Why does auto night vision look black and white, hope next firmware update addresses this problem
A bit of color theory might help you understand (a) why it’s b&w, and (b) why it always will be. It’s a perfectly reasonable question, though, don’t get me wrong.
TL:DR: The color an object appears is entirely dependent on what wavelength(s) of light is reflected by the object When the only light is infrared, video displays display it as black and white
Infrared is, by definition, out of the range of human vision. Yes, you can see the LEDs on the front but that’s because they emit just a little bit into the lower end of the visible spectrum. They’re actually dumping out quite a bit of energy out of visible range, so if your eyes were suddenly sensitive that those frequencies, those lights would be freaking bright. Now that I think about it, they’re probably just white LEDs with what’s called a low-pass filter over them that only allows frequencies below a certain point to escape the doorbell.
So instead of all the colors of the rainbow being reflected off of objects and into the lens of the doorbell (as happens during the day) the only* light being reflected back is in a range you can’t see. Basically what the camera is seeing is one single color. It’s not just red. It’s (Insert dramatic music bump here) infrared.
So rather than be a jerk and say “ha ha ha, I can see that color and you can’t tee-here-hee”, the doorbell says “I’ll show the meatbag. Black is none of that light being reflected back and white is all of it.” Basically what you’re seeing is the amount light is being reflected back expressed on a scale of 0-100, 0 being black and 100 being white.]
(You know how night vision goggles make everything look green? Green was chosen instead of white because (a) our eyes are most sensitive to green and (b) green doesn’t mess up your night vision which is kind of important when you have to whip the goggles off in a hurry.)
Make sense? Sorry to nerd out on you.
(That you still got color when it was as dim as that in the first shot is testament to how good the sensor in these things are)
(Check out the brake light cover on the car. See how bright it is? Most lights emit well into the infrared. We don’t see it because … well … we can’t see it. Bur a red brake light cover is going to be a really, really, good reflector for infrared lights.)
(Want to see how bright those LEDs are in the doorbell? Point your cellphone camera at the doorbell when it’s dark and the infrared is on. Moist cellphone cameras pick up into the infrared)
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- It’s not that there are two sensors in the doorbell, there’s only one and it extends from the visible down into the invisible range. The colors are still there; it’s just that there’s not enough white light (eg all the colors of the rainbow mixed together) to be reflected back into the lens…
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I think you couldn’t have explained it better. Props to you 
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