Camera suggestion for tough lighting situation at front door

[ronp 0]

I've got a tough lighting situation at my front door. It currently has a cheapie 1/3" 520TVL 3.6mm IR bullet that does not have any OSD adjustments. On bright afternoons it's pretty worthless for IDing a person - see below.

 

Would a camera with BLC, D-WDR, and AGC settings, say like the Dahua ESCEB650-1 or something else under $100, allow me to adjust it to get a decent image day and night? The entry lights are on a motion sensor so at night the IR will be used until someone walks onto the porch. The lights are bright enough to switch the current camera from b/w to color.

 

Ron

[Dipol_CCTV 0]

It might, but I guess the real problem is with placing the camera. Its just not the good spot. And no enhancing algorithms will be able to render 100% good image.

I'd say You should look for new place to mount it and also ifYou consider looking for a new cam, day n night porpoise, ICR is a must.

[Toaster 0]

This thread brings up a great problem, which I'm facing also. FRONT DOOR CAMERA PLACEMENT.

 

By placing the camera ABOVE the door, gets the tops of peoples heads more than face shots. Putting a camera "eye level" creates other problems, people being able to touch and manipulate the camera (cover it with their hands, touch it, adjust it, move it, steal it, damage it, etc)

 

The small covert camera's I've seen are NEVER IP66+ rated, so can't be used outside. So what do you do?

[nDAlk90 0]

Put the camera on the the side wall looking at the door. Something like this perhaps.

 

http://www.laba.com/cctv/images/DSC00911.JPG

 

This thread brings up a great problem, which I'm facing also. FRONT DOOR CAMERA PLACEMENT.

 

By placing the camera ABOVE the door, gets the tops of peoples heads more than face shots. Putting a camera "eye level" creates other problems, people being able to touch and manipulate the camera (cover it with their hands, touch it, adjust it, move it, steal it, damage it, etc)

 

The small covert camera's I've seen are NEVER IP66+ rated, so can't be used outside. So what do you do?

[johnnycw 0]

I've been impressed with the CNB Blue-i DBB-24VF's ability to handle similar conditions. Been testing one the last few weeks. However the DBB-24VF is an indoor camera and no IR though CNB does have several other Blue-i models. The DBB-24VF does perform very well in low light so IR isn't necessary if there is at least some ambient lighting.

[GrouchoBoucho 0]

blc will help, wdr will help... the gold standard for this sort of thing is panasonic superdynamic cameras - wv-cw484 or 504 for a dome model. not cheap, but they do the job.

 

come to think of it, i have a bnib cw484 sitting around, pm me if you wanna talk turkey

[ronp 0]

I put the camera in its current location because I wanted to catch people as they approach the porch and the door - face on. I could move the camera further out along the wall, but still under the porch, pointing it back towards the door but then I would really only get the back of the person's head. With a 3.6mm lens I would probably still get some of the bright light from outside the porch. I don't know where else to put it.

 

My short-term solution is a piece of electrical tape over the lens masking the bright areas. I can't see people walking up but can once they are at the door.

 

If you think a camera with BLC and WDR setting will help I'll give one a try.

[yakky 0]

A camera with WDR will do fine in that situation. CNB 24VF series or Qvis Eye34s have worked well for me.

[johnnycw 0]

If you think a camera with BLC and WDR setting will help I'll give one a try.

 

CNB's Blue-i models have those and other features specifically intended for the challange you have.

[digiblur 0]

I had this same issue with my carport. The camera was blinded by the sun during the middle of the day. So I ended up having to situate the camera where it couldn't "see" the direct sunlight. But then I cut off part of the area I wanted to see as well. So I ended up with another camera that covered this with the sunlight at it's back. Kinda double coverage but it is the carport after all and I wanted to make sure it was covered in all lighting situations.

[mike_va 0]

The small covert camera's I've seen are NEVER IP66+ rated, so can't be used outside. So what do you do?

Here's what I did:

 

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=29539&p=200838#p200838

 

Even if you deal with the WDR issue (and the 484 is very good at this, also the sony 593 I think was the model) there is absolutely no substitute for a face level camera.

[shockwave199 0]

It can be done and it doesn't have to be a super expensive camera to do it. This camera is a gadspot with no osd- everything is auto. BLC, WDR in there. This shot is 3pm, not quite as bright as 12pm. But there is still of a good deal bright/contrast that it has to digest. I don't think it's as extreme as the OP's pic, but without a decent camera making it look acceptable it would be way out of balance and I would be in pretty dark shade right there- probably no ID to the shot. This was a nice camera for 70 bucks last year, but they sold out. You might consider a GS830SM from them as a good camera under 100 bucks. The second pic is something you may want to consider, which is the approach to your front door. That's the approach to my front door from my driveway. Two cameras is sometimes better than one not handling anything in the shot very well. Good luck.

 

 

[ipvision 0]

I've got a tough lighting situation at my front door. It currently has a cheapie 1/3" 520TVL 3.6mm IR bullet that does not have any OSD adjustments. On bright afternoons it's pretty worthless for IDing a person - see below.

 

Would a camera with BLC, D-WDR, and AGC settings, say like the Dahua ESCEB650-1 or something else under $100, allow me to adjust it to get a decent image day and night? The entry lights are on a motion sensor so at night the IR will be used until someone walks onto the porch. The lights are bright enough to switch the current camera from b/w to color.

 

Ron

 

A good WDR would fix that issue.

[matjaz 0]

i have situation like you and foud that cameras with Pixim realy works miracles in such cases. It has cmos and is capable of procesing image on pixel base and not on frame base .

 

Here are some generic models for reference

http://www.ebax.si/app/trg/index.php/cameras-cctv-pixim-camera-c-21_404?language=en ( for info only, they dont sell to usa)

[Toaster 0]

i have situation like you and foud that cameras with Pixim realy works miracles in such cases. It has cmos and is capable of procesing image on pixel base and not on frame base .

 

Here are some generic models for reference

http://www.ebax.si/app/trg/index.php/cameras-cctv-pixim-camera-c-21_404?language=en ( for info only, they dont sell to usa)

 

Are you saying a CMOS camera will handle the shadows better than CCD? Hmm... anyone? I don't have any cmos cameras to test, can anyone verify this?

[matjaz 0]

http://www.pixim.com/images/side-by-side-images

"Because each pixel has its own analog-to-digital converter and the information generated is captured and processed independently, each pixel in effect acts as its own camera. The exposure time for each pixel is adjusted to handle the unique lighting conditions at that pixel location in the image sensor array. A product built with the Digital Pixel System platform essentially has hundreds of thousands of individual cameras, each of which produces the best image possible. These images are then combined to create a high quality video frame or picture.

 

In contrast, other technologies typically set one exposure time for the frame and sample each pixel at that time – resulting in images with some pixels that are underexposed (too dark) and some that are overexposed (too bright)."

[Toaster 0]

So are we talking about only the pixim products, or are we talking about cmos cameras in general. Sounds like your saying the pixim brand camera's.........................?

[matjaz 0]

no,pixim is chip producer only ( like Sonys Effio), he dont have any cameras