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It comes as no surprise that the Y-Cam Black is identical to its achromatic brother just with the addition of infrared night vision capabilities. The camera itself is the same small square form factor but all the angles have been sharpened up, which I suppose gives it an aggressive look to match its black colouring? The finish is also matte this time, as opposed to the glossy white of the White. In the box you get the same power adapter, bracket, and length of Ethernet cable, but this time they're all finished in a matching black.

The major distinguishing feature of the Black is, of course, its array of infrared LEDs that surround the lens. These emit a beam of invisible infrared light to illuminate the surroundings of the camera, which it then can detect when in night vision mode. A total of 30 LEDs are used and from our testing they provide adequate light to fill a decent sized room or illuminate the area surrounding one side of a medium sized home. The quoted range is 12 metres, and we wouldn't be inclined to disagree.

The lens itself is the same as in the White so again you get a viewable angle of 53.4 degrees horizontal and 40 degrees vertical. The only other change is to the sensor that, possibly because of the added IR sensitivity, is now larger, at 1/4inch across.

Setup is just the same as with the White and indeed I used the same software for both cameras. All the same settings are present, including the motion detection and wireless options, with the only change coming in the form of a new Night Vision tab. From here you can turn the LEDs on or off, select black and white mode (i.e. night vision mode) and turn on something called moonlight mode. This just adjusts the exposure to compensate for bright clear nights and is something you'll have to experiment with for you particular situation.

Image quality in normal mode is much the same as the White with the same lens distortion and clarity. However, there is a blue/purple tinge to everything, that's a result of adding IR sensitivity to the sensor. It doesn't adversely affect clarity but it does make everything look a little peculiar!

Switching to night vision, image quality is decent with good clarity, at least when objects are well lit by the beam of infrared light. As mentioned, coverage is good and exposure is well controlled so that dark areas aren't lost and bright areas don't burn the picture out.

Verdict

Just as with the Y-Cam White, the Y-CAM Black is a very well built, fully featured IP camera that will be quite sufficient for the small business or individual. The added bonus of night vision also makes it very versatile and for the price, it's a great buy.

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