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.

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.

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.

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.

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.