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How can I get more IR for my night vision camera.

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gary350

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I bought a 4 camera IR security system with DVR it can only see about 2 ft after dark. How can I get more IR invisible light after dark so it can see about 50 ft.
 
IR light sources....
Google large area IR illumination.

There is no such thing as an invisible light source. All sources of light are by definition visible. Weather or not we as humans can see them is beside the point.

For a 50ft area you're gonna spend almost as much on the light source as you did the cameras.
 
How about telling us a little about the camera, such as its specifications for sensitivity and wavelength.

John
 
jpanhalt, such specifications are almost never listed it's a typical CMOS image sensor without an IR cut filter.
 
For a 300 dollar unit perhaps... And even then I'd love to see the NIST traceable verification of those numbers.
A cheap IR illuminator with a high power output will massivly out perform something like that, for close to 100 dollars new.

You might get used more fucntional cheaper, but you'll have to certify it...
 
This is now getting way off topic from the original poster's (OP) question. Here are a couple of links that discuss various types of surveillance and night-vision cameras. Image-intensifier cameras are sometimes confused with IR cameras, so are included. It is clear that for relatively low cost, one can get cameras for near IR and longer wavelengths.

**broken link removed**
https://www.hownightvisionworks.com/

Back to the OP's question about an IR illuminator, if one assumes he is using near IR, such illuminators are available for at least as little as $65, and there are numerous DIY links on the Internet for making them using nothing more complicated than incandescent light bulbs or heater elements.

**broken link removed**

John
 
How about telling us a little about the camera, such as its specifications for sensitivity and wavelength.

John

Here is the ebay link to the camera that I bought. **broken link removed**

It came with NO box and NO papers. It is plug and play just plug it into any TV and it works. Sound in amazing it can hear about 3 times better than the averge person. I turn up the volume on the TV I can hear people talking 200 ft away. Color is excellent during the day. Night vision is good to if the motion detector outside like comes on with the two 200 wall flood lights but flood lights make things look weird people look like black ghosts moving in the dark. Anything that reflect light shows up as a white spot. I assume people and clothes do not reflect much light that is why they look black. If someone is smoking a cigerette it glows in the dark a big round white circle the size of a soft ball and when they suck on the fag the white circle gets as big as a basket ball.
 
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Thanks for the added info.

The pictures are too small to read any details, but lookalikes (see here: **broken link removed**) are often CCD (not CMOS), and the good sensitivity you get is consistent with that.

I suspect any of the near-IR illuminators like I linked to or home made ones should work. Regular optical glass works fine at very near IR wavelengths if you need to change the beam, but I think that is quite unlikely.

John
 
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