Uploaded October 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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What happens when a Raspberry Pi 5 tries to see in the dark… compared to a Nikon D850?

We built a DIY night vision camera using a Raspberry Pi 5, Camera Module 3 (NoIR), and infrared LEDs, then tested it head-to-head against a professional DSLR in real low-light conditions. The results were not what you’d expect.

This experiment explores how infrared light changes what a camera can see, using a side-by-side comparison between a Raspberry Pi NoIR camera system and a standard DSLR under controlled lighting conditions.

🔧 Build & resources
Full code and build instructions:
github.com/veebch/ir-see

Our previous infrared photography video:
youtu.be/uvolslfKxfg

⏱ Chapters
00:00 Want to see in the dark? (intro)
00:19 Raspberry Pi 5 + NoIR night vision camera
01:00 Capturing pure infrared HD video
01:32 How we built it (see IR photography video)
01:54 The test: normal camera vs infrared camera
02:20 What the cameras actually see (results)

🔗 Links

VEEB Shop: https://veeb.ch/store
GitHub: github.com/veebch
Instagram: instagram.com/v_e_e_b
Facebook: facebook.com/Veeb.projects
Email: hello@veeb.ch

Raspberry Pi 5 specs:
raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-5

🔔 More projects
Subscribe for more experimental Raspberry Pi builds and unusual DIY tech projects:
youtube.com/@VEEBProjects?sub_confirmation=1

#nightvision #infrared #raspberrypi #raspberrypi5 #diytech #computervision #veebprojects