Hik dome/cube install - looking for advice

[Søren Birkholm Eriksen]

Hi all,

I'm in the process installing ip-cams around my house. So fare installed three. I started with the front of the house and garage.
Beforehand I've been reading a lot of reviews and forums about the subject.

From review by networkcameracritic.com and posts in this forum I decided on Hikvision cams.

For now I have bought these:

2.8mm Hikvision DS-2CD2432F-I (Garage)
2.8mm Hikvision DS-2CD2132F-IS (Driveway/front yard)
4mm Hikvision DS-2CD2532F-IS (Front door)

For VMS I use Milestone Xprotect Go.

I use the alarm input (would be nice to have 2 x alarm inputs on the cams) on the domes together with my house automation system (called LK IHC from Schneider Electric) to take a snapshot and trigger recording, when someone is pushing the doorbell or when I get mail in the mailbox.

I just want to share and looking for advice on how to improve or if I should change the way the cameras are pointed?

I'm thinking, should I have bought a 6mm for the front door instead of the 4mm to get a better facial view? What do you think?

I'm also not overly happy with the night pictures. I've had some IR bleed issues with the Hik2132, but unmounting and mounting the dome solved that. I think I have to do the same with the 2532 as the picture has gotten worse after I cleaned the dome inside and out.

Please see attached pictures and let me know what you think.

Thank for a great forum.

Best regards,
Søren
Denmark

 

[ruppmeister]

Welcome to the forums. I think the locations look good personally. In the driveway cam, you are fighting a little bit of IR reflection at night coming back from the eave you have it installed under making it a little washed out for night shots. Pointing it down more means you won't get to see as much out on the street (not the best IMHO). If you physically move the camera out and away from the brick wall some, not sure if that would take care of the issue or not. On your front door cam you have something wrong with the IR reflecting back in from the dome in the night shots, but I wouldn't change anything about where you have that one mounted myself. I think it gives a very clear image of the person at your door.

 

[Søren Birkholm Eriksen]

Hi Ruppmeister,

Thank you.

Yes, I like how the driveway cam is seeing some of the street. I have tried to turn the cam a bit to the left, to avoid as much of the eave as possible. Please see attached picture. I can not avoid the IR reflection completely. As you point out, I should have mounted the cam a bit more forward under the eave but as I have drilled hole in the eave I would not like to relocate it. A solution could be to mount another cam between the garage ports (perhaps a 12mm with focus only on the driveway it self), the I could turn the "old" driveway cam to another area of focus - perhaps turn completely to the right, to focus on the garage ports.

I have fiddled the front door cam, but am unable to get a better night shot. I think the issue might be - as with other cam, IR reflection from the eave - that I needed to rotate the lense 360 degrees (as can be seen in the pic of the 2532 cam, in my previous post) else I was not able to get the view I wanted. The 2532 cam is not so flexible.

I'm starting to think dome cams are a bit tricky, but unfortunately they are the only ones with audio and alarm I/O.

I have also attached a couple of pics of the front door cam before, without, and after remount of the dome.

Thanks for your help.

Edit: added a day pic of the driveway cam after it was turned a bit.

BR Søren

 

[ruppmeister]

Try taking the dome off the front door cam during a night and see if the fog clears up. I still suspect the glare is coming from the dome cover and not the eave


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[Søren Birkholm Eriksen]

Already did that in my previous post - The three pics of front door cam are 'before remount', 'dome remounted' and 'without dome'. Yes, its hard to see what is what without hovering over the pic and reading the file names.

BR Søren

 

[blake]

If you can afford to, i would change your front door dome with a Hik turret cam. The issue your having will instantly go away.

 

[fenderman]

The camera simply needs to be adjusted a bit..go out there at night and make the changes so you can test in real time.

 

[Søren Birkholm Eriksen]

Hi Blake,

Yes, I have thought about that. Only issue with that is, I'm using alarm input of the 2532 for my doorbell to trigger snapshots and emailing, to see who's at the door when not at home. Else I would change to a turret.

