Edit: (Nvm folks… all the searching I’ve done on the forum, there’s no workaround for night vision through glass.)
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I cleaned the heck out of my kitchen window on both sides and put the face of the cam gently but firmly flat up against the glass (small weight leaning on the back). I got a decent image with a moderate corona, but no it’s not perfect.
It would be very helpful if we could have night vision but turn off the LED’s and eliminate the corona. I tried electrical tape on the face of the camera over the LEDs, but they still shine on the recessed lense. Actually, the camera is ok in low light, and in my case I have motion sensitive lights that come on and so I don’t need the camera to provide the lighting, but the camera does need to be behind a window, at least until there is a weatherproof camera available.
You may be better off to mount an external IR illuminator on the other side of the glass. They can be found on ebay, or can be easily made (google is your friend).
Ideally, the IR wavelength of the illuminator should be the same as that of the WYZE cam (you would have to look it up…don’t recall ATM.)
If you are relying on cam for security to facilitate better identification of the person, ‘visable light’ (‘white light’) works better.
If you are interested in building an enclosure with a glass window, look at edmunds.com - they have various glass materials that easily pass IR and are non-reflective (dependent on how cam is mounted wrt glass).
good luck
<p style=“text-align: center;”>I have found that if you have any small source of light u don’t need the night vision. Try turning off the night vision.</p>
Even if the illuminator LEDs could be bypassed in night mode, would the IR from an external illuminator pass through the wiindow? Would it matter what kind of glass it is? Aren’t energy efficient windows designed to block IR? But what wavelengths, and do they block the illuminator? Obviously, the glass of the camera lens does not block the IR.
You can find zillions of transmissivity charts, such as https://thinkalpen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/visible-transmission.jpg
You can probably test your glass by seeing if an IR remote control works through it.
I have a Wyze camers sitting on the window sill of a upper bedroom window looking down on our driveway of a 2nd home. I have it against the glass. I do not have Night Vision turned on. Of course everything I see is black. However, should any vehicle drive up my driveway I should receive an alert and I am pretty sure that the car’s headlights will be enough light for me to identify the vehicle. The next time I am out there, I will test my own theory.
Every mounting situation is different but I found that I got by far the best nighttime results with an Xiaomi Yi camera by disconnecting the camera’s infrared lights rather than turning off night mode. This was done by taking the camera apart and simply disconnecting a wire going to the IR lights. That allowed the camera to go into night mode (for much greater sensitivity) but with no IR lights to reflect off the window. With that setup, my motion sensitive porch lights could provide excellent lighting for the camera (in night mode). If night mode is turned off, the camera stays in daylight mode and is not sensitive enough for the porch lights to provide adequate lighting. I don’t know if it would be possible to have an app setting that could disable the IR lights but that would be far superior to manually disconnecting wires. If fact, based on my experience this capability would eliminate about 90% of the window reflection problems that plague thousands of camera users. By the way, the Xiaomi Yi camera is a close relative to the Wyze camera and is made by the same company.
Night vision will work if it’s through a single pane of glass or plastic. Just look as the exterior enclosures for other cameras. They use a washer/o-ring in front of the camera lens to block the IR reflections. Since most modern windows are double pane or more, there are too many reflective surfaces. I am looking into a waterproof exterior enclosure. Most waterproof enclosures with a clear cover cost ~$15.00.
Thanks,
Peter
After doing some more research in this subject, I discovered that you can eliminate most, if not all, of the glare by angling the face of camera 45 degrees as it relates to the window. In other words, turn the camera so it doesn’t face directly towards the window. I’ll post tonight’s pictures.
Unfortunately IR doesn’t pass through glass! We have seen some creative alternatives with people turning lights on outside for the camera and disabling night vision, or using IR blasters outside as well (while also disabling the cam’s night vision.)
Whoops! My bad, I stand corrected! It does seem though that not all IR wavelengths can pass through glass, so I believe ours happens to fall under that category. From what I’ve seen when trying my camera, the IR seems to reflect off the glass and cause the light to shine back into the camera lens.
I’m going to test it and post my results.
Wow, very wrong…yes I know you corrected it earlier, but there is a lot of misunderstanding that needs to be cleared up. Basic hs physics:
Visible light (remember ROYGBIV?) has a wavelength range of 380 nm (violet) to 1.4 nm (red). The infrared spectrum actually has 5 regions.
1.4 um - 0.7 um - Near infrared
1.4 um - 3 um - Short wavelength IR
3 um - 8 um - Mid wavelength IR
8-15um - long wavelength IR
15-1000 um - Far IR.
Unfortunately most ppl assume the entire IR spectrum when they hear IR…which should actually be clarified. most of the time, the context is near IR.
Almost all cameras that are of the wyze cam type operate in the near IR band and indeed, it does propagate through glass. Even obeys Snells law in changing its index of refraction as it goes through medium of different densities.
Typically the long and far IR wavelengths are ‘low energy’ and tend to be absorbed in many materials, of which glass is one of them. Should make a distinction as to the type of glass as well (most window pane glass is soda lime silica glass, then there is low iron glass, and…google types of glass).
(as an aside, if you want to build a glass enclosure, low iron glass would be a good bet)
The wavelength of the IR in the wyze cam is 850 um which puts it in the near infrared region and definitely will go through glass. It will lose energy as it goes through the glass, and how much depends on the thickness of the glass. The fact that it reflects is due to the angle of the light source (LED)-glass interface. If the source is perpendicular to the glass it will go through, if it is at an angle, where will be reflections. I don’t recall the angle where reflections start to occur but I seem to remember 5-10 degrees…also depends on the glass material and thicknes.
Hope this helps
J
Thank you for the information! I learned quite a bit today about IR! I apologize for being incorrect!
By angling the camera, I was able to eliminate the glare. But, there wasn’t enough IR to illuminate beyond the window. Oh, well. Back to the exterior waterproof enclosure idea.
Trying different angles of the camera eliminates the glare and reflection for our camera for us also. We had camera facing garage at Christmas time where there were Christmas lights on small trees and overhead lights. Plenty of light to show any activity. After Christmas when lights were removed, camera only shows black unless car lights illuminate the area. Night vision off.
I’m just a woman ???trying to figure the red light 
thing sooo, could you give me information dumb down version. Please ?
Peaches,
Think of the red lights (4?) as a flashlight. To get a good picture, you have to shine some light on the subject/object. In this case, the light (Infrared), you can’t see and that is by design (to hide it).
I hope this helps.