corenele 0 Posted March 26, 2011 i just got my first decent camera i have always used box store crap.after reading the little manual that came with it i am more confused now then before.i have a little hand held portable laser projector that i hooked up to the camera and played with the settings .there is alot of noise in the picture and the picture is not that sharp on the edges like it is out of focus . my camera is mounted at the front of my house with a 40 watt bulb at my front door about 5 ft behind my camera and a street light across the street so i think thats lots of light .the only way i can get that noise out of the picture is to turn down the contrast on the dvr so low that it makes the picture dim.i was just wondering if anyone here has played with the settings on these cameras to get a better picture .i know that each location of a camera will be different than mine but need a good starting point with these settings that i really dont know what half of them do. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
3RDIGLBL 0 Posted March 26, 2011 I've installed a lot of CNB cameras and I find that the default settings for the most part work fine. You didn't mention the kind of area that you are trying to capture. You mention it is on your house so are you looking at your front door or the whole driveway? If the area is sort of lit the camera will make up for the lack of light by increasing it's gain and it's shutter speed will decrease to provide you a picture but this comes at a cost of noise. Can you attach a screen shot of the noice you're talking about because this may help others here to see what it is you may be missing. The monalisa camera which it appears you have is a decent camera for night time but it will need some light or IR to flood the area you're trying to monitor. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted March 26, 2011 default settings are actually best. Turn up the sharpness will result in more noise. Lower the AGC will result in less noise but darker image. Make sure it is focused properly. If its too dark it will compensate and then you will get noise, as with any camera the more light the better. Adjusting the gamma down to 0.35 will also make it slightly brighter. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SEANHAWG 1 Posted March 27, 2011 Screen Shots would be great. It sounds from your descript that you have enough light to not make the picture noisy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
corenele 0 Posted March 27, 2011 here is a screen shot like i said i have a light behind camera .i played a little with the settings today but they might as well been in chinese becouse i dont know what half of them do. i hope the noise comes up in the picture so maybe i can get some help to get a clearer picture Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted March 27, 2011 That picture looks pretty good for ANY analog camera. Are you sure the problem isn't with your DVR setup? Does the "noise" look like shifting color patterns? Because that's not uncommon for B&W cameras with certain codecs when the DVR is set to record in color... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
corenele 0 Posted March 27, 2011 yes the picture looks alot better on the net then it does on my screen .no i dont see any color shifting what i see is alot of very small grain like spots all over .when i crank up my contrast on the dvr it gets alot worse but when i turn it down till the grain goes away the picture is way to dim .i am very happy with the camera its alot better then my other 3 ir cams that i have im just looking for tweaks that can be done with the osd on the camera that may help get the grainy gone if possible . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rory 0 Posted March 27, 2011 are you using the VGA out from the DVR to a cheap PC LCD? If so alot of contrast is common also with some stand alones. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SEANHAWG 1 Posted March 28, 2011 I agree that the picture looks pretty good. If it looks different than that on the monitor than its probably a monitor issue. But just note, that you will always get a little bit of noise at night during low light settings, its usually never as clear as daytime. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites