We all know that security cameras are there for our household protection throughout the day and night in our absence. However, it’s not always the case, especially during nighttime.

Because not all security cameras have good quality night vision henceforth can’t provide good footage from the nighttime.

That’s why you get blurry footage, where you can hardly see anything. However, it’s not always because of the camera.

It can happen for a number of reasons but one is particularly common among them, and that’s poor lighting conditions. In which case, your security cameras don’t get the necessary light.

Installing an additional infrared illuminator along with the security cameras Can improve the night vision capturing capacity thus improving security camera footage.

Because infrared illuminators help cover the lackings of the security camera’s night vision thus providing much clearer footage of low-light conditions.

There’re other methods that can help you improve the security camera’s night vision. Follow us through the below segments to learn about them.

Night Vision – How Does It Work?

As you know, night visions help the security cameras to provide low light condition footage, but do you know how it works?

Because knowing that can help you improve the camera’s night vision. In a general sense, night vision has an Infrared illuminator/LED which helps it provide the necessary lights to see in the dark.

Night vision has billions of applications, from your household security cameras to military operations, it comes in really handy.

As far as night vision security cameras go, it uses active illumination that lights up the camera sensor with IR illuminations.

With it, a long-range night vision camera gets the footage you need, which is used to provide the necessary security for your household.

Why Do You Get Dark/Blurry Footage From Night Vision Security Cameras?

The security cameras with night vision work great as long as they can provide clear footage from low light conditions such as nighttime, and the dark areas of your household.

As we mentioned earlier, security cameras with night vision don’t always provide clear footage. It happens for numerous reasons.

It could be a lighting issue, unclear sensors, or wrong placement. Any of these reasons can make your nighttime footage unclear/blurry.

Fortunately for you, these can be easily rectified and even help improve the security camera’s night vision.

In the next segments, we’ll show you a few handy methods for making the necessary improvement to your security camera’s night vision to capture much clearer footage in the dark.

Improvement Methods Of Security Cameras Night Vision

The purpose of installing a security camera with night vision is to get footage of your household in your absence. Especially during nighttime.

It becomes worthless if you can’t get clear footage in the dark, even with night vision. However, you know by now, that the security camera is not always at fault.

There are ways that can not only help you remedy that but also improve the night vision of your security cameras.

The following methods should help you improve your security camera’s night vision system and provide much better footage even in pitch black.

Keeping Cameras Clean

You should know the security cameras are not dust and waterproof, Which makes them vulnerable to outdoor dust and dirt.

That leads to making the camera sensors dirty, and a dirty camera sensor can’t record good quality footage.

So make sure you keep the security cameras clean, especially the outdoor ones, as they are likely to get dirtier than the indoor ones.

However, the outdoor security cameras don’t usually get installed close to the ground, thus making them harder to clean regularly.

If you want to avoid such hindrance, you can install the security camera under the outside shades, which will prevent some of the debris from gathering on the camera sensor. Thus reducing the cleaning seasons.  

Add More Lights

Nowadays, security comes with high-resolution cameras which allow getting much clearer footage.

Although it’s a good thing, the infrared light that comes with these cameras can’t cover the full resolution in the dark, thus making the footage blurry.

Adding more light is a good way to improve the captured footage in the dark. Because adding more lights helps cover the IR lackings.

In doing so not only you can get much clear footage but also have a wider range of coverage from the security cameras.

Install An IR(Infrared) Illuminators

Although adding more light helps make the footage clear, however adding more light is not always possible.

In such cases, IR illuminators come in really handy. As they increase the camera’s IR field of view by providing more infrared lighting to the camera sensor.

In doing so reduces the inbuilt IR light’s shortcomings, and helps improve security camera footage.

Reduce Reflected Surface

Just so you know, the infrared and reflection surface doesn’t mix well. Reflection surfaces are a major cause of getting bad footage.

Imagine shining a light in front of your eyes, you’ll be temporarily blind for a few seconds, right?

It’s the same with security cameras as well. As you know IR light needs to reflect lights to get proper footage.

If you place the security camera in a place where you have a lot of refections surface close to the camera then in the dark the IR light reflects right back to the camera, thus hindering its footage.

So if you have any reflecting surfaces like glass and bright white walls close the security camera then try removing them or relocating the cameras to a place where no reflection surface exists.

Better Positioning

No matter how good quality the security camera or light is, it will be worthless if you don’t install them in a good position.

So find a good position for your security camera where it can not only cover a good range of the area but also get complete clarity,

A good way to do that is to install the outdoor security cameras as high as possible. For example close to your household roof’s shade.

From there your security cameras will be able to cover a long range of areas and get much clearer footage.

Remove Protective Foam

Sometimes when you unbox your security cameras, you forget to unwrap the protective coating in the form of plastic which hinders the footage and makes it blurry.

So always remember to remove the plastic coatings and foams from the security cameras to avoid any hindrance.

Avoid Direct Lights

Although installing a few extra lights in your household surroundings is a good thing, you should avoid facing them directly at the security cameras.

As mentioned before, it causes distortion to the camera’s IR lights and ruins the footage of the camera.

Upgrade The Security Camera

If even after trying all the above-mentioned methods you’re still getting bad footage from the security cameras, then you need to change the security camera.

Upgrading to a better quality camera that is built for a low-light capturing capability can provide you with much better footage in the dark.

Because a camera with low-capturing capability has good quality infrared light and also has LED light, which helps provide the necessary light to the camera sensors thus capturing footage in great detail even in the dark.

Bottom Line

Improving the security camera’s night vision holds the utmost importance. Because all the thieving and stealing occur when the lights are out.

If you don’t get a clear picture of the perp, how will you provide the necessary evidence to the authority to capture them? So if you’re getting blurry footage from the night vision, make sure you try out our above-mentioned methods and if they don’t work then you’ll have to upgrade your security camera system for providing the best security service.