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#1
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CMOS Cam IR Illumination
Hi,
I've got an IP camera with a tiny CMOS camera like the one you find in many Webcams. I'd like to run it at an aquarium site for 24 hours a day, but in total darkness at night. If I add standard 850nm IR LED illumination for night vision, what happens to the quality of the picture? Do I get a reasonable spectrum of colours, or does the image then become black & white or monochrome? Muchly appreciative of all responses. Regards, Tressie. |
#2
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CMOS Cam IR Illumination
Trespasser wrote:
Hi, I've got an IP camera with a tiny CMOS camera like the one you find in many Webcams. I'd like to run it at an aquarium site for 24 hours a day, but in total darkness at night. If I add standard 850nm IR LED illumination for night vision, what happens to the quality of the picture? Do I get a reasonable spectrum of colours, or does the image then become black & white or monochrome? Muchly appreciative of all responses. Regards, Tressie. Your images will be in mono. The image quality will degrade the further from the light source. This can be rectified by adding more LEDS. A few years ago I was doing something similar only with birds that were nesting on our front lawn. The camera and LEDS (I built up an array of 15 IR LEDS on a printed circut board and housed it in a 50pack CD container to protect it from any rain) were about 1 metre (correct spelling here in AU!) from the birds and provided very good illumination to a distance of about 2.5 metres. Beyond that everything was a bit 'fuzzy'...particularly smaller objects. The 15 LED array was probably a bit of 'overkill' as I had to lower the brightness in the webcam software or else the birds, when on the nest, were 'blown out'. When the brightness was adjusted properly, the birds were very clear and the images were just as good as daylight ones (only in mono!). Considering the low price of IR LEDs these days, I would try one and if that wasn't good enough, add more until a satisfactory level of light was achieved. While I don't know how big your aquarium is and how much of it you want to illuminate, another thing you could consider is placing LEDs at various points around it to provide a more 'uniform' illumination of the tank. I was using a CCTV camera that had a CCD sensor. Hope this helps. |
#3
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CMOS Cam IR Illumination
Hi Kim,
Yes, that helped very much. I understand that the night-time image will be monochrome now, and have a good idea of what I'll be requiring in the way of LED numbers. I was looking at a pricey 30-LED illuminator, but it seems that I will be able to get away with just a few IR LEDs, possibly distributed about the aquarium. Thanks you very much for relating your invaluable experience, Kim. That's helped me immeasurably. Regards, Tressie. "kim" wrote in message ... Trespasser wrote: Hi, I've got an IP camera with a tiny CMOS camera like the one you find in many Webcams. I'd like to run it at an aquarium site for 24 hours a day, but in total darkness at night. If I add standard 850nm IR LED illumination for night vision, what happens to the quality of the picture? Do I get a reasonable spectrum of colours, or does the image then become black & white or monochrome? Muchly appreciative of all responses. Regards, Tressie. Your images will be in mono. The image quality will degrade the further from the light source. This can be rectified by adding more LEDS. A few years ago I was doing something similar only with birds that were nesting on our front lawn. The camera and LEDS (I built up an array of 15 IR LEDS on a printed circut board and housed it in a 50pack CD container to protect it from any rain) were about 1 metre (correct spelling here in AU!) from the birds and provided very good illumination to a distance of about 2.5 metres. Beyond that everything was a bit 'fuzzy'...particularly smaller objects. The 15 LED array was probably a bit of 'overkill' as I had to lower the brightness in the webcam software or else the birds, when on the nest, were 'blown out'. When the brightness was adjusted properly, the birds were very clear and the images were just as good as daylight ones (only in mono!). Considering the low price of IR LEDs these days, I would try one and if that wasn't good enough, add more until a satisfactory level of light was achieved. While I don't know how big your aquarium is and how much of it you want to illuminate, another thing you could consider is placing LEDs at various points around it to provide a more 'uniform' illumination of the tank. I was using a CCTV camera that had a CCD sensor. Hope this helps. |
#4
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CMOS Cam IR Illumination
Trespasser wrote:
Hi, I've got an IP camera with a tiny CMOS camera like the one you find in many Webcams. I'd like to run it at an aquarium site for 24 hours a day, but in total darkness at night. If I add standard 850nm IR LED illumination for night vision, what happens to the quality of the picture? Do I get a reasonable spectrum of colours, or does the image then become black & white or monochrome? Muchly appreciative of all responses. Regards, Tressie. It might upset the fish's circadian rythm... This from http://www.colour-experience.org/fly.../animals_6.htm Many fish, including piranhas and goldfish, can see infrared light at wavelengths invisible to us. This helps them to see in murky water, where the longer wavelengths of infrared will be scattered less than the shorter wavelengths of our visible spectrum. |
#5
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CMOS Cam IR Illumination
On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:02:00 +0000, Vipera berus wrote:
If I add standard 850nm IR LED illumination for night vision, what happens to the quality of the picture? Do I get a reasonable spectrum of colours, or does the image then become black & white or monochrome? It all goes greyscale. fundamental science, IR light is a continualtion of the colour spectrum, but we can not see it and the camera does not frequency shift. It might upset the fish's circadian rythm... Which is what you need to consider. The tradeoffs are whether your fish actually sleep during the night and whether the extra is illumination is significant compared to normal overnight light. |
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