Hikvision camera, what can I expect for day vs night?

[Linwood 0]

New to this whole arena. I have four hikvision dc-2cd2332-I cameras up, and mostly they are working OK as I work through software issues. I say "ok" without being sure what to expect, though.

 

I have a real issue with night performance. in part this is due to close objects being too bright and the camera adjusting based on that. But I also just plain have an issue with range. The two attached shots do NOT have close objects, really, they are a from-above view of the driveway. This is a 4mm lens and the camera is at about 16', the car is about 20' away, the driveway maybe 50-60'.

 

To me the night shot is way too dark, certainly not the 60' range the camera is reported to have. On the other hand, I can increase the brightness considerably in the configuration options -- but then the day washes out. These two shots are a compromise - brightness raised enough to get some night visibility, the daytime sun is completely blown out (WDR is on and set to 21, brightness is 65, gain 59, shutter 1/60th).

 

The fundamental problem is a good setting for night blows out the day image, and a good day image is way too dark at night. Incidentally I can get a VERY good daytime shot, and better (though not good) night time, with manual adjustments for each. These two again are a compromise half way between, and so both are bad - just not as bad as the opposite if I tune for day, or for night.

 

So I see the camera can switch on a schedule instead, then (and only then apparently) you can use some different exposure settings. There are two problems with that -- the time is not adjusted for daylight, and secondly if the outside (white) lights come on, it will not switch off IR.

 

Is this just the way it is with these cameras without separate IR illumination? Am I missing something in how to set these up?

 

Bad camera choice and others are much better at this?

 

I think I can script something to allow for sunset time and reset the camera by code, that's next on my list, but really more looking for a sanity check - is this just how it is?

[Securame 0]

Those two images look both very bad. Either you have a bad camera, which would be strange if you say you have 4pc, or you are doing something wrong. Both a night time and a day time shot with a default 2CD2332 shoud look a lot better than those screeshots.

 

In fact it seems from the night time shot that the led array is barely working. How are you powering the cameras? Have you waled to the cameras at night, and seen if the array led is on?

[Boogieman 1]

Those look like substream images....turn off smart IR...return camera to defaul and start again..you are doing something wrong.

[Linwood 0]

I'm sorry, I think I have mislead you based on trying to isolate the issue.

 

These were screen shots from the montage of Zoneminder, and so had been resized and are awfully poor in terms of sharpness, etc. That was not the point. The actual full resolution image is very sharp and nice, and I can post if helpful.

 

I showed these only to show the relative brightness of the images, not to judge acuity.

 

My question really relates to illumination at night, and the need to crank up the brightness (or the WDR) which in turn blows out the daylight images.

 

I can post the full resolution image if desired (2048x1536) but am quite happy with the sharpness -- it's the brightness/exposure/DR that concerns me.

 

And again -- I can reduce the brightness and the daylight shoot looks great. I can increase the brightness and the nighttime shot is decent, if not great. But there's no one setting where both are good.

 

Finally the daytime shot was early AM where most of the scene was in shade, which is the worst case for the over-exposed background. Right now for example the overall image is reasonably well lit with 95% in sun. The camera is adjusting reasonably to overall brightness, but I have it biased a bit too bright in order to have the nighttime shot have enough light.

 

My thinking is that the fundamental problem is inadequate nighttime illumination; if that was brighter I could bring the overall brightness down and the daytime shot would look good.

 

I'm asking if this is a normal kind of situation, day vs. night.

[Boogieman 1]

I'm sorry, I think I have mislead you based on trying to isolate the issue.

 

These were screen shots from the montage of Zoneminder, and so had been resized and are awfully poor in terms of sharpness, etc. That was not the point. The actual full resolution image is very sharp and nice, and I can post if helpful.

 

I showed these only to show the relative brightness of the images, not to judge acuity.

 

My question really relates to illumination at night, and the need to crank up the brightness (or the WDR) which in turn blows out the daylight images.

 

I can post the full resolution image if desired (2048x1536) but am quite happy with the sharpness -- it's the brightness/exposure/DR that concerns me.

 

And again -- I can reduce the brightness and the daylight shoot looks great. I can increase the brightness and the nighttime shot is decent, if not great. But there's no one setting where both are good.

