Improving video quality from DS-2CD2332-I (video of actual thief embedded)

[SyconsciousAu]

Thanks also for the other comments about adding white light. I am going to install a lamp post beside the driveway with a daylight sensor so it is on all night.

Be careful there as if you backlight a scene it can actually make things worse not better. The face is lost in shadow. They make wide angle white light illuminators as well if you want something to pleace under the camera.

I just logged into the camera and used the export button. I used the screenshot button as well, and cropped using Lightroom.

You have the option of upping your resolution to 3mp and increasing your bit rate to 6144 or 8196 which will give you both an increase in pixel density, and an improved recording quality, at the expense of increased storage needs. You can lower you FPS to compensate in that area. 15 FPS is fine for most applications.

 

[electric]

^ Camera is under the garage soffit, so hard to mount a wide angle white illuminator. There are already lights on the front of the garage, as well, I just haven't had them on all night.

You motivated me to figure out why I could never enable the 3 MP resolution. Turns out you have to go into the "image" menu on another page and change a setting to enable it on the "video/audio" menu. Ancient Chinese secret that had escaped me.

My current struggle is setting the smart events such that my inbox is not filled with false alarms all the time. Whenever the headlights from a passing car sweep the driveway, I get an alarm right now.

 

[wxman]

I agree white light is going to be a winner for video quality every time, however, we live in a society where we have neighbours, and having your house lit up like a maximum security prison all night could cause issues with the neighbours fairly quickly. Sensor lights have their issues as well. I've had issues with cameras switching into day mode because there was too much light for them to work in night mode and the IR cut filter moving back into place chopped a piece of footage, and footage being over exposed because the the auto iris and shutter speed couldn't adjust quickly enough. Using white light can pay dividends but it is too complex an equation to simply say use white light not IR. They can and do work together in tandem.

While this is true, I don't think Ookie was suggesting white light for improved video quality, but rather for deterring the criminal from going onto the property in the first place. His argument being that it's better to light up the area to scare the criminal away rather than letting the criminal rob you and then going through the hassle of trying to get them convicted.

Although I have heard mixed reviews on that argument. I've heard that some criminals actually prefer a well lit area because it's easier for them to see what they want and helps them accomplish the robbery quicker than fumbling around with flash lights trying to find things. One of the supporting claims for that argument is that a high number of thefts occur even in broad daylight. It's also been speculated that having a yard that is well lit could make some items in your yard visible that the criminal may not have noticed if they were walking around with a flash light. Although that argument assumes that the criminal has not already investigated the neighborhood before while it was daylight to see what was worth coming back for at night...and also assumes there's things of value in the yard. One possible example of that was a case that happened to a friend of mine in which several hundred dollars worth of batteries were stolen off of their RV parked in the backyard. There was a yard light right next to the RV which made it visible from the street. My friend said that he wondered if the criminal was just passing by and the light actually helped notify them that there was an RV parked in the yard.

 

[wxman]

Be careful there as if you backlight a scene it can actually make things worse not better. The face is lost in shadow.

This is why it's always a good idea to "play criminal" in your own yard to test how the camera performs with different settings, different lighting situations, etc. So many people just mount a camera somewhere, look on the DVR and say "that covers the yard pretty well" and forget about it. You need to actually walk through your yard as if you were a criminal and find the pros and cons for different settings/conditions.

There was one situation where someone I knew had things stolen off of their porch. They had a good camera on the porch and the criminal was less than 3 feet from the camera, however it was aimed too low. All you could see was the robbers clothes as his head was just above the camera's view. Had they tested the camera after mounting it, they would have realized that the angle was too low and would have probably gotten a crystal clear portrait of the criminal's face considering how close he was.

 

[Razer]

For an area around vehicles like this if you don't want constant light then that is perfect for motion lights. Sure there is about two seconds for the camera to adjust but then your resulting video is great and the light alone is a deterrent many times. If not they have a tendency to look at the lights after they kick on so you get a nice face shot too. If recording on motion the lights kicking on are sure to get the camera up and recording also.

Really the best solution and motion lights are pretty common around garages so neighbors should not care either. Still, I think the OP's footage was actually pretty good considering!

 

[wxman]

@electric Just curious, what shutter speed do you have the camera set to at night? Sorry if it's already been mentioned and I've somehow overlooked it.

 

[electric]

@electric Just curious, what shutter speed do you have the camera set to at night? Sorry if it's already been mentioned and I've somehow overlooked it.

1/30

 

[wxman]

1/30

Have you tried testing it on something like 1/12 ? You'll start getting motion blur on fast moving objects at that speed, but it may still be fast enough for identifying a person walking. Wouldn't know unless you tried. If it doesn't blur the motion too much, it would make for a brighter image with less noise.

 

[SyconsciousAu]

Have you tried testing it on something like 1/12 ? You'll start getting motion blur on fast moving objects at that speed, but it may still be fast enough for identifying a person walking. Wouldn't know unless you tried. If it doesn't blur the motion too much, it would make for a brighter image with less noise.

Your average walking human will move more than 100mm or 4 inches in 1/12 of a second. That's some serious opportunity for motion blur.