@Carl 

Well, that did not actually solve the basic problem, I am still getting false detections from near-field items.

Shifting to color night mode turns off the ir flood, but it leaves the optical flood on always.  So near-field weather particles (rain/mistfog etc.) still trigger detections (have not yet had a foggy night since your reply, but rain does it).  I have turned the optical flood to minimum, but spurious detections and near-field blanking continue. I would like an option to turn off the on-camera lights and just use displaced or ambient light sources, both optical and IR.

I am OK with the on-camera lights coming on in reaction to a detection, but I want them off otherwise and them just use a remote light source that does not illuminate the near field of the camera and the fog/mist/rain/snow/insects moving near it.

As an aside, I would also prefer the option where the camera does not visually advertise itself at night with a light, either visual or IR, unless/untill there is a detection.

  @Carl 

I had already disabled the status LED.  I got an external IR light source and went back to IR night mode, and the results were very good, an offset light source is very effective.  Now if I could just turn off the cameraʻs IR light to avoid near-field spurious lit-up stuff, I would be happy.

No drizzle or mist the past few days, but rain and insects triggered many false detections in visual/color mode, and I cannot turn the spotlight off in that mode either.

The next misty night, I will turn on diagnostics and send things in, including with and without the external IR source.  I may fashion a mask to block the camera light as a demonstration as well.