Reminds me of the movie Omega Man starring Charlton Heston but in a good way.
We‘re in Port St Lucie, can we be your friends?
I may have underestimated the LED lights I purchased....
- Thread starter CanCuba
- Start date
We‘re in Port St Lucie, can we be your friends?
CCTVCam
Known around here
- Sep 25, 2017
- 2,829
- 3,704
The 4kx doesn't need much light at all. In my back yard (which is small admittedly), I have a 6w led bulb @300 lumens, which is more than enough to give me a decent picture on a shutter of 1/180. I do have this reinforced with a sensor activated led flood, although strictly it's not necessary, and the 40W - 3,000 lumens from that, gives me a daylight like picture. SO 18.500 lumens is way overkill even given the larger area.
Interestingly, I was having Amazon ship me stuff in Merida, Mexico a few months ago, not too far from CanCuba. It all made it to me just fine. It amazes me how these places that were pretty remote 20 years ago are more and more a monoculture.Amazon delivers to Cuba?I'm curious about the logistics.
Reminds me of the movie Omega Man starring Charlton Heston but in a good way.
We‘re in Port St Lucie, can we be your friends?
Sure! Come on down anytime!
I'll post videos later but my issue is going to be balancing the scene. The trees need to be trimmed which will help but I've got some dark areas which will need some work.
So far I'm happy with the results. Once we get the trees trimmed and the panels adjusted, it will be a more even scene.
The SD1A404XB is doing some face detection at night which is nice but I should have gotten the 2MP model.
The logistics chain of Amazon is pretty amazing to me. How so many things can be shipping and only rarely touched by human hands.
As much as I don't like Amazon, it is the easiest way for me to get stuff. In my account, I have close to 20 addresses. Folks in the US who have brought me stuff, a couple addresses in Mexico where I've received parcels and over a dozen addresses in Canada.
Depending where I want something delivered, I just change the country in the app and have stuff fired to the appropriate address.
I'll upload videos later but everything looks much better and much more detailed, as to be expected.
The one issue I'm running into are horizontal black bars rolling vertically through the image. Seems to be due to the frequency the new lights are operating at as I was able to remove them running at 1/60 or 1/120 shutter. So I'm limited to 8.33ms (1/120) shutter which is good enough. Oddly, if I dropped the shutter speed to 4.165 (half of 1/120 which should be on the 60Hz frequency), I still had black bars. The image was far too dark but I'm not sure why I'd still see black bars.
Got some excellent footage with great detail on clothing which is exactly what I wanted. This was on subjects just over 10m (33 feet) away so I'm very happy.
Need to trim some trees and tweak the image to get it a bit clearer but I'm on the right track.
And no complaints from the neighbours!
The one issue I'm running into are horizontal black bars rolling vertically through the image. Seems to be due to the frequency the new lights are operating at as I was able to remove them running at 1/60 or 1/120 shutter. So I'm limited to 8.33ms (1/120) shutter which is good enough. Oddly, if I dropped the shutter speed to 4.165 (half of 1/120 which should be on the 60Hz frequency), I still had black bars. The image was far too dark but I'm not sure why I'd still see black bars.
Got some excellent footage with great detail on clothing which is exactly what I wanted. This was on subjects just over 10m (33 feet) away so I'm very happy.
Need to trim some trees and tweak the image to get it a bit clearer but I'm on the right track.
And no complaints from the neighbours!
I have mentioned previously that I think the rolling/pulsing is a byproduct of the 4K/T pushing the limits of what can be achieved in color with low light and faster shutters. They are trying to squeak as much out of it as they can since the camera doesn't see infrared. I have it even with incandescent light bulbs, so it isn't a frequency issue like can happen with LEDs.
Some folks have said they have minimized it by dropping sharpness.
I decided to go with the higher shutter speed and live with the rolling bands as it doesn't impact the ability to get a clean capture of a perp. It isn't like I am watching that camera 24/7. I only look at the recorded video if another cam tells me I should.
Some folks have said they have minimized it by dropping sharpness.
I decided to go with the higher shutter speed and live with the rolling bands as it doesn't impact the ability to get a clean capture of a perp. It isn't like I am watching that camera 24/7. I only look at the recorded video if another cam tells me I should.
The bands made it impossible to get a proper image. I'll try to replicate it tonight and upload a video. 90% sure this was because of the new lights as I've never had the issue before when adjusting the exposure. If I adjust the shutter even a touch either way from 1/60 or 1/120, I get the bands.
1/120 is decent. I get a bit of blur with faster moving vehicles but people's clothing is very detailed. Ideal for an overview cam.
The Color4K's are great cams, though.
In that case try off-number ms to correspond with like 1/138 shutter as an example. For one of my cameras I was able to get the bands to go away by not being on a shutter speed divisible by a whole number with the frequency.
But this camera I haven't got it worked out, I think because of it being full color and trying to push the envelope.
Or you you need to add more light
In that case try off-number ms to correspond with like 1/138 shutter as an example. For one of my cameras I was able to get the bands to go away by not being on a shutter speed divisible by a whole number with the frequency.
But this camera I haven't got it worked out, I think because of it being full color and trying to push the envelope.
