Window Voyeur Recommendations

[neighbor622]

I'm looking for tips on window voyeur. I have a neighbor who showers with the window curtain fully raised so there is the possibility for an amazing view. I got lucky one night coming home and saw her naked back but haven't had an opportunity to see anything since.

After that first sighting I set up a high quality 2k security camera to watch my "yard" which conveniently has the neighbor's window captured in the corner of the cam's field of view. The problem is, once the lights for the neighbor's bathroom come on, I can't see a damn thing in that room on the cam. All that happens is a bright white square appears and you can't see anything inside the room. There's the occasional flash of a shadow moving as it blocks the light, but absolutely zero fine detail is visible. This is the case when the cam's night vision is on or off.

I'm hoping someone has some tips for getting around this and making it so the security camera can actually see into the room. I got an Arlo camera so the camera is quite high end so I doubt upgrading the camera would help. What I'm hoping is there is some sort of screen I can place over the lens or other camera placement technique which would help.

Unfortunately I cannot record on my phone or another camera while standing in my yard because my wife installed motion lights in our yard which I would trigger and allow anyone to see me creeping. She would also find it very suspicious if I went into the yard randomly at night as I have zero reason to be out there.

The neighbors window does not face any of my windows so I also cannot record from inside my house.

As such, the cleanest and easiest way to get some recordings is if I can get the security cam to work so it can see inside the window. Appreciate if anyone has any tips or recommendations.

[vintedman]

Hi bro, appreciate your efforts !

The problem with your cam is that it automatically adjust its exposure to the biggest area of your shot, i.e. the dark parts. You need to tell your camera to adjust the exposure to the window.

I don't know your setup, but here is a couple of suggestions:
- zoom into the window so that it only captures the inside, and adjust the exposure accordingly;
- build a filter to put in front of the lens, so that it can only see the window;
- make electronic adjustment, so that anything else than the window is hidden (no idea how to do this)
- if your cam has an exposure manual setup, adjust it to the brighter parts

The idea is to get the camera working on the window (bright part), not the rest of the area (it should not try to see the dark parts)

Hope this helps, good luck to you !

[LordActon]

Originally Posted by vintedman

Hi bro, appreciate your efforts !

The problem with your cam is that it automatically adjust its exposure to the biggest area of your shot, i.e. the dark parts. You need to tell your camera to adjust the exposure to the window.

I don't know your setup, but here is a couple of suggestions:
- zoom into the window so that it only captures the inside, and adjust the exposure accordingly;
- build a filter to put in front of the lens, so that it can only see the window;
- make electronic adjustment, so that anything else than the window is hidden (no idea how to do this)
- if your cam has an exposure manual setup, adjust it to the brighter parts

The idea is to get the camera working on the window (bright part), not the rest of the area (it should not try to see the dark parts)

Hope this helps, good luck to you !

Something as simple as using a piece (or 2 or 3) of black electrician's tape over the lens to block off the backyard part of the view could just do the trick. Or black paper ...

[neighbor622]

Thanks for the tips about covering portions of the lens. I'll try that. That might be my only option as it seems like the zoom on my camera is not a true physical zoom to a specific area but is just software processing where the "zoom" is just enlarging the specific area I'm looking at. I can tell this is the case because when I watch the recording back, the entire field of view was still captured without my zoom-in.

In terms of covering the lens though, won't that just create a larger dark spot that the sensor will try to compensate for? I would imagine the sensor would "sense" majority darkness and maximize the exposure to take in more light?

[neighbor622]

Unfortunately covering a portion of the lens is also personally risky for me. Thankfully my wife is not technically savvy so she hasn't forced the issue on being added to the account which allows access to the camera's view, but she often asks me to send her recordings if she hears something or wants to see what the kids got up to in the yard. I can probably get away with it a few times by just saying the camera didn't record anything but she'd get suspicious if it's constantly "missing" events.

I also can't really just swap a cover on and off constantly as the camera had to be mounted on my roof to see over a hedge so I need to drag out the ladder anytime I need to make an adjustment to the camera.

[LordActon]

Originally Posted by neighbor622

Thanks for the tips about covering portions of the lens. I'll try that. That might be my only option as it seems like the zoom on my camera is not a true physical zoom to a specific area but is just software processing where the "zoom" is just enlarging the specific area I'm looking at. I can tell this is the case because when I watch the recording back, the entire field of view was still captured without my zoom-in.

In terms of covering the lens though, won't that just create a larger dark spot that the sensor will try to compensate for? I would imagine the sensor would "sense" majority darkness and maximize the exposure to take in more light?

Sorry, thought you had more control over the lens aperture. Ignore my idea.

[neighbor622]

Update: I put a piece of electrical tape over the lens so that only 1/4 of the field of view is uncovered. Of that remaining 1/4, the target window takes up maybe 1/4th of that space. So the window is still not really the main focal point.

That being said, there was a noticeable improvement with the tape. The view went from a bright white square where you could see absolutely nothing to being able to clearly see the frame of the window and I'm able to clearly see a dark figure moving around against a white background.

Unfortunately fine detail is still impossible to make out. All I can see is the outline of a person illuminated against a white background. There's definitely a significant improvement, but still no clear view.

The other main thing I notice is the improved view is only available with the camera's night vision turned on. If night vision is turned off, the window is still illuminated as a bright white square with nothing visible period.

