White light in B&W mode? Not getting a great picture.

Philip Gonzales

Philip Gonzales

Getting comfortable
Sep 20, 2017
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I'm trying to help my brother set up his Dahua IPC-HDW523R-ZE cameras and so far we are not happy with the picture. I think the major issue may be camera placement but we are looking for tips.

Here is the security light he installed.

Defiant 270 Degree White LED Bluetooth Motion Outdoor Security Light-DFI-5985-WH - The Home Depot

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This is with the floodlights on

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Here is a picture with the floodlights on and in color mode.

Attach7629_20190308_224058.jpg

Doesn't seem like in B/W mode the white lights are being picked up.

Not sure if it has something to do with the IR filter?

I forget if white lights are supposed to help at night. @bigredfish any tips. It seems you have reallky good lighting even in B/W mode.

Random chart about security camera I found on the internet.

Screenshot_20190308-224056.jpg

B/W sharper. Can play with shutter speed but why is there no light on the truck in B/W mode?

Any help is appreciated!

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Post your camera settings, Exposure, 3DNR, Bitrate, etc..
 
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Valiant said:
Doesn't seem that your lights are turning on. Are you sure it's working correctly?

In your B/W shots, the illumination appears to be purely from the camera's built in IR
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You are correct. I am trying to help my brother remotely as he lives about 30 miles away. In the pictures above the illumination is only from the IR. I was mistaken that the flood lights were on.

He believes the flood lights were on in this picture.

Attach7701_20190309_103530.png

Not sure about this one but the picture was looking a little better.

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bigredfish said:
Post your camera settings, Exposure, 3DNR, Bitrate, etc..
Click to expand...

@bigredfish most settings are default I think. Here are pictures of all his settings. Any recommendations are appreciated.

I usually set mine to a shutter speed customized range and don't allow them to go slower than a certain shutter speed. But like I said we are open to any suggestions.

Attach7706_20190309_112732.jpg Attach7707_20190309_112739.jpg Attach7708_20190309_112809.jpg Attach7709_20190309_112820.jpg Attach7710_20190309_112831.jpg Attach7711_20190309_112910.jpg Attach7712_20190309_113110.jpg Attach7713_20190309_113126.jpg Attach7714_20190309_113129.jpg
 
The issue here is the high mount location pointing down creating the IR hotspot. You can try manual ir and reduce its intensity or external IR. The proper solution is to lower the camera.
 
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Agree with @fenderman of course ;) Mine seem best at about 7-8ft

Those snaps from phone of a monitor make it hard to tell on image quality, thought maybe bitrate was really low or something.. settings seem pretty standard as you mentioned, though you may want to play with exposure once you get it lowered. 3DNR is a bit high probably adding to some motion blur..
 
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fenderman said:
The issue here is the high mount location pointing down creating the IR hotspot. You can try manual ir and reduce its intensity or external IR. The proper solution is to lower the camera.
Click to expand...
bigredfish said:
Agree with @fenderman of course ;) Mine seem best at about 7-8ft

Those snaps from phone of a monitor make it hard to tell on image quality, thought maybe bitrate was really low or something.. settings seem pretty standard as you mentioned, though you may want to play with exposure once you get it lowered. 3DNR is a bit high probably adding to some motion blur..
Click to expand...

Camera is at 9 feet. I told him it may need ti be moved.
 
Also, keep in mind that when in B&W mode, the camera is really ONLY picking up IR light, at least by default,
so the extra white light from the defiant lamp doesn't help in night mode B&W.
I've seen some cams that can leave color enabled when ALSO picking up IR, but I'm not sure this cam can do that.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to explain how/why i'm wrong, but I think it's EITHER white light & color mode, OR IR & B&W.
 
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looney2ns said:
Default settings rarely work out to your advantage.
The light he installed claims 2350 lumens, so that should be plenty keep the cam in color mode.
Set the DNR to 30-40 at night, about 8 during the day.

Can you assist him via Teamviewer or such?
Shutter Speed / Exposure Tutorial
Click to expand...


Yes I sure can. Mostly I've just been sending him pics on what to change. So white light does help in B&W mode on these cameras right?
 
On my normal 5231Z I had to hit the autofocus button at one point to get it to refocus. I had been messing with the zoom control.
 
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I run 6 out of 7 of my cams in forced color mode at night with LED white light. I've had success with setting my exposure to shutter priority and 1/30 on my night profile. This makes the images much crisper and lets more light into the iris. As others mentioned, turn down 3DNR. Also, the FPS should be 15 if your shutter is set to 1/30. The FPS should be 1/2 of the second number in the exposure setting. I've also had to adjust my gamma up or down depending on how bright the LED light is. i.e. washing out details, turn gamma down a bit to darken the scene.
 
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