Night Vision Too Dark

[SuperTrollMan]

Hi All,

I've recently installed new Google Nest Cameras.

They had been running perfectly, however I noticed night vision on 1 of the camera's had deteriorated significantly.
I toggled the night vision from auto, to on, to off and back to auto.
Its definitely on when its on auto, but its considerably poorer than a week ago (a lot darker).
The camera's are mounted and wired with the genuine Google cable, so they haven't moved or changed any other factors.

When looking at the 2x 'battery' camera's I have, the other one was working perfectly fine.
I noticed the firmware had changed on the one having issues "nq-user 1.67 OPENMASTER 361459"
Whereas the working camera was running 1.65 of the software.

I started chatting to support about this, they had me restart the camera this afternoon, which didn't change the issue unfortunatley.

I then noticed the working camera started showing the same symptoms, upon checking the Home app, it has now been updated to 1.67 aswell.

The same shot 24 hours apart has significantly poorer night vision and the only common denominator I've been able to come up with is the 1.67 firmware having issues.

Is anyone else seeing this?

[t210]

My outdoor cameras started doing the same tonight. It looks faded washed out and blurry. Noticed that both got the  1.67 firmware update as they were both running 1.65 before and look better than they do now on 1.67

[Xofttam14]

Exactly the same issue for me. One of my 4 cameras was washed out the brightness seems really high. As I was resetting it another one has done the exact same thing. They both look terrible now. I watched the 24/7 video back and found the moment it changed. The camera went very blue for a second then came back washed out. 

Both cameras that have the issue are on 1.67 and the ones that don't are on 1.65

[Tink]

Wow there are alot of people with the same problem with their nest cams coming forward,hopefully google will listen and fix the problem  with their latest firmware update 

[Xofttam14]

Really hope it gets fixed soon, it looks like the brightness is stuck at 100% 

[Blurrycamgirl]

YUP. Or we ditch this crap and go to RING!!

[MikeBrum]

Seems to be happening to quit a few folks. How do we get a community specialist to weigh in on this? I am still curious why only one of my cameras updated firmware and can I prevent the other one from updating for now? 

[F170]

Same issue, I have 3 cameras. 2 of them with the issue and firmware 1.67. The other one with firmware 1.65 works great.

[MarioSH]

4 Cameras here, 3 of them with the 1.67 update, all with the colors very bright/washed. 4th camera with 1.65 looks great.

[Gonzo1982]

5 Floodlight cameras, all of them are bright and washed and running 1.67.  It just happened over the weekend.

[brodels]

Exact same issue started yesterday for me. I can see in the history the exact moment it happened. Camera went black for a second and came back on very bright and washed out. Running 1.67 

[Benlau88]

Happened to all 4 of my cameras

[Falseboolean]

Same issue here, happened to 2 of my cameras

[MikeBrum]

Well... My second camera now has the same terrible video quality. Checked software version and it is now at 1.67. Seeing this along with all the feedback from other users I am convinced it's from the update. Doing a factory reset doesn't roll it back either. We need Google to push out a fix. 

[Jumperr]

I have 5 nest camera outdoors all on 1.67 and same issue colour is very different and bright, more blurry. My nest doorbell battery is on 1.65 and doesn't have the same bright blurry colours. 

[Jumperr]

Well to add to the nest cameras the doorbell finally updated. It is plugged in to power never had an issue but it's is very grainy at night, no idea why only after the update it's very noticeable have sent feedback but this is seriously not good enough, hdr or not grainy footage for a camera is unacceptable. 

[Rarodri2]

Having the same issue here

[Anonymous]

Googles software engineers aren't the sharpest tools in the shed hey. I've had ongoing issues for over a year and still no fix in sight.

[Tiredofit]

Same here! This is a very significant, high level issue. With that being said I'd expect Google to correct their mistake in about 3 years. Currently looking into other camera ecosystems.

[TheMunk]

Same here. Nest Battery Doorbell and Nest Cam Outdoor Battery. Shocking

[JonD_ie]

Same here, I've 4 x Nest Cam (battery) devices. Three are wired, and these all have the 1.67 update. They are now washed out & overly bright. The remaining device is on battery and is on 1.65 - this looks just fine.

[Rdmetz34]

Same issue here. Is everyone having the problem an ADT customer?

[Xofttam14]

Hey, no I have the issue but am not an ADT customer. I purchased my cameras direct through the Google Store

[Tink]

• Yeah same here I purchased mine online, not Adt customer.

