IPC-HDW5831R-ZE WDR help

[runraid]

I have an IPC-HDW5831R-ZE that I'm trying to adjust the image quality on. See the two images 1) WDR off and 2) WDR on

Image 1: WDR off. Notice in the back yard how the area is too white.


Image 2: Now if I turn on WDR I can see the yard better but the image looks washed out.


Any tips on settings for this camera to get a better picture in this situation? In both images, all settings are on the default other than WDR settings turned on.
Firmware version: V2.800.0000016.0.R, Build Date: 2020-06-05

 

[sebastiantombs]

Try turning down the gain of the WDR, slider right under the window.

 

[wittaj]

Try to avoid the backlight settings until after you have exhausted every other attempt with the other settings as they add artifacts and other issues. Sometimes we do not have a choice, but try first. Motion in your images above with that WDR will be blur. And that lighting will only be an issue for a certain part of the day, so then you ruin the rest of the day by using WDR.

Take it off auto settings at night unless you like seeing Casper and blurring and hotspots. Auto settings in most situations for shutter will produce a great picture, but motion is complete crap with blurring and ghosting. Even in the day auto settings are usually not your friend.

In my opinion, shutter and gain are the two most important and then base the others off of it.

Go into shutter settings and change to manual and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-30 (day)for starters. Auto could have a shutter speed of 100ms or more and gain up at 100 which will contribute to significant ghosting and that blinding white you will get from the infrared.

Now what you will notice that happens immediately is your image gets A LOT darker. That faster the shutter, the more light that is needed. But it is a balance. The nice bright night image results in Casper during motion LOL. What do we want, a nice static image or a clean image when there is motion introduced to the scene?

So if it is too dark, then start adding ms to the time. Go to 10ms, 12ms, etc. until you find what you feel is acceptable as an image. Then have someone walk around and see if you can get a clean shot. Try not to go above 30ms as that tends to be the point where blur starts to occur.

You can also adjust brightness and contrast to improve the image.

You can also add some gain to brighten the image - but the higher the gain, the more ghosting you get. Some cameras can go to 70 or so before it is an issue and some can't go over 50.

But adjusting those two settings will have the biggest impact. The next one is noise reduction. Want to keep that as low as possible. Depending on the amount of light you have, you might be able to get down to 40 or so at night (again camera dependent) and 25-30 during the day, but take it as low as you can before it gets too noisy. Again this one is a balance as well. Too smooth and no noise can result in soft images and contribute to blur.

 

[bigredfish]

Good advice above.

WDR can be tricky, I dont like using backlight settings either unless absolutely necessary. Your image looks like way too much WDR but each camera model can be a bit different.

Here's an example
No WDR / a little WDR 5 / A lot of WDR 65

 

[runraid]

@wittaj thank you very much. I'm going to try your suggestions over the next few days. I'm also going to save your comment in my notes as a reference.