I’m experiencing an issue with my Wyze Cam Pan v3 where the night vision footage becomes overexposed when the camera is angled downward (or that’s how I’d describe what it looks like). It appears that the IR light is reflecting off the camera’s own base, causing the footage to look white, similar to an overexposed photo.
Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
Adjusting the angle of the camera to avoid direct reflection. This works but then it’s not capturing the area I want it to capture.
Covering the base with a black cloth to minimize reflection.
None of these solutions have resolved the issue. I’m considering other solutions like potentially covering some of the IR light located at the bottom of the camera with some black electrical tape, or as a last resort, an IR illuminator… but wanted to check here first to see if anyone has faced a similar issue and found a fix.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to prevent IR light from reflecting off the camera base, or is there a setting in the app that might help adjust the intensity of the IR lights? Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
You are on the right track. You must eliminate reflections. Usually this means pointing your camera away from the reflective surface. Covering with a black cloth is or electrical tape also good. Show us your examples.
I would think an IR illuminator would only worsen the problem, as it is brighter IR light.
@p2788deal
That’s a GREAT idea! I don’t know why I didn’t think of something like that.
Now the tricky part. I have a stucco house and this camera is outside under a very deep patio (no worries of weather ever hitting it). I have an owl box under the patio that i want the camera to be able to see (about 8’ from the camera but at the same height) and i want the camera to capture the patio and yard area which is why it needs to be angled looking down. So I’m not sure how I’d mount it. I suppose I could maybe get a long 2x4 and mount it to that and lean it against the house.
All that being said, even with my other pan cam v3s, the IR light cause the overexposed looking footage even without a severe downward angle. It starts at roughly a 45° downward angle… slightly less than that actually (that’s just me eyeballing the angle). It seems like this shouldn’t happen so easily… like a design flaw.
Here’s what it should look like (I opened up the curtains and turned on the kitchen & dining room lights… and turned off IR lights) Desired state
I have an owl box that’s important for me to watch along with the yard and patio area… I want to capture as much of the patio as possible but it gets too overexposed.
As for the IR illuminator… I wasn’t sure about it either but it was recommended as a possible solution as a way to decrease contrast between the area that was being overexposed and the base that’s causing the issue. It actually made some sense to me when I was thinking it through (they worded it much better than I am right now though Haha). In the video you can see the IR lights from my Nest cam filming the pond (I have nightly visitors I like to capture (bobcats, western screech-owls, and I out a perch out there to hopefully entice one of the 4 resident great horned owls too !)
Thanks for the response and let me know what you think after watching the link.
KV
The base is attached to the eaves with the supplied screws. It’s a tight fit and you need a ratcheting screw driver for the base screw. The slight deviation from the vertical (due to the roof angle) isn’t as important as the camera can swivel.
It’s night time, I’ll see if I can take a pic tomorrow.
Now that I see some examples, an IR Illuminator may work for you. You are looking at a lot of area. If you put an illuminator on the roof line above the fence, you could probably illuminate a lot of that area. In this case you’d probably leave the internal camera IR lights on, just don’t point them at anything reflective.
On the black cloth, if you ever use one again the trick is to have a black object that is black to IR. My winter coat is black, but it is bight white under IR. I find a black trash bag is usually black to IR. So is electrical tape.
!)