Br Søren


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[Søren Birkholm Eriksen]

The camera simply needs to be adjusted a bit..go out there at night and make the changes so you can test in real time.

Yes, I need to do that one more time.

Do you think the issue could be that I have rotated the lens 360 degrees so the IR leds are upwards. I needed to do that to get the picture I liked.

Br Søren




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[Søren Birkholm Eriksen]

Hi again,

Just went out to adjust the lense. I rotated the lense 180 degrees (please disregard the times I worte 360 degreed in previous posts, I ment 180 degrees) so the IR leds not are downward. I can now see a bit more of the brick wall, but also a better overview. So far I'm happy with the adjustment, but am waiting to see if it has helped at night. I will come back with before/after pics at night.

I have attached before and after pic.

Please let me know what you all think - if I should adjust more up/down or left/right?

Thanks.

Br Søren

 

[Del Boy]

Adjust it right a little so you can't see the windows.

Basically if you can just see the plants then ideal.

 

[ruppmeister]

Adjustment looks clean to me. Interested to see how this affects the night shots. Hopefully will give you a more clear image.

I personally would rather see a window than some grass as you would have if you moved the view to the right any. I care is someone is peeping in my window over walking in the grass. Just my preference however.

 

[Del Boy]

You'll still be able to see if someone is peeping in! I'm not saying angle it really far right, but you will get a much better night image without an adjacent wall and window in the picture.

 

[ruppmeister]

Ohh, well that makes sense then. I could see the wall perhaps being a problem with IR reflection at night. Good call Del Boy.

 

[digger11]

I just want to share and looking for advice on how to improve or if I should change the way the cameras are pointed?

If you haven't already done so, you ought to compare the 3mp and 1080p images on each camera. I run my 3mp Hiks at 1080p because that gives me a wider field of view at the expense of a bit of vertical height. In my particular case that means I lose some sky and gain some horizontal fov.

In your pics I don't see a lot of the image being wasted on sky, so the 4:3 format may be optimal, but I suspect that some people don't realize that they are losing some horizontal fov when they choose 3mp on a Hik.

 

[Søren Birkholm Eriksen]

Adjust it right a little so you can't see the windows.

Basically if you can just see the plants then ideal.

Thanks. I only have about 1-2mm that I can adjust it more to the right - because of how it is mounted - But I will give it a try

BR Søren

 

[Søren Birkholm Eriksen]

I personally would rather see a window than some grass as you would have if you moved the view to the right any. I care is someone is peeping in my window over walking in the grass. Just my preference however.

Also what I was thinking when I adjusted it.

 

[Søren Birkholm Eriksen]

You'll still be able to see if someone is peeping in! I'm not saying angle it really far right, but you will get a much better night image without an adjacent wall and window in the picture.

Makes sense.. Good advice, thanks

 

[Søren Birkholm Eriksen]

If you haven't already done so, you ought to compare the 3mp and 1080p images on each camera. I run my 3mp Hiks at 1080p because that gives me a wider field of view at the expense of a bit of vertical height. In my particular case that means I lose some sky and gain some horizontal fov.

In your pics I don't see a lot of the image being wasted on sky, so the 4:3 format may be optimal, but I suspect that some people don't realize that they are losing some horizontal fov when they choose 3mp on a Hik.

Actually I have done this with my garage cam, but haven't thought about it with the outside cams because - as you point out - I haven't got much sky in the image, nonetheless I will give it a try in the morning and see how looks. Thanks for the suggestion

BR Søren

 

[Søren Birkholm Eriksen]

Hi,

Attached a couple of pics - before and after.

I think the image looks much better now. But there might be a little IR reflection in the top right corner from the eave.

What do you think? - Turn the cam a little bit down and to the right as Del Boy suggested?

BR Søren