[Lisa12]

I’m having the same problem on both my floodlight cam and battery doorbell camera. Not happy at all after only having purchased them six months ago and I pay an $18 monthly aware subscription on top. Given it greatly affects the quality promised on purchase, I’m considering returning them if it can’t be fixed. 

[Xofttam14]

I'd honestly say wait a bit before returning, as it is a software bug not a hardware issue with the cameras themselves. So Google just need to fix the bug and push out a update to all the cameras. Best thing at the moment is to send feedback through the app and tell them that after the 1.67 update the quality has drastically decreased. 

[Jumperr]

Thanks for the heads up, I sent feedback on the google home app, hopefully enough complain to revert the change 

[Lee139]

Video quality is terrible now.  I was planning to buy 3 more cameras.  Not anymore.  I won't purchase again.

[Anonymous]

What you see here is the way its always been and the way it always will be into the future. If you're a prospective buyer take heed of these comments and purchase another brand of camera. Google cameras are not fit for purpose never have been and never will be.

[Xofttam14]

It isn't, after the 1.67 update the cameras had a significant drop in quality. It's very obvious when you compare between footage from a camera on 1.65 and 1.67 it has not always been like what we are reporting here. 

[Konradwalsh]

Yes my new nest doorbell is now the same

[MikeBrum]

Both my Cameras and my Doobell Camera are now on 1.67 with the low color quality. The issue is starting to gain some traction. 9to5Google  wrote about the issue based off of this thread and Multiple people on Reddit have complained about the issue. I am sure Google knows of the issue. but lets keep pushing to report it in the app so they actually do something about it.

[Bsand]

I hope they do something soon, these colors got to go. Why did they push something they obviously knew was broken. Still getting used to the new home app which is a step forward but the camera quality makes me want to switch to ring.

[jlan118]

Same thing here. Both my floodlight cams imaging look like trash! Get it together google! You've got too many talented people on the payroll to be letting this kind of stuff happen. 

[softone]

What I'm seeing here, is that they finally enabled the HDR. Now even the shadows have details. The serveillance camera is not meant to be used to take photos, but to be able to detect what's happening even if some part of the image is sunny and some other part is having shadows. The quality itself has not changed. 

[MikeBrum]

I was also wondering if the change was intentional to get more detail in shadows. Seems like video quality has suffered because of it. As if it is on high ISO constantly 

[CaliforniaLove]

I had the exact same problem everyone else is reporting...Had the Nest 2nd Generation Outdoor Camera...1.65 was PERFECT and then 1.67 version came along and it ruined it for everyone. Does Google even care about us? Sent many, many reports to Google and no response. It's almost like they did this intentionally.

[Lance_L]

Hey everyone, 

We’ve duplicated your thread to the main one here. You’ll receive all updates on this issue on the main thread and we recommend updating and checking this thread when needed. 

Best,

Lance

[fwdlink]

I have to echo @softone here, it does look like HDR is enabled and I don't seem to see a quality change either and also agree these are meant to do a CCTV sort of job.  In my case the night vision has massively improved, an example is the car number plates now are clearly visible and the registration can be read, before it was just a complete ir white/grayish reflection blur. Whilst one camera is much darker on night vision, I can actually zoom in and see quite some detail which was not there before and improved event detection which has been a major issue on my floodlight cam as the cam doesn't always detect say a person and the camera partly blocks the motion detector below if coming toward it straight on. On the daytime, one camera does look overexposed but what I'm  finding is this changes as the day progresses depending upon reflection on the surfaces, the other 2 are now significantly better, particularly as they reside in the shade and this was always causing the daytime images to be much darker than should be.  Also the blue sky is really a blue sky rather than a partly off blue/light grey.  So in my case, things are better, but recognise this may not be the case for others. I still have loads of complaints and disappointment when it comes to these cams and the Home app, but wanted to share my situation post 1.67 firmware update.  The indoor cam still remains poor quality with this update, no change there at all sigh.

[SuperAdam]

HDR was already enabled, they just cranked up the contrast, I could easily see stuff in the shadows, there was nothing wrong with it, we know this camera is not for photos but I paid money for a product I should get it as advertised, and the video looks horrible, I don't want to see better in the shadow at the expense of video quality. 

[CaliforniaLove]

Does Google know what Quality Assurance is? They probably outsourced EVERYTHING to some other country and no one checks anything. Just release new software upgrades and they don't care what happens. No testing of any kind from Google, just ship it, and do not care about the customer. I got rid of my Google Nest because 1.67 was AWFUL and a disgrace. Went with Lorex instead which is a real security camera and WE are in control of the machine, not some Cloud based Home Garbage....