4MP Hikvision camera issues with blurry images and artifacts mainly at night.

Charlie Gettier said:
Holiday Greetings, all.

I've been reading this and similar threads regarding IR noise / ghosting, etc., trying to get smarter. I'm dealing with IR artifact issues with two Hik cameras - a 4 MP and a 3 MP - at a remote model airplane club field in southern Maryland where we've had theft / vandalism issues. Both Hiks exhibit the same type of artifacts (see the attached). Another camera on site, an Amcrest, does not. The problem occurs only at night with rain, fog and/or wind. I've reduced impact of the issue (i.e., false alarm MMS messages in the middle of the night) by experimenting with various settings gleaned from posts in this forum. The cameras are currently set to 15 FPS, I frame interval 15, DNR 20, and shadow cancellation on. I've adjusted the min object size / contrast settings in the BI motion sensor, and established motion zones for the night-time profile. I was wondering if anyone might be able to offer additional suggestions. The next iteration will be to try B&W mode at night, and then further reduce the night-time motion zones.

Cheers
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its not the brand of camera that matters its the sensor, camera form factor and location...if this is a dome or bullet it would explain the ir reflection you are seeing.
 
@Charlie Gettier If you have spider silk, you will have some false alarms. It's hard to get rid of them completely. There are some other discussion threads where people use moth balls and such to minimize spider impact.

My recommendation is to add more lighting. It will improve nighttime image, reduce motion blur at your given shutter speed and draw spiders away from your camera. LED light are reasonable cost:

IR light - 5 model comparison
 
in the future a turret camera will almost eliminate this problem..look for low light cams as well...
 
Thanks to you all for the feedback.

Shutter speed is 1/25 for both day and night. The camera is fixed firmly to the structure, and does not move with the breeze. Are you talking real spider silk, or is it a term for this type of artifact? There is no actual spider silk / webs in front of the camera. We have recently installed AC power at the pavilion with banks of LED lights mounted in the ceiling rafters. We could easily illuminate the pavilion at night, although this may attract wildlife and insects creating a different false alarm problem. We may give this a try nonetheless. Thanks, Fenderman, for the turret / low-light cam suggestion. We'll be buying a few more cameras in the future, so we could repurpose the bullets for daytime field-view applications.

I'd like to again express my appreciation for the contributions to this forum. I with one other volunteer started this project less than two months ago with absolutely zero knowledge of IP cameras, BI, etc. The information available here has been invaluable.
 
@Charlie Gettier If you are getting motion blur at night, try shutter of 1/60 or faster.

The spider silk I am referring to is real spider crossing the camera lens. When spider web is close to camera, they can definitely trigger BI motion
 
For better night vision, try a Dahua 2MP Starlight turret. Fixed or varifocal lens version are both good. There are dedicated discussion threads for both versions.
 
Charlie Gettier said:
There is no actual spider silk / webs in front of the camera.
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A single strand of spider silk is pretty well invisible to the naked eye, unless it happens to catch the light such as to cause a reflection.
But it can be very visible in the IR from the camera.
If it shows movement - that's what it will be. It certainly looks like it could be.
If it's static - then reflection / flare from a light source out of direct view.
 
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Kawboy12R said:
Try setting max exposure speed to 1/50th if it doesn't cause too much grain. You'll notice a big improvement in blur reduction on targets that're moving even a bit. Add more white light if you can or an external IR floodlight if the image is too grainy at 1/50th. With that lens you'll need a wide angle illuminator or possibly two for more even coverage.
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I am confused by this. If I set the shutter to 1/50th (or 1/60th in my setup) it would seem that this would create more blur that if it was set at a faster shutter speed, like 1/125th. I was getting terrible video at 1/60th but when I bumped up to 1/125th it was so much better.
 
Thanks. I screwed up my reply as I was trying to direct this to Kawboy12R after reading his statement: "Try setting max exposure speed to 1/50th if it doesn't cause too much grain.You'll notice a big improvement in blur reduction on targets that're moving even a bit. Add more white light if you can or an external IR floodlight if the image is too grainy at 1/50th. With that lens you'll need a wide angle illuminator or possibly two for more even coverage." I have been shooting still photography all of my life so I just could not make sense of this statement. Maybe he was suggesting 1/50th to a person who as actually using an even longer exposure. Mine looked terrible at 1/60th but when I went to 1/25th it was much better, although I am not sure how well this will work for me at light with IR.
 
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IMHO the main problem with this camera for night view is the 1/3" sensor. I got rid of all my cameras with the 1/3" sensor over a year ago. I went to nothing less than a 1/2.8" sensor. Now I am in the process of replacing all of those with the Dahua 1/1.8" sensor cameras.
 
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