Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Video

[billtetley]

Hey guys,

I have a Hikvision DS-2CD2732F-I and a few fixed dome cameras at my house. I'm using Security Spy on my iMac to capture everything. I just got the 2732 to replace a fixed 4mm dome on my front porch. I'm running into an issue during late morning through mid afternoon where the image constantly fluctuates between too bright and then too dark. It's becoming an issue as it is recording each time as an event. I've included a clip I uploaded to youtube. I have reset all settings to factory default and the issue is still there. Firmware is V5.2.0 build 140721 Encoding V5.0 build 140714. I never had this issue with the 2132 or 2032 fixed lens camera in that location, just this varifocal.

[video]https://youtu.be/Kew15UPV2EE[/video]

Last night I changed some settings to improve the night image so now the settings are a little different, but the issue is still there during the day anyway. The only thing is I tried turning off WDR to see if that would resolve the issue during the day, but it doesn't. I also need WDR on at night to improve the IR illumination. Otherwise it's very focused and not spread out like my fixed lens cameras.

Here are my current settings

I tried searching but only found one other thread that said it was fixed with firmware updated 5.1.2 almost a year ago.

Thanks for the help.

 

[bp2008]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

I haven't seen this happen either, but I don't have that particular model. I assume your white balance is also set to auto. If that camera has an auto iris, then that could be responsible. The cheaper cams certainly do not have auto iris.

 

[billtetley]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

Thanks for the response. I never noticed the auto iris setting. I just turned it to manual and kept the exposure time to 1/30 since my other cams use that exposure and work fine.

As far as white balance, it is set to AWB1 by default. Here are the other settings.

 

[bp2008]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

The exposure time setting is really just an exposure limit. Setting it to 1/30 means the sensor should never expose longer than 1/30th of a second, in order to prevent excessive motion blur in low light. For night-time license plate capture, even faster settings are typically required. The camera will automatically use a faster shutter speed if necessary to maintain ideal image brightness, but it will not use a slower shutter speed than what you set.

 

[billtetley]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

I turned of the auto iris and the camera has been behaving better. I had one minor adjustment but nothing like before. However, after 4pm the issue wouldn't repeat itself. I guess tomorrow is the true test. I'm hoping this works. Thanks for the help.

I do have another question. I noticed the night vision is much more "tunnel" like on this varifocal versus spread out on the fixed lens cameras. I did turn on WDR which seemed to help, but I had to keep the WDR set to almost zero or else it would get too noisy. Is there a faq or anything regarding night time settings for these cameras?

 

[bp2008]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

Is there a faq or anything regarding night time settings for these cameras?

Not that I am aware of. The tunnel vision comes from the IR LEDs being designed for long range rather than wide spread. Since it is a varifocal camera, they expected it to be a worthwhile tradeoff I suppose. It is normal for WDR to add lots of noise to the video at night, particularly with the inexpensive 3MP series. You can reduce the effect of this by maxing out the digital noise reduction but you already had that set in your screenshots above.

Perhaps an external infrared illuminator or two would be a good idea. You can get them fairly cheap from Amazon.com or ebay.

 

[billtetley]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

Well, the problem is still there...just not as bad now. Here is another clip. Iris is set to manual. WDR is on and set low, around 7-10 and DNR is turned up to 100. Other than that, everything else is factory defualts.

[video]https://youtu.be/PXR7aZjrurU[/video]

 

[bp2008]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

I don't think that is a camera problem anymore. Looks just like cloud shadows moving through the frame. Happens practically all the time with my cams, regardless of manufacturer.

 

[billtetley]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

I don't think that is a camera problem anymore. Looks just like cloud shadows moving through the frame. Happens practically all the time with my cams, regardless of manufacturer.

hmmm. well if that's the case I can live with it. Now I just need to figure out a way to not trigger the change in brightness as an event.

Thanks.

 

[bp2008]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

If you're using on-camera motion detection then the line crossing feature is probably the key to that.

 

[billtetley]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

If you're using on-camera motion detection then the line crossing feature is probably the key to that.

I'm not using the built in motion detection unfortunately.

 

[bp2008]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

Then I guess it is up to the Security Spy software. If it has any object tracking options, that could help. Many of my cams in Blue Iris are set to detect only color changes, not brightness changes, during the day.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

Looks just like cloud shadows moving through the frame.

Yup. I agree, sunny intervals, a bit windy.

I'm not using the built in motion detection unfortunately.

As suggested, the line crossing detection and intrusion detection are actually pretty good, and aimed at reducing the false positive problems associated with classical motion detection.

 

[Rudyjr]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

Yup. I agree, sunny intervals, a bit windy.

As suggested, the line crossing detection and intrusion detection are actually pretty good, and aimed at reducing the false positive problems associated with classical motion detection.

Can you tell me what firmware version incorporated the line crossing detection and intrusion detection features please? Did not want to hijack this thread just curious.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Re: Issue with Hikvision varifocal fluctuates between bright and dim during day. Vide

Line crossing detection was certainly in the 5.1.6 version, with up to 4 lines, reduced to one in subsequent versions. I don't recall if intrusion detection was there as well.
And both intrusion detection and line crossing are in 5.2.0 and later versions.