 

Finally the daytime shot was early AM where most of the scene was in shade, which is the worst case for the over-exposed background. Right now for example the overall image is reasonably well lit with 95% in sun. The camera is adjusting reasonably to overall brightness, but I have it biased a bit too bright in order to have the nighttime shot have enough light.

 

My thinking is that the fundamental problem is inadequate nighttime illumination; if that was brighter I could bring the overall brightness down and the daytime shot would look good.

 

I'm asking if this is a normal kind of situation, day vs. night.

You are not setting the camera correctly...to compensate for the shadows enable WDR but keep it low, 10-15 or else the night image will be affected.

It looks like you have smart IR enabled, disable it..that camera should produce more IR than that. Also it woudnt hurt if you turned on some exterior lighting. I get much better images than that, everyone here does. You have something set wrong.

The new 4mp hikvisions have better night/low light sensitivity

[Linwood 0]

Will try those tonight, especially smart IR which is ON. WDR is on but higher, will try bringing it down.

 

Exterior lighting: no, I'm very much a believer in reducing (visible) light pollution, having been into astrophotography for a while. So I need to find a path that uses only IR.

 

I'll get some fresh comparisons tonight. I also ordered an illuminator to experiment with.

[Securame 0]

My question really relates to illumination at night, and the need to crank up the brightness (or the WDR) which in turn blows out the daylight images.

 

I wasn't speaking about resolution, I know the images have been resized. I was saying that your night image looks like crap compared to a default camera, and your day image also looks like crap compared to a default camera.

 

I would go back to defaults, and start from there. If your night time image looks like that on default, there might be something wrong with the camera. But you do have 3pc more, don't you? You should be able to compare.

[Linwood 0]

Well, ok, fair enough. Let me get some more samples. Actually it may be tomorrow night, have a baseball game tonight to photograph and may not take the time afterwards.

[MaxIcon 0]

What you need to do for starters is set different profiles for day and night. For instance, WDR is invaluable in the daytime, but causes noise and washout at night.

 

On the Image page, select Scheduled-Switch, and set the approximate day and night switch times. My 2032s actuall ignore the switch times and switch profiles when the day/night sensor switches.

 

From there, you'll see which ones you can change in each profile, and figure out which are optimal for each setting.

[Linwood 0]

What you need to do for starters is set different profiles for day and night. For instance, WDR is invaluable in the daytime, but causes noise and washout at night.

 

That's my plan, though I'm annoyed it doesn't know when sunset is, so am working on a little perl program to do the switch under program control. That way it can still be "auto" but will switch the exposure/wdr/etc settings on a schedule, so if the outside lights are turned on it can still switch off IR.

 

Was going to work on it today but got off on a zoneminder building tangent, but did do a quick proof of concept, it's real easy to push up settings with curl or equivalent.

 

An illuminator due in tomorrow and a new camera (a bullet this time as I couldn't find a 6mm in the style i had bought), so I will have some more hardware to experiment with at all. Will follow up later.

[Linwood 0]

I wanted to follow up on this. I finally got around to writing a script to allow me to upload configurations based on sunrise/sunset, and change the settings. One of the biggest improvements was being able to drop to a very low shutter at night (accepting blur for less noise) and a much higher during the day. And have it happen at whatever time I want. I can also then tweak this, as I have a couple that get washed out at sunset and sunrise, so I might have a couple more adjustment points.

 

But once done, and tweak each camera a bit differently, I think I have pretty decent day/night photos. Copies below if interested. The main one I cannot improve too much is the 3rd image -- the door is just to the right of the grill in deep shadow. But then again if someone comes in there, they have to come into the light to DO anything, so I am not worried. They look pretty decent at full resolution (2048x1536).

 

 

[Securame 0]

Both day ands night looking a lot better than on your first screenshots. Good job! " title="Applause" />

[badmop 0]

Looks good, can I come swim in your almost Texas state shaped pool?

haha

[Linwood 0]

Looks good, can I come swim in your almost Texas state shaped pool?

haha

 

I never noticed that, but proof of texas ancestry would be required.

 

Fish eye lenses sure affect perspective.