Hikvision colorvue image settings in darkness causing problems?

[florus]

Hi everyone, im an owner of an NVR DS-7604NI-K1 / 4P with two colorvue camera's DS-2CD2347G2-LU. This is the first time i have owned camera's so im still looking to get the best set up. I watched several turtorials and set up te config as showed (and i think is suitable vor my situation).

In daylight the camera's are awesome. No problems whatsoever. At night the camera's are great when using the smart supplement light. But, this is not something i want on the entire night. I have a hue sensor set up that will activate when i registers something. This will supply my garden with plenty of light, not needing the smart light on all night. (This is what happends, when it night, the light of the camera is active all the time till sunrise).

Problem 1
My garden is dark, no light are on by stand. I turned off the smart light.
The image at night is very grainy, like shown below. My garden light is +- 3 meters left from my camera.

These are my camera settings:

Can anyone suggest me how to fix this grainy image in darkness? (Is there a setting im overlooking?)

Problem 1
My camera on the porch seems to be overexposed bt the light of the streetlatern, in the front of my house. Its not on my porch, but just 1 meter on the left of that. The image im receiving is as follows:

These are my settings:

Settings white balance, image enhancement and video adjustment is the same as above.

Is there a setting to fix the over exposure?


Thanks in advance,
with kind regards,

Florus.

 

[florus]

As an addition: The image stays grainy, even if i turn on the lights in my garden.

 

[Dan]

Hi @florus

For the first issue with the garden camera, I can only recommend that you try slowing down the exposure time (currently 1/12, try 1/6) and increasing the digital noise reduction. If it is still quite grainy after adjusting those settings I think it is simply too dark for a ColorVu camera in this location (we don't usually recommend people install ColorVu cameras in back gardens because they are often the darkest part of a property)

For the 2nd issue, I would recommend speeding up the exposure time (try 1/25 and if not enough try 1/50). The ColorVu cameras use 1/12 by default which is a slower exposure than most other Hikvision cameras, this allows more light into the sensor to achieve the colour images in low light but if you have a powerful light source hitting the camera a slow exposure will cause over exposure.

 

[cymruchris]

For areas like your back garden where it's completely dark at night, you really need a camera with a built in infra-red source. The camera you have doesn't have one, hence you have nearly no picture at night. Options would be - change camera - or introduce decent lighting so that the camera can operate through the night. Likely the best option is to replace the camera. I would caution against setting the shutter speed as slow as 1/6 though, as any fast action movement is going to be fairly blurry. I usually set any of my cameras to a minimum of 1/50th of a second, but preferably 1/100th of a second. The higher the number, the faster the shutter, the better the freeze of movement, but more light needed on your subject in order to get a decent image.

 

[florus]

Hi Dan and Cymruchris thanks for both reply's. I changed the exposure time to 1/100. I will check if this changes things. And i increased the digital noise reduction.


One thing i just noticed is that the camera of the driveway has firmware version V5.7.3 build 220112 and in the garden V5.5.801 build 210727. Both camera's are both at the same time, both the same type. I cant find this download in the hikvision portal. Seems strange the camera's dont have the same firmware version right?

The grainy is the worst around 03:00 o clock. I manually put on my hue lamp, to see if that makes a difference. Its absolutely terrible at 0300. You cant see s**t. If you have more or other ideas, please let me know. Its much appreciated.

With kind regards.

 

[Dan]

Hi @florus

initially, I thought it might be that you have different generations of the same model because originally Hikvision released the 2xx7G2 models under the G3 platform/firmware, then later on they released a new generation of the same models which had the same model numbers but the model numbers ended with a (C) to signify that they are G5 platform/firmware cameras.

This means that some users can end up with some of their cameras being G3 and some being G5 which would mean they use different firmware.

But in your case I think they are both G5 firmware cameras and that v5.5.801 firmware is just an earlier version, just to double check can you please login to both cameras and then under Configuration > System > System Settings > Basic Information can you confirm the 'Firmware Version Property'?

 

[florus]

Hi Dan,

These are the details.

Driveway:
Model = DS-2CD2347G2-LU
Firmware version = V5.7.3 build 220112
Encoding version = V7.3 build 211223
Web Version = V4.0.1 build 211229
Plugin Version = 3.0.7.29
Firmware Version property = B-R-G5-0

Garden:

Model = DS-2CD2347G2-LU
Firmware Version = V5.5.801 build 210727
Encoding Version = V7.3 build 210721
Web Version = V4.0.1 build 210329
Plugin Version = 3.0.7.29
Firmware Version Property = B-R-G5-0

 

[Dan]

Thanks @florus

they are both G5 cameras so the latest firmware will be v5.7.3_Build220216

You can update both to this version because although the first camera is running v5.7.3 it is actually a slightly earlier build version.

If you have not updated the firmware before you will find the instructions on how to update the cameras in the below forum thread:

How-to: - Part 8: How do I update the firmware on my Hikvision device?

It is vital that you keep the firmware of your Hikvision devices up-to-date, which means installing the newest version as soon as it becomes available. The best and easiest way to do this is to use the device’s web browser interface. The below steps will show you where to find the newest...

www.use-ip.co.uk

 

[florus]

Thanks Dan, i will upgrade and do some more testing the upcoming days.
With kind regards.

 

[florus]

Hi @Dan ,

I updated the camera's. They are both on the same version. I have turned on the white light on, Light Brightness Control at manual, setting it to 1/100.
It solved the grainy image. So i guess this is what ill be using or just turn on the back light, on the lowest level possible.

I have noticed one other weird thing. My garden camera keeps reverting to a max bitrate of 3072:

Can this be because of the Video Type is set to Video Stream? What affect can this have on my 'image', as in the grainy part?

With kind regards,

 

[JB1970]

Hi @Dan ,

I updated the camera's. They are both on the same version. I have turned on the white light on, Light Brightness Control at manual, setting it to 1/100.
It solved the grainy image. So i guess this is what ill be using or just turn on the back light, on the lowest level possible.

I have noticed one other weird thing. My garden camera keeps reverting to a max bitrate of 3072:

View attachment 8041

Can this be because of the Video Type is set to Video Stream? What affect can this have on my 'image', as in the grainy part?

With kind regards,

Make sure you set the video settings using the NVR Camera Settings web page, not the cameras webpage. The settings you enter on the NVR will copy across to the camera. If you set them directly on the camera, the NVR won't refresh the values shown in it's own config pages until either the NVR reboots or the camera disconnects/reconnects from the NVR. You can end up with a situation where the NVR shows one set of values that don't match the camera. The Hikvision recommended bit rate for H265 at 25FPS is 4096.