A method, executed at a camera with a Night mode and a Day mode, determines when to switch from Night mode to Day mode using one or more of: illuminant detection (detecting the type of illuminant providing ambient light based on R/G and B/G component ratios of the ambient light), lux detection (detecting the ambient light level), and tiling (performing illuminant detection and/or lux detection for sub-regions of an image sensor array so as to detect localized/narrow beam/point light sources that only illuminate a portion of a scene or are directed at the camera lens). Based on identification of the illuminant type, switching from Night mode to Day mode is done at different lux levels for different types of illuminants. E,g. when the light is due to sunlight or incandescent light switching to Day mode is done at higher lux than when the light is from other sources of visible light.