Capturing Lightning Strikes on IP Camera

B

budbecks

n3wb
Sep 22, 2016
11
1
Hi All.

I would like to setup an IP camera to capture lightning strikes at night.

Is there any particular IP camera that would work in achieving this ? I have a Hikvision NVR setup so if i could incorporate into that as well, it would be handy.

Had a little look round and seen a few starlight cameras that claim to have good night vision but was wondering if anyone has come across this before and had some experience.

Thanks
 
I caught this a year ago with Blue Iris on my FlagCam, a 720p Ubiquiti Aircam with no IR lighting.

I think the only real difference is that with the IR off you get full color when the flash occurs; I have other cams with IR enabled that show the flash without color. I think the color is dramatic...9 PM looks like 1 PM. You can even see the pink blooms of the mimosa...I wish it had been 1080p, though.

FWIW, I have replaced both flag uplights with new LED's that actually show the flag properly at night.

I'd get a Dahua 2MP Starlight and try with IR enabled and IR disabled, see which "lifts your skirt".

Cam3_lightning_062318_2058.jpg
 
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TonyR said:
I caught this a year ago with Blue Iris on my FlagCam, a 720p Ubiquiti Aircam with no IR lighting.

I think the only real difference is that with the IR off you get full color when the flash occurs; I have other cams with IR enabled that show the flash without color. I think the color is dramatic...9 PM looks like 1 PM. You can even see the pink blooms of the mimosa...I wish it had been 1080p, though.
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Hehe you just need one of these IPC-HFW4239T-ASE (Full Color Starlight) as a weather cam But I'd be afraid that if lightning struck close enough to light up the world like that, the camera would drastically overexpose and you would see nothing but white :)
 
WOW ! i like the results from that camera IPC-HFW4239T-ASE. i see what you mean though about the sudden light overexposing it. and the dahua can be connected to the hikvision nvr using onvif ?

have they made a ptz one yet ?

The above is setup for timelapse but i want to change the view etc
 
Depending on how much lightning you get and how it turns out on video you could always increase the shutter speed to improve it (at the cost of darkening everything else at night of course).

There are starlight PTZ cams but they cost a lot more than fixed cams and they have autofocus issues at night, particularly when zoomed in far.

You should be able to connect Dahua cams to a Hikvision NVR using ONVIF like you say. I don't see why not, but maybe someone who has tried it could chime in.
 
IMG_2650.JPG IMG_2651.JPG Here is an example of snapping pictures during a lightning storm. One catching the flash and one not. Captured with Axis 2 meg camera. Lots of clouds so the whole sky was lighting up . No bolts visible.
 
budbecks said:
can you disable the IR on the Dahua ? i currently have a 3rd party hikvision 12mp which over looks a beach but i cant seem to turn the IR off and the picture is just noise at night.

camera which i brought 2 1/2 years ago
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View attachment 43511 View attachment 43512
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To turn off IR on Hikvision. Log into web interface and go to Configuration > System > Maintenance > System Service and disable IR via the checkbox
 
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