I know it's a stupid sounding question but for IR LEDs to work, you need to remove the IR filter on the camera right?  Or can you still get some benefit out of the IR LEDs while keeping the IR filter on?  By removing the IR filter during sunny days, I should expect basically a negative view where greens come out white?

Basically, I want to get more out of this starlight camera and thinking of adding IR LED headlights on them.  I know it won't illuminate the entire city but even just 10 feet in front of me would be really good.

Removing the ir filter from any camera is going to significantly alter your perception of color in the daytime.

My security cams have a switchable ir filter, on in daylight, off at night- but I doubt our fpv cams have that. There are some cams with switchable filters available for pi/arduino, and I think some can be set up in whichever mode you want via shorting a wire, but that’s going to be a bulky setup with much lower resolution.

Ir leds shouldn’t have any effect on a cam with an ir filter, but if you want to check this, plug in your quad, turn off the lights, put on your goggles- then take an ir remote- tv, stereo, whatever, and see if you can see any light when you hit buttons on the remote.

I use starlight cams and fly in an area with *minimal* ambient light and am able to see well, however, sometimes when the floodlights at the church next door are on it messes with the cams auto mode function.

When it does that I go into the osd menu for the cam, go to day/night settings, and then change it from auto to b&w. It keeps it from trying to change modes just because I flew through an area that was more lit. I’d suggest trying that prior to modifying a cam.

PS: while there are some stupid questions (my ex-wife once asked me which spiders bite- my response was, “…all of them”) this is not a stupid question.

Just came across this thread that might be useful to you as well:

https://intofpv.com/t-update-is-caddx-po...-sensitive

maybe there is a ir filter lens cover for day flying? i would remove the ir filter from the lens for nightflying