HikvisionDS-2CD2132-I poor image quality of attempted burglr

[old 0]

Okay, I'm still a noob around here. I really need some help. My Hikvision DS-2CD2132-I captured an image of someone banging loudly on the side of my house, or on a window, at 3:00am. I think he was trying to break in. Crazy banging; I though it was just a drunk at the front door, but this is different. I had just upgraded the synology drivers for my camera and this allowed me to set the recording to 1080p. Despite this, I cannot even see the person's face despite that fact that my motion detection light triggered and lit up his face. I got three separate videos of him. One of him out front on the sidewalk where he looks right into the camera, about 25' away. His face is lit up my my porch light. I got another capture where he enters the property, and another of him exiting. Here's an example of how poor my video feed is:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4Xy614LITgtaHViS1NFV3p3N2s/edit?usp=sharing

He's walking about 15' from the camera. The lens is a 2.8mm lens. I have a 4mm Hikvision DS-2CD2032-I that I can put in this camera's place.

Anyone have any suggestions for how to improve the video quality? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[johnyfalco 0]

I think the perp was just not in the field of view of that camera. The camera quality looks ok.

[Securame 0]

Image quality on that video looks great. I wouldn't say "poor image quality", but more like poor camera placement.

 

I can only see one video, and not three.

[old 0]

oh okay. Well here's one where the perp is looking directly at the camera, lit up by my motion light:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4Xy614LITgtQ1BrdWJFbzZCdzQ/edit?usp=sharing

 

My friend is coming over tomorrow to help me install a previously planned camera addition on that side yard. Sorry, I'm new at this. Does anyone have some advice for camera placement, like put a 4mm hick bullet above the front door aimed at the street, and another under the soffit above the side yard, aimed toward the street?

 

EDIT: Thanks for letting me know it's not an issue of camera image quality. That is helpful. I really like this community. Thanks for the support so far!!

[shockwave199 0]

Wide overview shots are okay to include in your setup, but whenever possible frame a shot at a definitive choke point. Meaning, a tight shot of an area that anyone who is walking there must walk through. Your front door camera can be considered a choke point- anyone coming up to your door must be directly in front of that camera which gives you a good shot. But as you see, the rest of the image does very little in terms of ID. It can give other useful information, such as what direction they came from and which direction they left from. That information can lead to a positive ID from other surveillance systems. But for your own chance at a positive ID shot, you'll need to cover smaller choke point areas. Keep that in mind when planning and aiming.

[old 0]

Wide overview shots are okay to include in your setup, but whenever possible frame a shot at a definitive choke point. Meaning, a tight shot of an area that anyone who is walking there must walk through. Your front door camera can be considered a choke point- anyone coming up to your door must be directly in front of that camera which gives you a good shot. But as you see, the rest of the image does very little in terms of ID. It can give other useful information, such as what direction they came from and which direction they left from. That information can lead to a positive ID from other surveillance systems. But for your own chance at a positive ID shot, you'll need to cover smaller choke point areas. Keep that in mind when planning and aiming.

Boom. Thanks shockwave!!! The mystery is now clear to me, or at least significantly clearer That's what I needed.

 

EDIT: oh and I see you have another helpful video, one on camera placement. I'll have to watch that one through when I have time.

I went ahead and boosted the resolution to 2048x1536.

 

EDIT 2: okay that higher resolution seems to help a bit.

[Kawboy12R 0]

Shockwave is right. That 2.8mm is a great situational awareness cam and can give you a pretty good mugshot of folks that come right up to the door but useless at generating mugshots at 25', especially at night. He didn't come to the door though so your ID ability is very limited. It's very hard to cover the outdoors and get a good face shot unless someone comes right up to a wideangle cam or you have cams with long lenses for closeups covering driveways, sidewalks, gates, etc. The cams with long lenses will be almost useless for telling you what's going on quickly if you hear a thump, but if someone's thumping at a distance they're your only shot at getting a close picture of them.

 

My rule of thumb for home coverage is a reasonably wide angle cam on every door, then add cams to complete coverage around the home (windows, play areas, outbuildings, etc), THEN add specialty long lens cams to catch faces and hopefully plates in your driveway, gates, sidewalk, or wherever. A driveway should have at least a 6mm, possibly a 12mm cam even if you can park fairly close to the camera. Hopefully you can overlap a wideangle door cam to cover a driveway to complement the zoom cam with narrow field of view that's hopefully shooting straight up the driveway. That way you can tell what they did in the big picture, plus hopefully get just one clear frame of their face to give the police. That's all you need the specialty cam for- ONE clear zoom shot. It's trickier than you think and can depend on luck unless you know or can control exactly where they have to travel. Then add lighting and control the camera angle to their face (no high mounts on the specialty cams looking down at their bald spots or being blocked by the bills of their caps or hoodies). High mounts are decent for telling you what's going on but not for who is doing it, especially if they're walking with their head down looking at the ground.

[buellwinkle 0]

As much as 6mm & 12mm lens cameras are confusing to newbies, that's what I use on commercial locations for close-up cameras. I'll use a 2.8mm or 4mm for the overview camera. The rule of thumb is that a face should be 85 pixels tall and that works during the day, but at night with noise (or worse, noise reduction) takes like half the pixels away so I strive for double that number and my videos have been successful in criminal prosecutions.

 

To give you an idea, at home, I use a 6mm and a 12mm cameras for close-up at choke points. If you never used one, try it, it will open your eyes. Sure, your viewing angle is half, but what you see in that half is double the value.

[old 0]

Kawboy and Buellwinkle - thanks!! You both were super helpful. Guess I need to upgrade my server and buy more cameras for my new setup. Combo wide and close-up shots.

[RDC 0]

old - thank you for posting your experience and the great video examples. It is very helpful to the rest of us choosing camera lenses and positions.

It will be interesting to see the 4mm in its place and the difference.