Night vision devices suffer from the same constraints as regular cameras do. In case the amount of visible light is not sufficient, the image produced will not be very clear. These devices usually take in small amounts of visible light. Then, they magnify this light significantly for producing images. This makes it evident that these cameras can be useful at night, when regular cameras might not be able to function all that well.
However, even night vision devices need some amount of visible light to magnify. Without it, they will hardly be able to produce high-quality images. For instance, in twilight, the human eye might not be able to see very clearly. This is because there is not enough visible light that makes it easier to see objects. However, the amount of visible light in twilight will be far too much for night vision cameras to operate effectively. As such, they will not be able to produce good images even in these conditions.
In contrast, infrared cameras rely on heat for producing images, and not light. Every object typically gives off thermal energy i.e. heat. You might feel that ice might not emit any heat, but this is not true. People refer to this emitted heat energy as the object’s heat signature. Infrared cameras can easily discern the heat that an object emits and depict this in an image. These cameras can even highlight the variations in the amount of heat emitted by two objects next to each other.