Or you you need to add more light
That is quite simple: Your lamps are pulsating in brightness 120 times a second. If you take pictures with a shutter speed of 1/120, you will expose for the duration of a full brightness circle. If you set the exposure time anywhere less, a picture will not take a full brightness circle to expose but lose some of it. So some frames/lines get more and some get less light.
If you want to play with it, drop shutter speed slowly below or above 1/120. You may find the bands speed or width may change.
What can you do? I don't think you can do much at the camera side. Going below 1/120 will give you an effect like this. Some of the temporal smothers may help reduce it, but as it is a reality of the world, the camera will notice it.
But there is an alternative option you have. Remove the pulsation at the source. Your lights are powered by AC current, or is there a 12V PSU in between? If there is, you can exchange it for a pure DC power supply (one without ripple). That should stop the pulsation and hence the end the problem. (In theory, unless in your lamps, new ripple is introduced by additional transformations)
So why no bands at 1/60 but bands at 1/180 and 1/240? This what has me puzzled.
The lights are AC powered but I'm sure there's a 12v LED driver inside. Not looking to open these units up as they're well-built and leaving them be should get me at least 10 years out of them.
At 1/60, you expose every frame for exactly 2 cycles of brightness. So every frame gets the same amount of light. At 1/40, 1/30, 1/24, 1/20 ... you should be good too.
No and yes. If the cam and the lamp are not directly synced (as it is the case here), then 1/120 is the end of it. But if you could sync the cam to the lamp, then 1/240 could be used too. But as I said before, why bother, use pure DC for illumination and be done.
Yes DC works well. Using a number of 12 volt AC 15 watt LED landscape lights for camera illumination. Zero issues with any banding.
Power supply is from a computer rated at 12 VDC at 18 amps.
Power supply is from a computer rated at 12 VDC at 18 amps.
So maybe it's time to invest in one of these? lol
1/240 would be way to fast. 1/120 is about perfect for this scene so my questions were of a more theoretical nature. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
My solar reflectors operate off of 3.6v batteries and never had a banding issue as that's DC. They've been great but don't output the illumination that I'm looking for. I've seen units advertised at 800w (not 800w equivalent, but 800w output) but the lumens aren't there. Those units seem to peak around 100w then there's a big drop in lm/w.
Last edited:
Not sure why uploading from my laptop hotspotted to my phone has been so slow. The videos flew up from my phone @ 10MB/s (that's fast for Cuba, lol).
I think I have the Colour4K/X dialed in. Encode settings are:
h.264H
CBR
15000 bitrate
15 fps
15 i-frame
View attachment NVR_ch1_main_20230604011912_20230604011923.mp4
I need to tilt the panels up just a touch to get a bit more light on the sidewalk opposite the house. Camera still picked up this guy on the tripwire that spans the road and sidewalks.
View attachment NVR_ch1_main_20230604021139_20230604021155.mp4
This group at the halfway mark I'm happy with. I don't see any obvious motion blur and the dog looks good. Mic on the Colour4K/X is phenomenal. Oh, need to trim the trees to get rid of the shadows.
View attachment NVR_ch1_main_20230604035248_20230604035258.mp4
Car looks great. Leaves on the ground on the right look good. Only thing is the camera didn't pick up the person walking on the opposite sidewalk. In the last couple seconds he would have been crossing the tripwire. Hopefully a bit more light will fix that.
View attachment NVR_ch1_main_20230604044728_20230604044745.mp4
This is my favourite. Absolutely gorgeous Dalmatian and looks perfect. Clothing details on the individuals are clear as day to me.
I'm very happy having put up these lights. Feedback from the neighbours has been great so far. People say they feel safer and appreciate the lights.
Tomorrow I'll post some videos from the 2431 variant with a 1/3" lens on the other street. I have that turned down to 8.33ms shutter and it's doing very well. That panel needs some tilting up, as well.
I think I have the Colour4K/X dialed in. Encode settings are:
h.264H
CBR
15000 bitrate
15 fps
15 i-frame
View attachment NVR_ch1_main_20230604011912_20230604011923.mp4
I need to tilt the panels up just a touch to get a bit more light on the sidewalk opposite the house. Camera still picked up this guy on the tripwire that spans the road and sidewalks.
View attachment NVR_ch1_main_20230604021139_20230604021155.mp4
This group at the halfway mark I'm happy with. I don't see any obvious motion blur and the dog looks good. Mic on the Colour4K/X is phenomenal. Oh, need to trim the trees to get rid of the shadows.
View attachment NVR_ch1_main_20230604035248_20230604035258.mp4
Car looks great. Leaves on the ground on the right look good. Only thing is the camera didn't pick up the person walking on the opposite sidewalk. In the last couple seconds he would have been crossing the tripwire. Hopefully a bit more light will fix that.
View attachment NVR_ch1_main_20230604044728_20230604044745.mp4
This is my favourite. Absolutely gorgeous Dalmatian and looks perfect. Clothing details on the individuals are clear as day to me.
I'm very happy having put up these lights. Feedback from the neighbours has been great so far. People say they feel safer and appreciate the lights.
Tomorrow I'll post some videos from the 2431 variant with a 1/3" lens on the other street. I have that turned down to 8.33ms shutter and it's doing very well. That panel needs some tilting up, as well.
Last edited:
