There’s a long thread that is now closed with the above subject line–minus the part about this fix. To quickly sum up, North facing door on shaded porch negates the functionality of the camera due to the background being washed out (too bright) and the foreground (e.g. the features of the person at the door) being unreadable (too dark).
I have operationally checked that by closing off/blocking the light sensor above and to the right of the camera the problem is fixed. I presume this is because the camera “thinks” it’s now nighttime and turns on the IR emitters, thus lighting the face of the person at the door.
My questions are–if my presumption is correct, what’s the impact of keeping those emitters on all the time? They’ll burn out sooner? Again presuming that the emitters are IRLED, what would that be? Ten years vs nigh-eternal?
I should probably add that this thread specifically refers to the “el cheapo” Video Doorbell Wired.