Ho ho oh no

B

blazin912

Getting the hang of it
Sep 15, 2019
171
42
MA
It's that time of year. Snow is coming down and I just got my 2nd camera up.. recording continuously, but alerts just raining in as the snow is detected as motion. Yuck.

My recording is 5fps, so the snow has long "trails".

Do I set contrast and object size high? I want alerts for humans. I realize a snow flake 1" from the lens looks like a 10 foot tall person. Hoping someone in the northern parts has figured this out.. TIA!!
 
Get a separate IR illuminator. Mount it several feet away from the camera. Turn off the camera's built-in IR. It will see through the falling snow much better this way.

If you also have the problem during the day, you'll need to shelter the front of the camera better so snow doesn't fall so close.
 
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bp2008 said:
Get a separate IR illuminator. Mount it several feet away from the camera. Turn off the camera's built-in IR. It will see through the falling snow much better this way.

If you also have the problem during the day, you'll need to shelter the front of the camera better so snow doesn't fall so close.
Click to expand...
Awesome, illuminator in my case would need to be in front of the camera but could point away from the lens, towards, or across the face. I assume towards would be bad and across the face would add glare.

Would it be reasonable to mount the illuminator at the same corner of the house but at a different height?
 
Well.. I'm an n00b. I just shut my IR off completely and I'm good to go. I've got a light next to the doorway this is observing. Along with architectural lighting on the front of the house and the neighbor's.. the IR provides no benefit. I've got BLC on.. these starlight cameras are remarkable.

Eyqx4cc.jpg
 
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blazin912 said:
Well.. I'm an n00b. I just shut my IR off completely and I'm good to go. I've got a light next to the doorway this is observing. Along with architectural lighting on the front of the house and the neighbor's.. the IR provides no benefit. I've got BLC on.. these starlight cameras are remarkable.

Eyqx4cc.jpg
Click to expand...
When the snow melts the image may not be as good. Snow reflects lots of light.
 
Mounting the IR source above or below the camera should be fine. The most important thing is that snow falling just inches in front of the lens won't be brightly illuminated.
 
blazin912 said:
xo0jC5C.png


Tell me which one is which
Click to expand...
None of these images have snow in them. That is what the comparison should be.
Regardless, the image on the left has more detail - there can be many reasons for this. I can make any still image look good, but when there is movement, it looks like crap.
Also note that the image you posted earlier appeared much worse because of the forum software downsizing it. When downloaded its full size. Regardless my point was that snow reflects lots of light making the low light image appear much better than it is as evidenced by your images.
 
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I get that, but what I'm showing here is that with IR off on the left and with IR on, on the right. There is margin improvement, if any. Would it benefit from an off camera ir source? Sure, but the ir on camera does not help and actually hurts the motion detection as it causes near field blow outs on snow flakes.

So take away, motion detection can work in the presence of a snow storm if you turn off on camera ir. If you do not have enough ambient light to get a decent picture at night, you will need an external source, but it should be noted some installs will not require this.
 
blazin912 said:
I get that, but what I'm showing here is that with IR off on the left and with IR on, on the right. There is margin improvement, if any. Would it benefit from an off camera ir source? Sure, but the ir on camera does not help and actually hurts the motion detection as it causes near field blow outs on snow flakes.

So take away, motion detection can work in the presence of a snow storm if you turn off on camera ir. If you do not have enough ambient light to get a decent picture at night, you will need an external source, but it should be noted some installs will not require this.
Click to expand...
stand a few feet away and record yourself walking.
Of course you can leave ir off, with a good camera you can leave it in color. My point simply was that snow presents a false good low light image. Both of your no snow images are barely adequate.
 
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