Example of dome vs turret in rain at night

[Mr_D]

I know its been discussed before, but I thought I'd share some side-by-side photos of domes vs. turrets with IR enabled in the rain.

"EastFront" is a Dahua HDBW4231F-E2-M/M12 dual starlight mini-wedge (dome) mounted on a PFB203W wall mount bracket so the domes face downward. "Gate" is a Dahua HDW4231EM-AS fixed starlight turret on a PFA130 waterproof junction box. Both are essentially directly exposed to the elements as the eaves are short and several feet above, providing little to no protection.

When the rain comes at just the right angle to blast the dome, you can see the result. When the rain slows or the wind changes, the drops on the dome do dissipate fairly quickly. Turning off the IR virtually eliminates this issue. (middle image) The shot from the gate camera was also taken during heavy rain and blowing drops will show up and even trigger the motion sensor, but do not obstruct the view even with the IR enabled.

For me, living in a relatively dry climate, the tradeoff of being able to cover the entire side of the house with one camera was worth having the view obstructed occasionally. Your climate and needs may vary. I just wanted to show what can happen during a heavy wind-driven downpour to exposed cameras.

 

[nbstl68]

Once the rain evaporates after a few cycles of that are you seeing any image degedation due to water spots left behind or do you have to clean the domes every so often?

 

[mat200]

Once the rain evaporates after a few cycles of that are you seeing any image degedation due to water spots left behind or do you have to clean the domes every so often?

A lot of that will depend on that particulate matter in the rain / fog ( example salt air, dust, .. ).

Normally I would expect more issues with light misty conditions combined with dust / salt particulate matter.

 

[Dodutils]

I do not use dome but turret and my main issue is spider web, I have to clean a few cams because of IR reflexion at night and now I prefer to turn off the internal IR light of camera and use an external IR projector that I put near the camera but not too close.

 

[fenderman]

I do not use dome but turret and my main issue is spider web, I have to clean a few cams because of IR reflexion at night and now I prefer to turn off the internal IR light of camera and use an external IR projector that I put near the camera but not too close.

Its very rare to have spider web issues with a turret. I cant remember the last time I ever had to clean a turret. You must be using an eyeball camera with the IR leds still surrounding the lens.

 

[Dodutils]

Its very rare to have spider web issues with a turret. I cant remember the last time I ever had to clean a turret. You must be using an eyeball camera with the IR leds still surrounding the lens.

You are right I do not use turret but bulllet (mismatched the two words).

 

[LoinKing]

For me, living in a relatively dry climate, the tradeoff of being able to cover the entire side of the house with one camera was worth having the view obstructed occasionally. Your climate and needs may vary. I just wanted to show what can happen during a heavy wind-driven downpour to exposed cameras.

Have you tried applying Rain-X to the dome camera to see if it helps during rain? Some people are reporting good results because the rain drops don't stay on the lens. I really want to use Dome camera (facing downwards) on the gate, cause its hard for people to tell which way its pointing at, but concerned about rain because we get 2 months of near continuous rains each year. Rest of the time is pretty dry, so should be fine.