PSA: Cheap USB night vision cams vs proper analog cameras for driveway monitoring

I wasted 3 weeks trying to make a $20 USB camera work for watching my driveway after dark. The IR LEDs were so weak that anything past 10 feet was just black. Swapped to an old analog bullet cam with a DVR board I built myself for $45 total. Now I can clearly see license plates from 40 feet away at midnight. The difference was the sensor size and actual IR wavelength, not just the price tag. Anyone else run into this where the bargain option just cannot handle low light?

3 comments

3 Comments

river9529d ago

Wait, you got a whole system going for $45 including the DVR board? I used to think USB cams were the way to go because theyre cheap and easy to plug in, but last winter I finally gave up on a couple of them too. The image quality was fine during the day but at night it was like staring into a black hole. After swapping to an old analog cam with external IR illuminators, the difference was night and day literally. I totally get what you mean about sensor size being the real deal, those tiny little sensors in USB cams just cant pull in enough light no matter what the specs say.

blakestone9d ago

Buddy of mine said the same thing, swapped to analog and never looked back.

price.ben8d ago

Buddy of mine spent like $80 on USB cams before he gave up.