam pattern to the space is worth discussing with the installer before deciding on the camera model, not after it is already mounted.
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Bugs, Spider Webs, and Built-In IR
Built-in IR LEDs on most cameras sit very close to the lens. Infrared light is invisible to humans but visible to insects. Insects close to the lens create bright, moving triggers for motion detection and produce hazy night footage. Insects attract spiders. A spider web that builds up across the corner of the lens at 2am lights up in IR as a brightly glowing obstacle and triggers motion alerts repeatedly.
This is not a rare problem. It is common for cameras mounted under eaves, near garden areas, or close to lights.
The straightforward fix often recommended is not to buy a more expensive camera. It is to move the IR light source. If the camera supports disabling its built-in IR LEDs, doing so and adding a separate IR illuminator positioned at a distance from the camera removes the insect-attraction point from directly in front of the lens. The scene is still lit, but the insects cluster around the illuminator rather than on the camera.
Not all cameras support disabling built-in IR, and a separate illuminator adds cost. But it is worth knowing that persistent web or insect problems at a camera position may be a lighting placement issue rather than a camera quality issue.
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Night Vision and AI Detection
AI-based person and vehicle detection has improved significantly across both consumer and prosumer camera brands. Many buyers now assume that an AI detection badge means night-time false alerts are solved.
In practice, AI detection at night is more limited than during the day.
In infrared mode, the camera loses colour information. The AI model relies more on shape, silhouette, contrast, and movement. Reflections, shadows, clothing material, and IR lighting angles can all affect how clearly a person registers to the detection model. A poorly lit back yard, a side path with tree movement, or a distant person at the edge of the IR range may produce inconsistent results even on cameras with solid day-time AI performance.
Two practical points: first, AI detection tested during the day at a demo location may not reflect how the camera performs on a specific dark property at night. Second, person detection reducing false alerts during the day does not mean it will perform the same way in IR mode at 2am in a dark yard with moving trees.
When a camera is being chosen specifically to reduce night-time false alerts, it is worth asking whether the AI has been tested in conditions similar to the property rather than relying on daytime demo footage.
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Dome Cameras and Night Vision
Dome cameras are a common outdoor choice. They are low-profile, reasonably vandal-resistant, and look neat in commercial settings.
At night, dome cameras are less forgiving than turret or bullet cameras for one specific reason: the curved dome cover can reflect IR back into the lens. If the dome is dirty, scratched, wet, or mounted at an angle that bounces IR off the inner surface, the result is haze, glare, or a washed-out central area in the night footage. The camera may be technically working while the dome reflection makes the image substantially less useful.
A dirty dome at night can look fine during the day. This is why checking night footage during any maintenance check matters, not just daytime footage.
For outdoor night vision where lens reflection is a concern, turret cameras (the flat-faced design without a dome cover) are often a cleaner choice. The lens and IR LEDs are exposed directly rather than shooting through a curved cover. Bullet cameras behave similarly.
This is not to say dome cameras are wrong for outdoor use. They have their place. But for locations where night vision quality is a priority, it is worth asking the installer whether a turret or bullet would give a cleaner result at that specific position.
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Common Night Vision Problems
Strong light on an eave or wall, and everything else is dark
This is known as "IR bounceback", where the infrared light bounces back off a nearby object and blinds the camera. Because the camera is trying to tone down the intensely bright light off the wall or eave, it makes everything beyond it dark.
Some possible solutions to this are to point the camera further away from the wall or the eave or move nearby objects.
Pink Security Camera Image
Many factors that can cause this to happen like bad software, cold environments, or dirt getting into the camera. What is happening is security cameras use a physical piece of pink filter called an "IR Cut Filter" to block out Infrared light during the day because it distorts the colours. The camera then physically moves this pink IR filter out of the way so it can see Infrared light at night.
When the pink filter gets stuck in position at the wrong time, your footage appears pink.
Some possible solutions are rebooting the camera, updating its firmware, bringing it in from the cold, or giving it a gentle tap to dislodge the stuck filter.
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What Minimum Illumination Numbers Actually Mean
Camera specs often list a minimum illumination rating: 0.005 lux, 0.002 lux, or even 0.0005 lux. Lower numbers look more impressive. The comparison is harder to make than it appears.
A lux rating depends on the conditions used to measure it, including shutter speed, aperture, gain, whether the camera is in colour or black-and-white mode, whether IR is enabled, and whether a very slow exposure was used. Two cameras can list similar lux numbers while performing very differently in a real driveway at night.
"0 lux" in a specification generally means the camera can see using its own built-in infrared light. It does not mean the camera can see in total darkness without adding any light. It means the camera is adding its own light source. Without that IR, 0 lux is total darkness.
A practical approach: treat lux numbers as one data point rather than a reliable comparison tool. Sample footage of a moving person in similar conditions to the installation site is more useful than a lux specification when choosing between two cameras.
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Before You Decide: A Night Vision Checklist
Before judging a night vision camera or accepting a quote, these questions are worth working through.
- Does any sample footage show a person walking through the scene, or only a still yard and empty driveway?
- Is the sample footage in IR mode, colour mode, or white LED mode? Are the conditions comparable to the installation site?
- Does the colour night vision mode need a white LED running all night, and is that acceptable for the location?
- What sensor size does the camera use, and is the resolution matched sensibly to that sensor
- What specific job does this camera need to do: overview, identification, or plate capture?
- Is the IR beam pattern suited to the shape of the area being covered?
- Is the camera in a position where spider webs or insects on the lens are likely to be a problem?
Could a separate IR illuminator give a cleaner result at this position? - Has AI person detection been demonstrated at night and in conditions similar to this property?
- Is the camera a dome, and if so, will IR reflection from the dome cover be an issue at this position?
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my security camera blurry at night?
If a moving object is blurry, it is possible the shutter speed is too slow. A slow shutter speed lets in more light, making the scene more bright. A faster shutter speed makes moving objects less blurry. Some brands allow you to increase the shutter speed, such as Dahua, Hikvision or UNV. But most consumer brands cannot. You can however add more light.
Do Hikvision cameras have night vision?
Some Hikvision cameras have Infrared night vision so they can see in almost complete darkness. Some have a LED light to brighten up the area and see better at night. This is common for colour night vision camera.
Some Hikvision cameras have one or the other, but a few have both IR and LED.
Can Infrared night vision see in pitch black?
Yes, a camera with infrared can see in complete darkness. Colour night vision cannot.
How do you reduce IR glare?
It depends what the IR is hitting. In most cases with cameras, the IR is hitting a close object like a wall or an eave. The easiest fix is to simply turn the camera away from the wall, or down from the eave. If it is a doorbell camera, you can buy wedges that allow you to mount it on an angle for most brands.
How do I improve night vision on my cameras?
Make sure that the infrared light is not hitting a nearby eave or wall, as that can "blind" the camera and make it see worse at night.
All cameras benefit from more light, so add more lighting to the scene if possible. However, keep the actual lights directly out of the cameras view.
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Get It Professionally Installed
A licensed security installer can advise on the right product and location for a specific property.
Questions can also be raised in the Security Cameras Australia Facebook group.
Looking for a licensed security camera installer?
ProtectFind is a directory of licensed security camera installers across Australia. Browse listings in your city and contact an installer directly.
