Let's talk about color night vision security cameras.
If you need to have a security camera in a large dark area, this article can help you.
I'm not talking about using infrared lights, which prevents you from capturing color images in the dark. What I want to show you is color footage at nighttime.
The picture below shows an example of an image on a dark parking lot.
In this scenario, an Infrared camera won't show such details.
Large dark areas require professional low light security cameras.
The pictures below a regular camera (Canon DSLR) on the left and an Amcrest Night Color professional security camera on the right. Note the huge difference.
DSLR camera (click to enlarge)
Amcrest camera (click to enlarge)
A professional security camera has features to deal with this type of scenario.
The Amcrest camera features
Let's take a look at the camera features.
Night Color Video
The picture below shows the camera exposure menu.
Exposure menu (Click to Enlarge)
As you can see, there is a lot of different option to play with.
Shutter speed control, gain, and other parameters can drastically change how the camera behaves in a dark scenario like a large parking lot.
Play the video below to watch the camera working in a dark environment.
The camera does an excellent job and keeps its color.
Video noise reduction
Digital video noise shows up every time you have a camera working in a dark environment. But did you notice any noise in the previous video?
The Amcrest camera can handle the noise, and it's not even noticeable.
That's because the camera has this 3D NR (Noise Reduction) feature.
It's possible to turn it on and adjust the levels.
Take a look at the pictures below and see the difference...
You can play with the settings until you find the best one for your scenario.
The camera spotlight
Depending on the scenario, you can enable the camera spotlight.
I'm not using this feature for this particular installation because it's not allowed in such an area, but it's possible to use it to illuminate even dark spots.
It's possible to use the camera menu to control the spotlight intensity.
Dark scenarios examples
Here are some pictures that show the Amcrest camera in different scenarios.
Note the time between 4 AM and 6 AM.
I recommend you to read the Amcrest Night Color camera review.
Conclusion
The Amcrest Night Color Camera IP4M-1046EW-AI is an excellent product.
It works pretty well in dark environments and captures color footage.
If you need a camera to work in such environments, just go for this one....
