Night prowler, FPS too low?

msponer

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This video was taken with Hikvision 4K cameras (from Nelly's), with a large IR illuminator near the low camera.

It seems like 15 FPS is just too slow to get a good picture of someone walking. Do you folks think more IR illumination help, or should I try a visible PIR floodlight? I have delayed getting a visible floodlight because I don't want it to trigger off of people walking by on the sidewalk, and I'm not sure which PIR could be aimed to only catch people walking up the driveway.


prowler.png IMG_20190804_164837.jpg
 

bigredfish

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First, not too bad, I've seen worse.
FPS isnt going to cure motion blur. Its a function of exposure mostly, faster exposure will usually help.
And reducing DNR as low as possible. DNR creates motion blur, especially above 50.
Lastly, light. Your light seems to be aimed a bit low but not all that bad.
 

msponer

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You're right, the DNR is set high. I'll check the exposure, too.

It's strange,this video looks clearer on Imgur than on Youtube.

My hobbyist understanding is that lower resolution Starlight cameras would have a faster exposure. Maybe I'll try to replace the cameras.

These 8MP cameras are very sharp if there's even the smallest amount of light in the sky (see the coyote video below), so I thought the large LED IR illuminator would make up for their shortcomings at night.

 
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SouthernYankee

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What model camera.
You need to use a dark fighter.
The camera is mounted to high, no more then 8 ft, better still 6 ft.
To many mp, use a 2mp camera for night never More than 4mp. More mp is not better !
If you have a 4 k camera it will not work well at night.
Did you not test the camera placement at night after you set it up????
 

bigredfish

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There's more than one camera in play. The first part of the video shows a low mounted camera which should provide decent ID if he can get rid of the motion blur.
 

bigredfish

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You're right, the DNR is set high. I'll check the exposure, too.

It's strange,this video looks clearer on Imgur than on Youtube.

My hobbyist understanding is that lower resolution Starlight cameras would have a faster exposure. Maybe I'll try to replace the cameras.

These 8MP cameras are very sharp if there's even the smallest amount of light in the sky (see the coyote video below), so I thought the large LED IR illuminator would make up for their shortcomings at night.


Lower resolution cameras, particularly Dahua Starlight 2MP and HiK Darkfighters 2MP will generally do better at night due to bigger pixels allowing more light in.
 

TL1096r

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Did any settings help? That sucks to spend that much on a great camera to get that blurriness at night.
 

msponer

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Did any settings help? That sucks to spend that much on a great camera to get that blurriness at night.
Yes, I think I made a mistake thinking that a lot of IR illumination (and the close distance) would make up for using 8MP cameras at night. I'll experiment with it tonight, and post a video if I find settings that improve it. Otherwise I'm looking online for a varifocal turret style 2MP Darkfighter/Starlight camera for the bottom, and move the current one somewhere else.
 

looney2ns

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Yes, I think I made a mistake thinking that a lot of IR illumination (and the close distance) would make up for using 8MP cameras at night. I'll experiment with it tonight, and post a video if I find settings that improve it. Otherwise I'm looking online for a varifocal turret style 2MP Darkfighter/Starlight camera for the bottom, and move the current one somewhere else.
More IR light is always better, but you have to be careful with it's placement in relation to the camera.
It does appear that possible the IR light is pointing down a little, but you probably need that IR light up around 6-7 ft instead.
Always test a proposed Camera location with a portable test rig, before permanent mounting. 5gal bucket, 2x4, and rocks for ballast.
I think your issue is that the cam is seeing a LOT of reflection from the IR light, and thus it's affecting your exposure in the cam.
You need to move the light in such a way as to not have a hot spot right in front of the camera.
You will need to test by walking up that sidewalk yourself.
Are you also using the IR on both of the cameras, it doesn't appear so. You should be.
 

msponer

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I think your issue is that the cam is seeing a LOT of reflection from the IR light, and thus it's affecting your exposure in the cam.
You need to move the light in such a way as to not have a hot spot right in front of the camera.
Good idea, thank you. I tried zooming in the cameras a bit to avoid the tree to the right, which is reflecting a lot of IR light. But it's a balance, since zooming in too much means they'll spend less time in the frame as they walk up the driveway.

I'm hoping that with as bright as the IR light is (it lights up the big tree's across the street), it'll make up for the poor low light performance of these 8MP cameras. I'll also see if I can adjust the night time exposure (and just the night time exposure) or maybe the Iris setting (if it can be manually controlled), to potentially let the light reflected off the nearby tree's blow out, so that maybe the shutter speed will be higher. It'd be nice if the cameras have a 'set the exposure for this part of the frame' and not just average it over the whole frame. I don't think they do. From what I remember, I couldn't even separately set the exposure for the night mode, so if I adjusted it up, it made the day mode way too bright. Maybe better software than the Hikvision NVR would support that -- I got an inexpensive used server off Craigslist, and plan to eventually move to better recording software. It seems like something they should do: change the camera's internal settings when they switch to night mode.

Are you also using the IR on both of the cameras, it doesn't appear so. You should be.
I turned off the IR lights in the cameras -- otherwise too many spiders like to just hang out in front of the cameras all night. The spiders have been gone since I added the external IR light. But I could add an IR light higher up, though I worry that'll make the light too 'hot and flat' and it'll make people's faces a wash of white.

Thank you again. I'll play with trying everything. I wasn't able to experiment past the NVR settings yesterday, since some of the camera's configuration is only accessible from a laptop plugged into that network (I keep the NVR off our home router/Internet, since I don't trust it's firmware)
 

looney2ns

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Good idea, thank you. I tried zooming in the cameras a bit to avoid the tree to the right, which is reflecting a lot of IR light. But it's a balance, since zooming in too much means they'll spend less time in the frame as they walk up the driveway.

I'm hoping that with as bright as the IR light is (it lights up the big tree's across the street), it'll make up for the poor low light performance of these 8MP cameras. I'll also see if I can adjust the night time exposure (and just the night time exposure) or maybe the Iris setting (if it can be manually controlled), to potentially let the light reflected off the nearby tree's blow out, so that maybe the shutter speed will be higher. It'd be nice if the cameras have a 'set the exposure for this part of the frame' and not just average it over the whole frame. I don't think they do. From what I remember, I couldn't even separately set the exposure for the night mode, so if I adjusted it up, it made the day mode way too bright. Maybe better software than the Hikvision NVR would support that -- I got an inexpensive used server off Craigslist, and plan to eventually move to better recording software. It seems like something they should do: change the camera's internal settings when they switch to night mode.



I turned off the IR lights in the cameras -- otherwise too many spiders like to just hang out in front of the cameras all night. The spiders have been gone since I added the external IR light. But I could add an IR light higher up, though I worry that'll make the light too 'hot and flat' and it'll make people's faces a wash of white.

Thank you again. I'll play with trying everything. I wasn't able to experiment past the NVR settings yesterday, since some of the camera's configuration is only accessible from a laptop plugged into that network (I keep the NVR off our home router/Internet, since I don't trust it's firmware)
You will most likely want to adjust the cameras directly in their own web gui setup, not via the NVR, sometimes the NVR's setup of the cams is limited compared to what the cameras can actually do. Surely those cams support separate day/night profile settings. If you can't find that setting, give Nelly's a call.
 
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