Need recommendation for upgrade to his 2032

[Ajpepe72]

My driveway camera is a few years old now and there seems to be a fairly big leap in picture quality with what's available now, these night fighter versions look particularly interesting.
What would people recommend as an upgrade?
My driveway is about 10m x8m and camera is mounted just below upstairs window.
Can't remember what lens is on my 2032 but maybe a 2.8 ?
It's the nighttime image I'm looking to improve on, there is a single lamp post just to the left of the driveway entrance but any type of face identification at night is impossible.
A couple of pics of day and night image.

 

[RBW]

looks like a 4mm or 6mm lens.

 

[Ajpepe72]

You could be right, I think I went for 4mm as wanted a wide angle of view.

 

[RBW]

I'm no expert but after spending a lifetime on this forum i think there is only one option as you already have a Hikvision Nvr. Hikvision DS-2CD2335FWD-I.

Import from China for £105 + maybe VAT or buy in the UK for £140 or UK Ebay £115.

Not used the camera myself but it gets good reviews.

 

[Ajpepe72]

Actually I don't use a hikvision nvr, I use a small form IBM PC running blue iris software to record.
Will look at that camera though, thanks

 

[RBW]

Although thinking about it if the lighting is good at night you may not need a ultra low light. Then go for a 5 or 8 Mp for more detail.

 

[Ajpepe72]

This is a good example, this is 7am this morning so getting light, face is very blurry.
Not sure whether a upgrade to this camera or an additional camera with a closer lens would be my best option for face recognition

postimage org safe

 

[RBW]

This is a good example, this is 7am this morning so getting light, face is very blurry.
Not sure whether a upgrade to this camera or an additional camera with a closer lens would be my best option for face recognition

postimage org safe

I think the lens is fine mate. What is the max resolution you Nvr/pc can record at?

 

[Ajpepe72]

I record with blue iris on an i5 processor pc so I'd guess it can handle high resolution.

 

[RBW]

I record with blue iris on an i5 processor pc so I'd guess it can handle high resolution.

No idea about blur iris mate. If it can handle a 8Mp camera i'd go for that with a 4mm lens.

 

[Bokeh]

the thing with many of the night/low light stuff is that the shutter speed is very slow and the iris is larger to allow more light to get to the cameras sensor.. SO there are tradeoffs. You can see the stationary objects look fine for the most part, except for things that are reflecting light/ir more than others. add to that the wide angle view which also cuts down on image quality and this is the result.

Personally I do not think another camera in the same price range or even double the amount will make much of a difference.

Have you tried playing with things like turning off noise reduction, wide dynamic range, the IR light on the camera, increasing the shutter speed, etc..?

 

[RBW]

the thing with many of the night/low light stuff is that the shutter speed is very slow and the iris is larger to allow more light to get to the cameras sensor.. SO there are tradeoffs.

So what are the negatives of low light cameras? The slower shutter speed gives a more blurred image?

 

[Bokeh]

The slower shutter speed gives a more blurred image?

basically, yes.


I'm not saying the low light cameras are bad themselves, it's just how cameras work in general.

The persons face is moving and is also reflecting the light, you can see the motion blur on the car in the road too.

say the camera during night is recording at 1/30 that means the sensor is being exposed to the image for 1/30th of a second, that's a long time for light to flood the details of an image. now say the camera was capable of producing the same image during night with a 1/250 shutter speed, as long as the aperture size was the same the faster speed would allow crisper images because less light would be flooding in per frame and also it would also cut motion blur.

check this out.. axis has a pretty neat example you can play around with to get the idea:
Frame rate versus Shutter speed | Axis Communications
it doesn't have night image for their examples but I think it will give you a good idea of what is going on with shutter speed.

I'm not saying a higher MP camera wouldn't make a difference. I'm just suggesting Megapixels are not the only thing at play here.