IR Help for Utter Noob

[DJP31]

Thanks in anticipation. I must start by saying I know virtually nothing about photography or settings. I've had a Hikvision 2 camera set up installed and am very happy with it, apart from the night view.

From the limited understanding I've gained I think the infra red is set too high and washing out the images. That's the extent of my knowledge. I've posted a pic of the cameras I have, the settings page and 2 stills.

From this info can anyone tell me what settings I need to adjust to reduce the glare at night? I think I can set the cameras to change settings at night, but seeing as that time changes as the year wears on I'd rather have one setting and not have to worry.

Hope this is enough for an expert to help me. The installation was great, but thereafter it's pretty much off you go you're on your own. Many thanks.

 

[alastairstevenson]

From this info can anyone tell me what settings I need to adjust to reduce the glare at night?

Within the limitations of the 1080p Hikvision dome camera, I think your night time picture is OK.
It's a bit fuzzy - but that's a consequence of the low-light performance of those specific cameras.
What could be important though is how much blur there is with movement.

It seems to be mostly illuminated by lighting from other than the camera, which is not known for its strong IR.
The only glare is from the street lamp itself - and that's not in any way due to reflected IR from your camera.
The near items in view - which is where the camera IR would be brightest - look fine for no glare. Discounting the retro-reflective capabilities of the number plate, that's normal.

 

[DJP31]

Within the limitations of the 1080p Hikvision dome camera, I think your night time picture is OK.
It's a bit fuzzy - but that's a consequence of the low-light performance of those specific cameras.
What could be important though is how much blur there is with movement.

It seems to be mostly illuminated by lighting from other than the camera, which is not known for its strong IR.
The only glare is from the street lamp itself - and that's not in any way due to reflected IR from your camera.
The near items in view - which is where the camera IR would be brightest - look fine for no glare. Discounting the retro-reflective capabilities of the number plate, that's normal.

@alastairstevenson thank you for the reply, very helpful. Again you'll have to excuse my ignorance, but I should expect the red car to look like a white car at night? I had hoped that Reg plates would be decipherable at night but are you saying that won't happen because of their built in reflective properties?

As far as movement at night is concerned, I guess the best thing to do would be to download some footage and see how it looks.

Thanks.

 

[Jack B Nimble]

Love the electric car plugged in I wonder how they work in -40 c ?

 

[DJP31]

Love the electric car plugged in I wonder how they work in -40 c ?

Thanks! Living in the south east of England I hope never to find out! The battery doesn't like the cold, but Tesla's are extremely popular in Norway so they must be ok.




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[alastairstevenson]

but I should expect the red car to look like a white car at night?

It may depend on the specific pigment, but I see the same in my red car, looks very white under IR. (Infra red).
Wait till you see someone pass by wearing a reflective jacket. Some of those glow so brightly they are ghost like!

 

[DJP31]

It may depend on the specific pigment, but I see the same in my red car, looks very white under IR. (Infra red).
Wait till you see someone pass by wearing a reflective jacket. Some of those glow so brightly they are ghost like!

Ok thanks, I just wanted to make sure there wasn't something glaringly wrong (no pun intended) with my set up. I'll have a little play with the settings and then test some some sample playback.

So far the scariest thing I've seen is my own bald patch


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[bigredfish]

Really not a bad image at all. I'd bet that if you were to add another IR iluminator on the house in front of the car facing the car, you'll get better clarity and definition.

To alastairstevenson's point the real test is how things in motion look- cars, people. https://ipcamtalk.com/members/alastairstevenson.1907/

 

[DJP31]

Really not a bad image at all. I'd bet that if you were to add another IR iluminator on the house in front of the car facing the car, you'll get better clarity and definition.

To alastairstevenson's point the real test is how things in motion look- cars, people.

@bigredfish thanks for this, I will have a look at some footage. The streetlight opposite throws a fair bit of light in my direction, I don't know whether reducing the IR settings might help. I know so little about this it's embarrassing

 

[bigredfish]

You could also try adding more white light, I have 1200 lumen LED bulbs in my coach lights overlooking the driveway and leave them on all night. Yuuuge difference.

I'm not familiar with that camera, and I'm also still learning myself, but I would increase contrast, add a bit more sharpness, and max out the bitrate of the camera, then go out there and walk around your car and make sample clips with each setting change to see which combination makes the most improvement. Still images, particularly at night, are just about worthless to determine the quality of he video capture.

But in the end I've found nighttime video is all about the light (IR and/or white light)

 

[DJP31]

You could also try adding more white light, I have 1200 lumen LED bulbs in my coach lights overlooking the driveway and leave them on all night. Yuuuge difference.

I'm not familiar with that camera, and I'm also still learning myself, but I would increase contrast, add a bit more sharpness, and max out the bitrate of the camera, then go out there and walk around your car and make sample clips with each setting change to see which combination makes the most improvement. Still images, particularly at night, are just about worthless to determine the quality of he video capture.

But in the end I've found nighttime video is all about the light (IR and/or white light)

Thanks @bigredfish I'll give that a go. I have a rubbish single lamp (40 watt I think) in my porch light which comes on when triggered by the PIR. I could up the ante on that as well. I have no reason at all to expect to have to use any of this stuff in anger, but having gone to the trouble of having it installed I might as well get the best from it.