Motion blur in B/W mode

[Tiger_Claw]

Hey folks

I'm hoping someone here can explain what might be the cause of motion blur onmoving vehicles when my camera switches into B/W mode. The camera is a GWSecurity 5 Megapixel 2592 x 1920 Pixel Super HD 1920P High Resolution NetworkPoE 1080P Security Bullet IP Camera with 6-22mm Varifocal Zoom Len and 72Pcs IRLED up to 196FT IR Distance.


I set the camera to a low 1080p setting, but the results aren't anybetter. I also had similar issues with a Zmodo 165ft Long Range IR720P HD POE camera.

Is this a common problem with B/W motion capture with POE camera's or is theresome magical settings inside Blue Iris I should be checking/changing?

 

[fenderman]

@Tiger_Claw This is not related to blue iris. You will see the same blur via browser. Check the cameras exposure settings.

 

[Tiger_Claw]

I have no idea what I'm looking for here and didn't see an option titled exposure. Do any of these screen caps help?

 

[fenderman]

Unrelated to this, if you are using direct to disk, match the iframe interval to the fps.
The camera is set to auto exposure (The auto E W setting)..you can try playing with the exposure until the most of the blur is gone but it will compromise the overall picture.

 

[Tiger_Claw]

I'm trying to understand this

Ok, please correct me if I'm wrong. You want me to make sure that BI is set at 25 FPS and make the same change to the I Frame Interval correct? It's currently at 100.

And your our also suggesting I might want to play around with the Auto E W setting right? The only other option on that drop down menu is setting it to disabled.


Tiger

 

[fenderman]

I'm trying to understand this

Ok, please correct me if I'm wrong. You want me to make sure that BI is set at 25 FPS and make the same change to the I Frame Interval correct? It's currently at 100.

And your our also suggesting I might want to play around with the Auto E W setting right? The only other option on that drop down menu is setting it to disabled.


Tiger

Almost. You cannot set the frame rate in bi. BI auto adjusts to whatever the camera is sending. The BI setting is meaningless.
Since you camera is set to 25 fps, set your iframe interval to 25. This is important so that you dont miss any motion events since BI only begins recording on a new full frame. It also helps eliminate image corruption/ghosting with some cams.
When you set Auto E W to disabled do you get a sub menu where you can adjust exposure?

 

[Tiger_Claw]

Ok. I just set the I Frame Interval to 25 FPS to match the numbers inside the Frame Rate window below it.

I double checked the E W drop down. No sub menu. I disabled it to see if it would provide a sub, but nothing, so I re-enabled that setting.


ill give you a report in about two hours when it gets dark.

thanks for helping me out here fenderman.

Tiger

 

[Tiger_Claw]

This sucks.
You can already see the blurring before the camera entersB/W mode here. It’s about 25 min before getting dark enough for B/W to kick in.
This really baffles me because how can it work during theday and look terrible at night? Isn’t there far less data in a B/W video streamvs color?
Is there even a remote possibility that this issue could bea result of hardware limitations or settings on my router or PC?
TiGeR

 

[fenderman]

It's the camera... many cameras suffer from this at night

 

[SyconsciousAu]

This sucks.
You can already see the blurring before the camera entersB/W mode here. It’s about 25 min before getting dark enough for B/W to kick in.
This really baffles me because how can it work during theday and look terrible at night? Isn’t there far less data in a B/W video streamvs color?
Is there even a remote possibility that this issue could bea result of hardware limitations or settings on my router or PC?
TiGeR

The answer is much simpler than that. It is about shutter speed or exposure. A camera sensor, or film for that matter, needs a certain amount of light to expose correctly. When there is lots of ambient light the shutter can open for a short period of time and still get enough light for the shot to appear correctly exposed. As your lighting goes south you can increase your iso/gain to increase the sensitivity of the sensor / film to light, or you can increase the amount of time the shutter stays open. When you have a moving target in the frame it will move some distance in the time the shutter is open. For a car going 50km/h that distance is only 15.5mm (about 5/8") in each frame when your shutter is 1/1000 of a second. At 1/25 of a second that distance becomes 620mm, or more than two feet. The sensor records an image of the moving object at all the places it sees it during the exposure and that causes blur. The more perpendicular the movement of the object is to the camera the more pronounced the blur becomes.

Photographers use motion blur for artistic effect. In CCTV it is a pain in the arse. The only way to avoid it is to keep the shutter speed high. You can do that by increasing gain, which increases the sensitivity of the sensor at the expense of noise in the image, getting a more sensitive camera, or illuminating the scene with IR or visible white light.

Edit:-

Just saw that is a 5mp on a 1/3" sensor. The performance at night of that sensor will be woeful.

 

[Tiger_Claw]

Just saw that is a 5mp on a 1/3" sensor. The performance at night of that sensor will be woeful.

Please do enlighten me on that one. Is that bad? I'm currently running the camera at 1080P anyway. Didn't really see a benefit in additional detail to justify the larger image/file size.

Do you have any hands on experience with some good security cams for night usage?

TiGeR

 

[SyconsciousAu]

Please do enlighten me on that one.

In short the size of the pixel determines the amount of light that it can theoretically gather. If you have 5 million pixels on a 1/3" sensor by neccessity those pixels will be smaller than if you had 2 million pixels on the same sized sensor.

The best performers in low light are running 1/1.8" sensors (38.2mm^2) and only 2Mp. You have 2.5 times that number of pixels on only 17.3mm^2

Is that bad?

Not if you have enough light. It's a limitation you have to deal with.

I'm currently running the camera at 1080P anyway. Didn't really see a benefit in additional detail to justify the larger image/file size.

Depending on your camera, running at 1080P may give you an increase in low light performance. The Bosch Dinion Starlight 8000's do that but for the $165 or so you paid for yours, I doubt it will have that feature.

Do you have any hands on experience with some good security cams for night usage?

TiGeR

In your price range I would be looking at Dahua 2mp cams.

Something like this has fairly impressive low light performance for the price

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/DAHUA-2MP-Full-HD-Waterproof-Vandalproof-IR-Motorized-Network-Dome-Camera-Original-English-Version-without-Logo/1114243_32372888743.html

If you can double your budget per cam you can go for the even more sensitive offerings.

http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/cKOT0Dtm

Triple the budget for the starlight offerings

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/DAHUA-2MP-Starlight-WDR-Ultra-Smart-Network-Camera-IP66-with-POE-without-Logo-IPC-HDBW8281-Z/1114243_32594673818.html

If you really have some money to burn you can get one of these

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1080258-REG/bosch_f_01u_285_362_dinion_ip_starlight_8000.html.

 

[Tiger_Claw]

Wow!

That's some great info. No doubt other's can benefit on this as well. I would love getting those Crown Jewels, but height around a single story house doesn't offer much protection against theft.

I live in area that is slowly becoming a hot-spot for regular burglaries. It really is a drag, but as more and more people move into the area it's to be expected. Our residential street seems more like a main drag. That's why I was hoping the GW cam would have performed better at night, but live and learn.

Either way it's a vast improvement in both image Quailty and Night time clarity... Cough, cough, for non-moving vehicles..:laugh:

thanks again for offering up some great info.


Tiger