Does spotlight or floodlight camera have photocell?

In ring’s support page, it says

The lights on the Floodlight /Spotlight Cam will only turn on for motion events when it’s dark.

How was it achieved? I read many Amazon reviews saying those cameras do not have photocell, and does not have automatica dusk-to-dawn detection to control the light.

It contradicts with the support page. Thus I am confused.

Or the light control are actually time based via app? If so, if I put the camera in a dark room during day time, will the light be on when motion is detected?

Hey @samsaraisland. Happy to clear this up for you! The Ring cameras do not have a dusk to dawn feature at this time. For the way that the camera detects if it’s light or dark enough outside, this is done through two pieces with these devices. This is done first through the camera, to sense if there is enough light for the camera to be able to see the movement in front of it and then know if it needs to trigger the light on.

In conjunction with this, the PIR sensor/bulb at the bottom of the camera will be looking for motion, and if it sense motion after dark according to what the camera feels is dark/light enough, the lights will come on. If the camera doesn’t confirm motion, then no motion event is created, but the lights may still come on if the motion is outside of the camera’s zone. This is shown in our Help Center Article here with the different ranges for both sensors. The article is for the Floodlight Cam, but the Spotlight Cam also has this bulb! :slight_smile:

Thanks for this information however, I would like to urge Ring to find a way to enable a dusk to dawn feature. Unfortunately I only learned this wasn’t feasible until AFTER my electrician installed my floodlight and am EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED. I had a photo cell on my old floodlight and liked not having to worry about when the light would come on as I always knew it would as it got close to dark. I’ve now set my Ring floodlight to a schedule but this is going to take micro managing since the length of a day literally changes on a day to day basis. I honestly might have purchased a different floodlight that had this feature if I had known ahead of time. This is one of the few times I took my electrician’s recommendation without first doing my own research…and I guess shame on me.

This leads me to my follow up question - is a dusk to dawn feature something that could be pushed out in a future update, o or would it require an update to the hardware? I look forward to hearing from you.