I work on the manufacturing side of security cameras, and the thing I would most like to change about how these are sold is the phrase "night vision". It is not one feature. It is three different technologies with three different failure modes, and listings use the same two words for all of them. Once you know which one you are actually buying, outdoor camera shopping gets simple, and most of the disappointment people describe to me afterwards was predictable from the listing.
Here is what is really behind the phrase.
Infrared: reliable, and the range figure is not real
The most common implementation is infrared. A mechanical IR-cut filter physically slides out of the way at dusk, a ring of infrared LEDs lights the scene, the sensor sees infrared, and you get a black and white image. It is cheap, it is dependable, and it works in total darkness.
The catch is the number on the box. That figure is measured in an open field with no ambient light. In a real garden with a fence, some hedges and a bit of streetlight, the distance at which you can actually recognise a face is usually a third to a half of the advertised figure. If it says 30 metres, assume you can identify someone at eight to ten metres and detect movement somewhat beyond that.
The wavelength changes the real range, and nobody publishes it
This is the detail worth asking about, because it matters more than the LED count.
850nm infrared LEDs produce a faint dull red glow that you can just see if you are looking for it, and they deliver the full rated range. 940nm LEDs are completely invisible, which matters if you would rather the camera's position was not obvious, but they produce roughly 30 percent less usable light.
So a camera with fewer 850nm LEDs can genuinely outperform one with more 940nm LEDs, and there is no way to tell that from the listing. If it does not say which one it is, assume 850nm.
"Colour night vision" needs light that is not always there
This is the nicer of the three images when it works. It is a more sensitive sensor plus a wider aperture, giving you a colour picture from ambient light alone.
But it needs that ambient light. A driveway with a streetlamp two houses away is fine. A completely dark back garden is not, and the camera will quietly fall back to infrared anyway. Nothing on the spec sheet tells you at what light level that switch happens, and in my experience it happens earlier than people expect.
The white floodlight option, and why nobody leaves it on
The third approach is a white LED floodlight built into the camera. It gives a genuinely usable colour image in total darkness, at whatever distance the light reaches.
Two trade-offs. Your camera is now very visible, which defeats some of the point of having it discreet. And a white light left on all night attracts insects, which then sit on the lens and trigger motion alerts until dawn. Almost everyone ends up running these on motion only, which means the thing you paid for only works after something has already moved.
The part that actually decides whether an outdoor camera works
None of the above is usually why an outdoor camera disappoints. The reason is the wireless link.
A wireless outdoor camera still needs mains power or a battery. Wireless only means the video travels over Wi-Fi, and that link is the number one cause of outdoor cameras failing to do their job. Wi-Fi at 2.4GHz gets through one external wall reasonably and two poorly. By the time the signal reaches a camera mounted under the eaves at the far corner of the house, you are often below about -65 dBm, and that is where video starts to stutter, motion clips arrive late, and the app reports the camera offline at exactly the moment you needed it.
Before you buy anything, stand where the camera will go, hold your phone up, and look at the actual signal level. If it is marginal on a phone, it will be worse on a camera with a smaller antenna.
Power is a recording decision, not a convenience decision
A mains-powered camera can record continuously and run a spotlight. It is the honest answer for a driveway or a gate.
A battery camera is much easier to install and much worse at capturing anything, because it sleeps and wakes on motion — and by the time it wakes, the subject has often already crossed the frame. You get a clip of someone leaving, which is rarely the clip you wanted. Solar panels help, but mostly in summer; in winter, with weak sun and cold batteries, expect to charge it by hand.
IP66 is about condensation, not rain
Weather rating matters, but not for the reason people think. IP66 is the minimum I would accept for something permanently outside. Below that you get condensation behind the lens after the first cold night, and condensation turns a good night image into a grey blur that no amount of megapixels will fix.
Two things that help more than they sound: mount the camera under an eave rather than fully exposed, and aim the connector side downward.
Where you mount it matters more than what you buy
Installation position ruins more night images than sensor choice does.
Point a camera through a window and the infrared bounces off the glass straight back into the lens, so you get a white wash and nothing else. Aim it at a wall or fence closer than about two metres and the infrared blows out the near surface. Mount it above roughly three metres and you get the tops of heads.
Around 2.5 to 3 metres, angled slightly down, positioned off to the side of the area rather than straight at it — that is where infrared works best.
What I would not pay extra for
Resolution above 4MP on an outdoor camera at night. The limiting factor is illumination, not pixels, and a 4K sensor in the dark still gives you a dark image.
Any "AI detection" you cannot turn off. A camera that wakes on every passing car headlight is a camera you will eventually mute, and a muted camera is not a security camera.
The short version
If you need to recognise faces at night, buy infrared with 850nm LEDs and a genuine IR-cut filter, and judge the range at a third of what the box says. If you want a natural colour image and you have some streetlight, buy a starlight sensor and accept that it drops to infrared on the darkest nights. If you need colour in total darkness, buy a camera with a white floodlight and run it on motion.
Whatever you buy, check the Wi-Fi signal at the mounting point before you install, insist on IP66, and mount it at 2.5 to 3 metres with nothing reflective within two metres.
One bias to declare: I am on the manufacturing side, so I care more about the illumination path and the thermal design than about the app. But ask any seller what wavelength their infrared LEDs are, or at what light level the camera switches from colour to infrared, and you will find out quickly whether they have thought about any of this.
If it helps to see what is actually available: https://xingliaoshop.com/product-category/surveillance-camera/
Xingliao Smart Home builds smart switches, video doorbells and security cameras on Tuya WiFi and Tuya ZigBee, and runs OEM/ODM programmes from Shenzhen. Factory and ODM capability.
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