5231R-ZE poor image at night!

I keep bashing my head against a brick wall here and and hoping some of the more technical whizz members can jump on board here and see what we they suggest.

I've got 3 of these cameras but 1 imparticular seems to be having some issues in the dark!

I'll upload a still when I can pull one from the PC.

Now I'm not daft and the area where the camera is (garden) is very dark so I know the limitations that goes with this.
But It just doesnt want to seem to give s clear image.

By clear I mean an object (me) stood perfectly still no more than 10 feet from the camera.

I've tried focus which it's at the best I can get it manually and auto both come to the same number.

I'm literally running everything default settings and I've tried smart ir and manual ir.

I'm running them at highest bitrate (I've tried the ROI trick too) at 15FPS. H264

To put this into some sort of perspective I still have one of the rather poor huisun mini PTZ going strong which is mounted at a slightly different location but at the same are just more localised, and this is knocking the spots of the 5231.
(I know it's not a perfect example because the cameras arent mounted in the exact same place and there are other factors that come with that).

But theres no more ambient lighting at either location.

Load a full size video to YouTube then place a link here. The tiny screen shot show nothing.

SouthernYankee said:

Load a full size video to YouTube then place a link here. The tiny screen shot show nothing.

Click to expand...

Sorry that screenshot wasnt actually meant to be there!!
Theres nothing on oops

SouthernYankee said:

Load a full size video to YouTube then place a link here. The tiny screen shot show nothing.

Click to expand...

Heres the full size stills
5231

Huisun

geeves, your gingerbread house and outhouse look pretty clear...just not very well illuminated. Do you have SSA in your backlight settings? If not, did you try BLC?

beepsilver said:

geeves, your gingerbread house and outhouse look pretty clear...just not very well illuminated. Do you have SSA in your backlight settings? If not, did you try BLC?

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I've not tried BLC

Dont have SSA in the setting its running the latest firmware and I believe ssa was removed.

Those still images look really good to me. Can you post a video to Youtube?

105437 said:

Those still images look really good to me. Can you post a video to Youtube?

Click to expand...

I will do when I've finished work tomorrow if I can figure out how to do it from BI.

They do look ok until you look at them on a 24" 1080p monitor. Then the dahua looks quite poor.

I get that within the limitations of the current environment its located ie little to no ambient light I'm not going to get the same quality footage as a area with good ambient white light.

But I an convinced that the camera should produce a better quality image than it is doing and also to actually produce a better image than the crappy huisun cam I've compared it with.
The stills form the huisun are crisp and clear.
The 5231 is soft and a bit wishy washy.

I'm one of the lucky ones to still actually have a working huisun mini ptz which is not back for a backup cam where I've situated it.

The specs for it are fair but like I say I'd expect the dahua to be better than it in all areas.

Your stills look awesome. I’d be super excited if I could get mine to look like that.

toolazyforalogin said:

Your stills look awesome. I’d be super excited if I could get mine to look like that.

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I must have a serious case of OCD with the cameras,
I'm always fiddling

But to me I still think it could be better.

Dont forget one of the stills is from the crap huisun camera.

That 1 of the main reasons I think it could be better.

The way the Huisun is setup, it looks like the wall on the left and the fence on the right are reflecting some of the IR, making for a pretty bright scene (all things considered).

If you get bored, start lowering the IR levels from the cameras and see how they compare in darker scenes.

aristobrat said:

The way the Huisun is setup, it looks like the wall on the left and the fence on the right are reflecting some of the IR, making for a pretty bright scene (all things considered).

If you get bored, start lowering the IR levels from the cameras and see how they compare in darker scenes.

Click to expand...

I do agree that its obviously not a 100% scene replication so accept that and your quite right in that the ir reflects more from the fence and wall.

But I was taken by surprise a bit by how well the huisun actually comes out and as I said previous we all now that it's not such a great camera, although it does seem to do a job if you actually managed to get one that didnt fail.


I think what's happened as well is I've changed all my setup in regards writing everything into a central rack new cable runs etc, and weve had a major outbreak of unscrupulous activity, which has heightened my awareness from "set and forget" to striving for CCTV "perfection" if you will.

reeves1985 said:

I do agree that its obviously not a 100% scene replication so accept that and your quite right in that the ir reflects more from the fence and wall.

But I was taken by surprise a bit by how well the huisun actually comes out and as I said previous we all now that it's not such a great camera, although it does seem to do a job if you actually managed to get one that didnt fail.


I think what's happened as well is I've changed all my setup in regards writing everything into a central rack new cable runs etc, and weve had a major outbreak of unscrupulous activity, which has heightened my awareness from "set and forget" to striving for CCTV "perfection" if you will.

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You need to test the image in the center of the frame. The husion relies on lots of IR. If you look at the objects behind you you will see blur and noise whereas the starlight is crisp.

fenderman said:

You need to test the image in the center of the frame. The husion relies on lots of IR. If you look at the objects behind you you will see blur and noise whereas the starlight is crisp.

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I hadn't even noticed that and your quite right.

I suppose it's easy to just look at the biggest object and forget the rest