metafizx

what do you think that big white spot is in the middle of the screen is? snow? I didn't see the link until you mentioned it.

I assume the lenses that come with this 3130 are not IR compensated. have you tried this camera with IR lighting ?

update: I got 2 Computar lenses, 2.8-12mm and 8.5-40mm. both are AI and IR compensated. The image is much better. I think it is the best I can do with this camera and a higher res camera is required to get better quality image. Perhaps I can make the camera perform better in different lighting conditions by messing around with the settings, but the problem is there really needs to be separate settings for different kinds of lighting. (the "auto" comes to mind haha) but if these cameras had manual settings for "bright" conditions and perhaps 1 or 2 other conditions, that would be great. the outdoor lighting is challenging. very bright sun with moving shadows (palm trees) causes difficult scenario for the auto white balance and auto exposure. I can set the contrast and brightness low and the image is quite good, but if I leave it at that, the image is not optimal for when the lighting is off the peak of the day (morning and evening ). what works in lower light doesnt work in harsh light (bright sun). if I park a car with a license plate in the view of the camera, about 40 feet away, I have trouble reading it with the camera in bright sunlight. it gets washed out easily, unless I manually set it to low contrast and brightness. also strangely if I take off the auto Iris, it is much clearer. something I dont understand. I would think the depth of field is longer when the AI closes due to the bright conditions. unless this particular camera's firmware is really not all that good with figuring out these lighting conditions (which is possible) then I am not sure what else I can do. it's pretty good, but not great.

Hi folks, Anyone out there have experience with Axis 221 ? I got this camera hoping it would be a good choice for day/night use, giving me a reasonably clear picture. However I have run into a number of frustrating issues with it, and wonder what is wrong. First of all I have a Axis 207w, which is super clear and a great camera BTW. Even though it doesnt have a CS mount, its a really nice camera with clear image. I expected the 221 to have as clear an image, but it is actually kinda pixelated and has some problems with the DC Iris, and auto white balance/exposure which is causing various problems (unclear picture, and dim image). Perhaps it's not fair to expect the same, because the 207w is indoor, with a fixed focus lens. The 221 is outdoor (day/night conditions) bright sun to total darkness, and telephoto of around 12mm/ f1.4 with auto iris. The problems I am having are these: 1. The image is not clear when the DC Iris closes in bright conditions. I think it is due to the lens quality. It's not the stock Pentax, as I needed more telephoto range (using a Xavee 6-15mm Auto Iris). When I turn off the DC Iris, the image is clear, but I have to keep it enabled otherwise the image goes completely white-out. Perhaps I can use a manual iris lens ? The lens has to also work in IR. Would the Computar be a better quality lens ? 2. Sometimes the auto white balance gets confused when the IR is on, and the image comes out dark. I am not sure if this is because the lens I am using is not really for IR, although I can see the area well under IR except for this problem that sometimes occurs. My thoughts are that the auto white balance/exposure functions are getting out of whack because of the IR. Also the lens is just junk when the Iris closes, it gets all blurry. I am thinking that I should find a better IR lens. But running out of ideas... Any suggestions would be welcomed. cuz I am not happy with the image quality of the 221...for $900 I am disappointed.

if the lens is the same as the 207w, I found the Lukwerks IR lens kit fits perfectly...I used teflon tape to keep the lens snug. fixed the IR visibility issue, as the default lens blocks IR.

I reproduced 1 of the problems with IR, I suspected that there was reflected IR getting back into the camera and messing with the auto white balance. I mounted a camera and turned off the lights and then angled an illuminator to get IR slightly washed into the camera lens, and it totally screwed up the image. any reflected IR will cause the camera to be "blinded". solution is easy, just get rid of the reflections. The IR is reflecting off part of the roof overhang. the IR LEDs in the housing are wide dispersion, and so I am going to mount an external illuminator and that should solve that particular issue. probably I can mess around with the internal illuminator and get that working too, but right now I just have to make this system work.

thanks rory, I will read those threads and see what I can figure out. I'll post anything worth reporting...

thanks rory for your info. since the Axis 221 has the IR Cut Filter, it seems like they intended this camera to work under IR illumination, but they have only 1 lens. The pentax lens they ship apparently is not compensated for IR, so that is confusing to me. That would seem to indicate they made it work good in low light conditions, but not necessarily IR conditions. If I buy a IR compensated lens, then does that mean it is optimized for IR and not normal light wavelengths ? it seems that ideally you would need 2 lenses, or two independent settings, one for day and one for night to make it work perfect...right ?

thanks guys for the help. I was looking at the Computar lens and wondered if it was a good one. Sounds like it is. Yeah, I am going nuts with the IR part. I will try Chad's suggestions. Initially when I tested the stock setup for the Axis 221, it was a good image, but got really degraded with the xavee lens and the IR lamp. thanks again !!!

hi, yes thanks. I got the Axis 221 which has the IR Cut filter. I just posted about this camera, it is giving me problems...

responding concerning the LukWerks system, the "DVR" is their software on a pc, which works pretty good IMHO. The cameras are also LukWerks. I think LukWerks is a "packaged" version of HomePlug.

there are some great threads in this forum on the subject. from what I know, megapixel cameras are ip based, so you will have to have a network setup to connect the cameras. They will eat up a lot of bandwidth, so you should do calculations first. Your recording system (PC) will need to be robust enough to keep up with the data from the cameras, running something like LuxRiot. Megapixel cameras will eat up lots of storage space too, another thing to consider.

yes, I tried the Lukwerks system. it is pretty nice, if it works. I tried it in one home, and could not get the cameras to connect to the server on certain circuits. I still am puzzled why it didnt work. another thing is, I could not have battery backup on these cameras, since they derive their power from the AC. their outside camera does not have IR, and the lens is not replacable. so that was another issue. although their inside camera does have an IR kit. so if you don't care about those things, I thought the motion detection worked really well and the software is pretty nice too.

hi , thanks for the reply. I am considering a Axis 221 cam, not megapixel, but with the progressive scan CCD and MJPEG compression it should be pretty cool. I am running the wireless through a Engenius E3220 bridge to a standard wireless router (linksys). the camera is connected to the E3220. You are right the link is weak and getting about 1 Mbps throughput, a far cry from the blazing 54 Mbps that I'd like to get a chunk of. So putting a good antenna should help a lot...thanks.

I think in that case it is just FTP. you have to have FTP server running to accept connections from the cameras.

how about LuxRiot ??

I read a thread on wireless IP systems in this forum, and looks like I should convert to a 5Ghz AP for starters.