My hope is that if I can further cover up more of the lens so that only the window is uncovered and everything else is blocked off, the view will improve further.

*fingers crossed* that things will keep improving as I refine the cover on the camera.

In the meantime, I'm also open to suggestions for better equipment. Is anyone familiar with a wireless security camera that provides optical zoom? From my research it seems like consumer level security cameras all use digital zoom which is useless for my situation since digital zoom does not affect the lens exposure.

Unfortunately I have to use a wireless (battery powered) camera as I have no outlet available anywhere near the area where the camera needs to be setup.

[neighbor622]

Another update: I taped off more of the field of view and unfortunately this created the opposite effect of what I was hoping for.

I covered the lens so that the only thing uncovered was the portion looking at the window. However, this also meant I was now covering the IR sensor.

Unfortunately this made it so I can no longer use night vision (turning it on just makes it so the entire view goes bright white). However, with night vision off, all I can see is a bright white square again where the window is.

It seems like the best I can do with this camera is cover 75% of the lens but leave the IR sensor uncovered. This results in an "infrared" style look where I can see my neighbors outline moving around in the window but cannot see any fine detail. Very disappointing...

As such, I'm turning back to my other request, does anyone have equipment suggestions for this situation?

To recap:

1. I need a camera that is able to see into a bright window at night. There are no other light sources other than the light coming from window.

2. The camera must be wireless and ideally remotely operated. The only vantage point I have that can see this window is from one side of my house on the roof. I've got the current security camera mounted onto my gutter and I need to use a ladder anytime I want to adjust that camera. Any replacement equipment would need to use a similar setup. I do not have an outlet anywhere near the mounting location.

3. The mounting location is exposed to the elements so ideally any equipment would be weather resistant.

4. The window is approximately 40-50 feet away from the camera. I can probably get as close as 30 feet but I'm not 100% sure.

Lastly, I'm hesitant to use something like a go pro.

First, as indicated in #2, I have to use a ladder to access the filming location so it looks very suspicious to my wife if I'm up and down constantly bringing the ladder out to setup and take down a go pro.

Secondly, the camera location is visible to the neighbor. Currently the security camera is very obviously pointed at my yard and the wide angle just so happens to be able to capture the neighbor's window in the corner of the field of view. It does not look like I'm looking at their window at all. A go pro would not look like a security camera at all and would expose me to significant personal risk of being caught filming.

That being said, I'm open to any suggestions that could successfully film the window, even go pros. A go pro I could put inside a box or bag or something with a hole cut for the lens so it's something I would consider despite not being my first choice.

[wex32]

So, the main problem you are experiencing with your camera is a result of "metering". This is the name for the method that cameras use to choose the exposure for a scene. Typically the camera will try to adjust the exposure such that the average of the entire scene comes out as a middling shade of grey. But if you have a bright part of the scene, which is your main subject, and this is surrounded by dark areas, then your camera's crude metering mode is going to result in an over-exposure of your bright subject.

On advanced cameras you can override this metering mode by choosing a smaller area of the scene to use for the exposure. But this is not a setting that is typically available for more basic cameras like security cameras etc.

If you have the option to 'zoom' in such that your subject fills (or comes close to filling) the field of view, this will solve the problem because your camera's metering mode will correctly expose the scene in this case.

Alternatively, you can usually choose manal exposure, in which case the camera does not use any metering mode but relies on you to decide how the scene will be exposed. But in this case your camera will expose correctly for the bright window in surrounding darkness, but will be useless in the daytime as the entire daytime scene will then be blown out.

I have to say that your best option for capturing a quality scene is to use a high quality camera that you can deploy specifically for this purpose. You're unlikely to get a worthwhile result with a security camera, even if you get the exposure right.

Opportunities to see a neighbour naked in their window come along very rarely. At least, they do in my part of the world. And you have to take advantage of it when it happens.

[neighbor622]

Thanks for the explanation, that makes a lot of sense. Very unfortunate security cameras are not an option as they're my best option for doing this discretely.

A dedicated, high camera would be great. I own a small digital camera in addition to several old iphones that it would be fantastic if I could deploy them but I just can't envision how...

My problem is the only vantage point able to see the target window is from my roof. I can't place a camera on the ground (scoped this out already) as I have a hedge in my yard that blocks any view of the window from ground level. I even tried putting a camera inside the hedge but then I'm too close and the angle is not right where all I can see of the target room is a sharp angle of the ceiling.

One thing I'm considering is building a box with a pinhole and placing one of my old iphones inside it. From the outside it would look like a simple box so the neighbor shouldn't get too suspicious. Problems I can see with this is:

1. I have to drag out the ladder to put the box on the roof and take it down, and my wife will wonder or ask what I'm doing up there again. (already been up and down several times on other attempts).

2. Even if I'm able to get the box up and down without the wife noticing, I'd be recording blind with no idea if the target window is in the field of view, if the exposure is right or if the battery will last long enough to get a capture. I'm in essence putting the box up there for hours in the late evening and hoping at some point that my neighbor will shower. I wouldn't know until the next day if I'd had success or not.

This is the only approach I can think of that I can see having a chance working though. Ideally I would use a remote controlled dslr somehow, but I can't see how I can get something that large up there without being noticed. The box thing only goes so far before being suspicious. DSLRs are also fairly expensive and I can't break the bank trying this either.

I definitely appreciate the rarity of this opportunity so I'm trying to figure out how to take advantage without ruining my life.