How-To
What Is ColorVu? Smart Hybrid Light and 24/7 Colour Explained
How-ToAbout once a week somebody leans on the counter and asks for “one of those cameras that sees in colour at night”. Fair enough. That is broadly what ColorVu does. What the phrase hides is that Hikvision has hung three different badges off the same idea, and after dark they behave nothing like each other. Pick the wrong one and you have either handed the customer a camera that goes blind at dusk or a small floodlight pointing at the neighbour’s bedroom window.
What it replaces
A standard camera drops to infrared the moment the light goes. Grey picture. It is sharp enough to prove somebody was in the yard at ten past two, and it will give you a build and a rough height, but it will never tell you the jacket was red or that the car they got into was a dark blue estate. That second half is the part the police actually ask for.
How it works
Two parts to it. The lens opens far wider than normal, typically F1.0 against the F1.6 or F2.0 on a standard camera, which lets in several times more light before the sensor has to do any heavy lifting at all. Then the LED. Once the ambient light runs out entirely, a warm white light fills in what the aperture cannot manage on its own. Deliberately warm. Nothing like the hard blue-white of the first generation. On current cameras it is far less objectionable than it used to be.
There is no infrared on a pure ColorVu camera. None. The white light is the night-time illumination, so switch it off and you own a camera that sees nothing after dusk. Worth saying out loud, because most people assume the IR is still sitting in there as a backup.
The three badges
| Badge | After dark | Where it belongs |
|---|---|---|
| ColorVu | White light on, colour all night | Forecourts and frontages that are lit anyway |
| Smart Hybrid Light | Infrared until an event, then white light and colour | Most sites, and nearly every residential job |
| ColorVu with LiveGuard | Infrared until motion is classified, then light plus an audio warning | Active deterrence |
Smart Hybrid Light is what goes on the van most weeks. It sits in infrared and keeps quiet, so there is nothing burning across a garden at three in the morning, then the second something trips the detection it flips to white light and colour. Discretion on the nights when nothing happens. Colour on the night something does. That is the right way round, and the other way round is how you end up back on site.
Where it goes wrong
Put a pure ColorVu down a dark side return and nobody complains until the nights draw in. Then the phone goes. That light burns into their daughter’s bedroom from dusk until dawn, because a pure ColorVu does not wait for something to happen. Turn it off and the camera is blind, because there is nothing underneath to fall back on. That is a swap you should have designed out before the ladders ever came off the van.
If there is any chance of that phone call, and on domestic work there nearly always is, spec Smart Hybrid Light from the start. It costs a bit more on the invoice. It costs a lot less than a return visit and an apology.
Dahua and Uniview
Both do the same job under a different name. Dahua calls it Full-colour, and the dual-illumination models match Smart Hybrid Light. Uniview badges it ColorHunter. Strip the marketing off any of them and the engineering underneath is identical. A wider aperture and a more sensitive sensor, with white light to cover what those cannot. There is no magic in any of them. We have put ColorVu and Dahua Full-colour side by side on real jobs if you are choosing between the two. We do not hold these ranges deep on the shelf. Get an order in before noon and we can usually have a specific model here next day. Some lines are trade only and need an approved account first.
Frequently asked questions
What does ColorVu mean on a Hikvision camera?
It means the camera gives you a colour picture at night. It does that with a wide F1.0 aperture and a warm white LED in place of infrared.
Does ColorVu have infrared?
A pure ColorVu camera does not. Smart Hybrid Light models carry both. They run on infrared as normal and switch to white light when something is detected.
Is the white light always on?
On a pure ColorVu, yes, once ambient light drops below the threshold. On a Smart Hybrid Light model it stays off until something triggers it.
Can I turn the ColorVu light down?
Brightness is adjustable on most models, and on hybrid models you can change what triggers the light. Turn it off altogether on a pure ColorVu and the camera cannot see at night.