HDW4231EM Needs Adjustment or Is It Broken?

P

prowland

n3wb
May 20, 2018
19
9
Ohio USA
I have a EmpireTech IP Camera IPC-HDW4231EM-ASE Starlight 2MP. The picture has been fine since 6/27/18. But yesterday tit changed. Here is what I see. I use Blue Iris too. That is a steel pipe post on the left and the building on the right also has developed a curve. Is this something I can fix using the camera or Blue Iris settings or has the camera started failing?
upload_2018-9-16_12-39-38.png
 
prowland said:
so, that leads to the problem being the camera and not BI..?
Click to expand...
yes..did you cut the image on the bottom where the camera name is or is that the way its displaying?
did you take a snapshot using the camera firmware or is that a screen capture?
do you have an image from before the issue surfaced?
 
fenderman said:
yes..did you cut the image on the bottom where the camera name is or is that the way its displaying?
did you take a snapshot using the camera firmware or is that a screen capture?
do you have an image from before the issue surfaced?
Click to expand...
That's a screen capture using a snipping tool with the bottom cropped of address and name.
Nothing from before the distortion started. I delete everything older than 24 hr if no activity of importance.
Here's a BI snapshot:
upload_2018-9-16_15-45-27.png
 
That looks like perfectly normal barrel distortion that is found with virtually all wide angle security cameras.

The text overlays from the camera are not warped or distorted at all in your snapshot from BI. They would be if Blue Iris was warping it. Blue Iris only has one dewarping feature anyway, which is for 180 degree fisheye cameras that are ceiling-mounted facing downward. It only affects recording playback, and is obviously not being used here.

While I can't 100% discount the possibility that the camera could have barrel distortion correction built-in to some new firmware, and that it could have been enabled but is not anymore, that is extremely unlikely.

Barrel distortion correction can be built-in to a lens (at significant added expense) but that is simply not done with cheap compact security cameras like this. And it would be basically impossible for a lens to be accidentally modified or damaged in such a way that it introduced this level of barrel distortion without completely destroying the lens.

In conclusion, the camera has always been this way and you just haven't noticed before.
 
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bp2008 said:
That looks like perfectly normal barrel distortion that is found with virtually all wide angle security cameras.

The text overlays from the camera are not warped or distorted at all in your snapshot from BI. They would be if Blue Iris was warping it. Blue Iris only has one dewarping feature anyway, which is for 180 degree fisheye cameras that are ceiling-mounted facing downward. It only affects recording playback, and is obviously not being used here.

While I can't 100% discount the possibility that the camera could have barrel distortion correction built-in to some new firmware, and that it could have been enabled but is not anymore, that is extremely unlikely.

Barrel distortion correction can be built-in to a lens (at significant added expense) but that is simply not done with cheap compact security cameras like this. And it would be basically impossible for a lens to be accidentally modified or damaged in such a way that it introduced this level of barrel distortion without completely destroying the lens.

In conclusion, the camera has always been this way and you just haven't noticed before.
Click to expand...

----------Not the first incorrect conclusion I've heard. And I'm sure it won't be the last. Thanks for your input.
 
prowland said:
----------Not the first incorrect conclusion I've heard. And I'm sure it won't be the last. Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...
He may very well be correct...
try swapping this cam with another...
try a hard reset of the camera.
take a snapshot from the camera WEB interface, NOT BI. An actual snapshot the camera generates..NOT a screenshot..
 
Ok...first...my apologies to bp2008. You were correct and my conclusion was wrong. fenderman is correct also in his assessmennt off bp2008's analysis.
I went outside with a long straight pole in hand and walked slowly back and forth in front of another camera that I thought had no distortion. To my surprise, when I got closer and to the side, about the same distance as the gray pipe above is from the camera, the pipe had the exact same curve in it that the above pictures show.
Thanks for the education today.
 
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Soladaddy:

Good Eye. Yes it's a NanoStation Loco M2. Just installed it this summer to span 500 foot to my shop. Great addition. Almost 100% of signal strength made it across.
 
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Most short range Nanostation bridges work great even on minimum output power. Generally you only need the signal strength in the neighborhood of 30 dBm higher than the noise floor for ideal performance, and they'll still work well enough with less. They're great little devices.
 
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I use a M2. Last connection was about 800 ft to a campground office, thru a couple of trees. I usually have to contend with oak and pine trees and need the power to punch through. Rarely get line of sight.
 
The setup I have is temporary just to see if it worked (as you can see from the location of the camera on a piece of firewood & M2 zip tied to the yard hydrant.. It is a clear line of sight. Will be installing them under the soffit to increase the security.
 
bp2008 said:
That looks like perfectly normal barrel distortion that is found with virtually all wide angle security cameras.

The text overlays from the camera are not warped or distorted at all in your snapshot from BI. They would be if Blue Iris was warping it. Blue Iris only has one dewarping feature anyway, which is for 180 degree fisheye cameras that are ceiling-mounted facing downward. It only affects recording playback, and is obviously not being used here.

While I can't 100% discount the possibility that the camera could have barrel distortion correction built-in to some new firmware, and that it could have been enabled but is not anymore, that is extremely unlikely.

Barrel distortion correction can be built-in to a lens (at significant added expense) but that is simply not done with cheap compact security cameras like this. And it would be basically impossible for a lens to be accidentally modified or damaged in such a way that it introduced this level of barrel distortion without completely destroying the lens.

In conclusion, the camera has always been this way and you just haven't noticed before.
Click to expand...
Yes, @bp2008 is correct, yesterday a client use his IPC-HDW5231R-ZE also has this problem, i thought defective, dahua engineer manager told me this is normal, because of the wide lens. Normally camera watch from high place to a lower place,this kind of fishey will cover more space. Bullet camera will not have this.
 
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