Tweaking IR Settings - Poor lighting at night

[johnnydough]

Hi there.
I have a IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E running through Blue Iris.
It's pointing down my 70yard driveway that is lined with trees.
Initially when I set it up the night vision was great - I could see down the end of the drive no worries.
Then oneday I noticed the camera was all out of focus, it had focused in on the closet tree. During the day it looks fine, just at night it's horrible.
My other cameras still work great at night.

I don't know what I did to disrupt this.
So I have two questions:

1) Is there a way to reset the cameras settings back to default? I have tried the reboot camera function through Blue Iris but that hasn't changed anything.
2) Is there a way to change the IR settings on a camera? I remember a while back I was in an advanced mode where you could change all the night vision / IR settings. I can't for the life of me figure out how to access these settings again?

Regards

 

[sebastiantombs]

You need to control the camera through its own web interface, not Blue Iris. Simply enter the IP address of the camera into your browser, then enter the correct credentials to log into it. Got to settings and you can set everything there.

 

[Plug Nickel]

Clean the lens. The IR LED's behind it are "flairing" on the dirty lense.

 

[johnnydough]

Thanks all!

So I got the ladder out and wiped the camera lens. That didn't do anything.
And then I logged into the camera directly (thanks @sebastiantombs !) and played around with the IR settings. This was what I was looking for!

I have snapped some photos to show you what I'm seeing.

Photo 1 is what I see during the day from that camera.
2 - is night time with ZoomPro IR on
3 - is with SmartIR on
4 - is with IR switched off. Not you can only see the front tree. It used to show the entire drive way.
Photo 5 shows the camera next to it with SmartIR on (note it was a blurry pic, it looks clear on the monitor)

Am I doing someting wrong?

Or is the camera faulty?


Oh and another question - do these cameras allow microphone recording? I see the setting, but can't figure out how to get the audio to play back?
Regards

 

[sebastiantombs]

Looking at your screen shots the profile is set to "Day" for night use. That needs to be set to "Night".

 

[looney2ns]

You are getting IR reflections from the tree or an overhang above your camera.
You need to setup a "Night" profile, and a separate "Day" Profile in the camera.
Adjust setting for night, then adjust settings for day.
Then in profile management, you need to set it to Day/Night.

 

[johnnydough]

You are getting IR reflections from the tree or an overhang above your camera.

Ahh this appears to be it!

I zoomed all the way out and yeah 1/3 of the picture is the roof overhang, and when I turn on the IR over course this is lit up extremely bright. When I zoom in on the drive however I don't see this overhang.

I'll have to get the tools out and lower the position a little.

Saying that - I was playinga round with the 'Backlight' settings last night (IR was switched off) and I managed to get a full view of the drive at night - but then again the moon was out so that would have helped.

Anyway, thanks for this help here. I'll lower the camera down to clear the overhang.
Regards