Night vision is an integral part of home security camera systems. Night vision is simply being able to see at night or in darkness, where the conditions have low amounts of light present. During such low-light conditions are usually when prowlers, burglars, and package thieves commit their crimes at your doorstep, so it pays to catch them in the action with night vision activated.
Two approaches are done in order to make night vision possible for security cameras—sufficient intensity range and sufficient spectral range. Most use infra-red technology but some also avail of color night vision.
Ring, Nest, Wyze, and Blink all have their own night vision solutions for their Wi-Fi home security cameras.
Do Arlo Cameras Have Night Vision?
Yes. Actually, all wireless Arlo cameras have some sort of night vision feature in one way or another. It makes perfect sense for a wireless security camera line from Arlo would have night vision in order to safeguard your home from criminals who usually do their work through the cover of darkness.
Infra-red cameras silently film them. What’s more, humans typically have poor night vision compared to animals because of the lack of tapetum lucidum on the human eye. Since you can’t always be on the watch for such criminals it pays to have security cameras as your eyes even at night.
Cameras don’t only record activities during the day but also during the night, especially if you set your Arlo wireless on Armed Mode. Armed Mode allows tiny things like detected movement and sound to activate the camera in order to shoot a snapshot or a short video that caused the disturbance. This is on top of features like HD resolution video and Wi-Fi capabilities.
Which Arlo Cameras Have Night Vision and What Kind?
Practically all Arlo wireless or wire-free cameras have some form of night vision or another. All of them feature infra-red night vision and some of them have both that and color night vision, which is a relatively new tech that maximizes light in order to create color photos and videos of whatever your camera is recording.
The following specific Arlo cameras have night vision. All of them have IR night vision but only three of them have color night vision.
- Arlo Essential: 2 IR LEDs (850nm) with IR Cut Filter
- Arlo Go: 2 IR LEDs (850nm) with IR Cut Filter
- Arlo Baby: 2 IR LEDs (850nm) with IR Cut Filter
- Arlo Q: 2 IR LEDs (850nm) with IR Cut Filter
- Arlo Q Plus: 2 IR LEDs (850nm) with IR Cut Filter
- Arlo Wire-Free: 2 IR LEDs (850nm) with IR Cut Filter
- Arlo Pro: 2 IR LEDs (850nm) with IR Cut Filter
- Arlo Pro 2: 2 IR LEDs (850nm) with IR Cut Filter
- Arlo Pro 3: Color Night Vision and 2 Infrared LEDs
- Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight: Color Night Vision and 2 Infrared LEDs
- Arlo Ultra: Color Night Vision and 2 Infrared LEDs
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What is Infra-Red Night Vision?
Infrared night vision is a type of night vision that uses active illumination and intensification technology with IR LEDs in order to covertly shine a light on an area or subject at night while keeping the camera hidden in the cloak of darkness. This is unbeknownst to potential prowlers, burglars, thieves, and intruders that dare step foot in your property in the middle of the night.
It’s usually after dark when people do the most nefarious of deeds. When people think of night vision, they typically think of active IR that combines illumination in the spectral range of 700 Nm to 1,000 Nm with cameras sensitive to IR light. IR night vision works by using shortwave infrared (SWIR) or near-infrared (NIR) tech to illuminate an area with IR light that the camera can detect.
It then intensifies the picture to create a black and white/monochrome image that reveals everything before the camera lens. All Arlo wireless cameras make use of IR night vision. The ones that only use it are Arlo Wire-Free, Arlo Pro, Arlo Pro 2, Arlo Essential, Arlo Go, Arlo Baby, Arlo Q, and Arlo Q Plus. The ones that can go from IR night vision mode and color night vision mode include Arlo Ultra, Arlo Pro 3, and Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight.
What is Color Night Vision?
Color night vision (CNV), as its name suggests, is night vision still pictures and motion video captured by your Arlo camera in full color, as though you’re photographing or filming something with night photography. Except for this time around it doesn’t need as many lights to reveal what lies underneath the cover of darkness. It’s superior to IR night vision because it captures more color details at night.
Arlo security cameras with CNV allow you to record full-color footage of any nefarious activities going on in your home at night. They use light-sensitive back-illuminated image sensors to make it all work. They’re also in HD, thus giving law enforcement all the proof they need to capture any suspects or persons of interest that are stalking your home. It maximizes the ambient lighting of low-light conditions and provides more visual details than IR night vision when identifying objects, people, or activities.
On top of active IR night vision, the three premier and most expensive wireless cameras in the Arlo line—Arlo Pro 3, Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight, and Arlo Ultra—also feature an extra night vision mode known as color night vision. All these cameras also use two IR LEDs (850 Nm) with IR Cut Filter for the best black & white (well, lime green) night vision results long with color night vision.
To Sum It Up
Yes, certain Arlo cameras do have night vision but some have better night vision than others. The premier or more modern camera models of Arlo use a mix of infra-red (IR) night vision and a special kind of night vision known as color night vision in order to better showcase nighttime video footage even with minimal to no lighting present. Meanwhile, the rest have traditional IR night vision that gives the resulting footage a green tinge to it. The military has made extensive use of this type of night vision while most people are aware of it from TV spy shows or reality shows.
References:
- James Stables, “Arlo complete guide: Choose the perfect Arlo and get more from your security camera“, The Ambient, December 10, 2018
- Rose Thibodeaux, “The Complete Guide to Arlo Security Cameras“, Home Alarm Report, August 28, 2019
- “Welcome to Arlo Support“, Arlo.com, Retrieved December 3, 2020
- “Arlo Home Security Systems“, Arlo.com, Retrieved December 3, 2020
- “Night Vision“, Wikipedia, Retrieved December 3, 2020
