BR2 low light noise in video

Hiya, I just had one of our BR2s (V1) in a darker environment than I think we have previously experienced.

The image was very ‘speckled’. It’s not pixelization from what I know. When getting near to some surface the ‘white speckle noise’ (don’t know what else to call it) would disappear. The lights have some effect on the image when there is something to see but just looking into water with a non defined background the lights have no effect. It looks like an image processing threshold. I looked at the Lake Chelan video posted by btrue in the ‘how much light is needed for low light USB camera’ thread. I see no noise as the lights are turned off in that vid. I’d like to post a pic or small vid of what I am experiencing but I don’t know how to do that. The ROVs have been in dark places before but I don’t remember seeing this. I can’t imagine, but might camera performance degrade with age? Do new BR USB cameras have better performance than a 5 or 6 year old original camera?

Hi @salvor1 -

Sorry for the issue - but I think this is expected behavior! The USB low-light camera is low-light - not no light! When in absolute darkness, sensor noise may appear as fuzz. It’s also possible your camera is being affected by technical bulletin 12?

but the Lake Chelan vid?

how do I find tec bul 12?

are new BR2 cams better that old original?

Hi @salvor1

There is no difference between old and new USB low-light cameras. The Lake Chelan video was shot with ambient light, albeit low levels - not in an opaque pitch-black tank as you are operating in?

The technical bulletin is linked in my post, simply click it! It’s also available on our handy technical reference.