Cam v3 originally displayed color night video, now it only shows in b&w, why?

I have had the same problem. V3 worked fine when purchased showing real nice color at night and any low light conditions. For weeks, only black and white in low light. I did do a chat and as usual, the Wyze staff is super helpful. After re-boots and going on and off the app, still no color at night. It seems like something I will have to live with.
Something is wrong because it seems many have this problem. Many, like me state the camera worked fine at first, so it has the capability to work.

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Welcome to the forums! What is your “night vision” setting? On/auto/off? It should actually be called “color at night” so that it’s not confused with the “night vision” settings (black and white). To get color at night, you need to have “night vision” essentially off. The starlight sensor is the camera does a great job picking up ambient light and showing it in app. To fill color at night you need some ambient lighting, even moonlight will do, you can have a pitch black area. It you have night vision enabled or on, that will show the normal black and white in low light conditions, where the onboard IR lights will help illuminate the view.

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Thank you so much for the response. My thought is, why did color work for me and so many others and then stop. I have had my cameras in auto since day one and for about the first week, night vision was in color. Now, like so many others, it is now black and white.
Just to be clear, I am OK with this. I am not videoing a movie; it is security and images will show up in black and white. It does the job and any images, even in black and white are quite clear. Actually, the images are real good night or day. I searched and found many others had the same issue, so I wanted to inquire.
I have two cameras and both are in areas where there is next to no ambient light. If I shut off night vision, the screen is almost completely dark.

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Do you have any before and after pictures you could share? It could be as easy as the phases of the moon. Where before where it stayed in color at night it was a full moon and the ambient light was brighter, and possibly now where it stays or goes into the black and white night vision there is no moon or a crescent moon causing very very little moon light.

Sorry, no pictures

Is the irr off,all of it

If you mean the infrared night lighting, it is in auto. If I turn it off, yes, the scene will be in color. However, if I had an intruder, I would not have a clear picture. Way too dark. That is why I said, I am OK with the black and white, just somewhat disappointed as it states very clearly on the box of the V3, color night vision. Just as an aside, I find the night vision amazing. I have it set where there are no visible infrared lights and it lights up a very dark area with no visible lighting. Way Cool!

Your camera is working correctly, add the spotlight, and turn the a irr to off and set the spotlight to motion and your all set thers a huge difference from the V2 to V3,and the zoom in is also crisp and clear…yes the camera can see light that the human eye does not

Thank you for the reply.
I do not want the spotlight. I would rather just have the b&w video.

O well its so small and works great,it was built just for V3 cams we have 1 on each of our outdoor cameras watching the site door

What is auto dark? What is the dusk setting? I’m having the same issue where my cam no longer shows a vivid bright color in low light anymore although it used to. Now I just get blk/wht that is grainy and doesn’t pick up low light well at all anymore.

Turn the irr off

@junkmailjessi
The auto setting allows the v3 to switch to night vision when the ambient light is not enough to get a good image. The ‘color night vision’ is not truly night vision, it just makes use of the ambient light to avoid switching to night vision. If you turn night vision to off it will stay in color but if the ambient light is less the image could get too dark to see.

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Mines switched to black and white after 3 weeks.

When I installed …night mode Auto, IR dark and far …Cameras in color at nights. After 3 full weeks they changed to black and white automatically.
Stop cheating your customers, Wyze.

@ctp7951. @Omgitstony is a volunteer forum moderator. A user like you and I. Not a Wyze employee. He is one of us.

There have been some recent changes to the firmware that may have affected the light sensor sensitivity in the cam. It has been noticed by other users and is being reported and pursued. But, the function of the night vision has not changed. It is still:

On = Black and White IR light vision all the time
Off = Color light vision all the time (no IR)
Auto = let the cam decide when to switch into and come out of IR B&W vs Color mode based on surrounding light levels.

It is the third of these, Auto, that I have experienced the cam not wanting to automatically switch out of IR B&W until extremely high light levels. I believe it has to do with coding changes Wyze made in the Starlight Sensor. It was reported in this post:

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When the night vision mode is set to “auto”, the camera will switch from night vision on and off automatically based on available light. When night vision mode is ON, the picture is black and white and the onboard IR illuminators can be used to light the scene. When the night vision mode is OFF, the picture will be in color. With the v3, it has the starlight sensor that helps in all low light situations in both NV modes.

As stated, Moderators and Mavens are volunteer forum users and not Wyze team members.

I have 2 Cam v3. The first one have changed its night mode from Color to B & W, after 3 weeks. I bought 2nd one and it did the same as .
I don’t understand why Cam V3 worked good in first 3 weeks in color mode. It doesn’t make any sense to me about firmware update.
If you want to test, just buy a new Cam V3 and you will know exactly what is going on.

The Firmware is the software installed on the cam to make it work. One of the reasons this may be happening is because the V3 are loaded at the production facility with production firmware. The will then sit and wait to be sold, sometimes for weeks or months. During that time, firmware is updated by Wyze and your new cam is installed with out of date firmware. When you then update that firmware, it gets uploaded to the cam from the Wyze Servers and changes the way the cam behaves.

Make sure your firmware is up to date.

As I stated, there have been recent changes that affect the starlight sensor. In my opinion, this also changed the light threshold required to change the V3 in Auto mode from Black & White to Color.

To test your cam, use the green status symbol in the upper right of the video while in live view.

During daylight starting in Auto, if the picture is in black and white, press the button 1 time. It will cycle to On. There should be no change to the image. Press it one more time and it will cycle to Off. You should hear a faint click of the IR filter retracting and the picture should go to color. If your cam is in light that should be auto switching it to Color IR NV off the next step will confirm if it is the same problem I am experiencing. Press it one more time to switch it back to Auto. If it stays in Color, the cam functions are reacting normally. The problem is the Auto switch threshold measured by the sensor to switch it to IR NV off.

If you start this process in color IR NV Off, you should see a change to Black and White only when switching it to On. Switching it to Off and to Auto should return it to color.

EDIT:

If you want the cam to stay in color 24\7, leave the setting to OFF.

@ctp7951, I have posted this issue to this month’s Fix-it Friday thread.

If you are still experiencing this issue, feel free to follow the link, like the post with a heart coin, and add your experience in a reply post (if you are so inclined).