Camera Picture suddenly became dark?

[Canadaboi]

I have two cameras with the model number DS-2CD2387G2-LU and firmware is V5.7.3 build 220112. Using a NVR with the model number and firmware version of
DS-7608NI-I2 / 8P and V4.61.000 build 220507.

Just installed the system yesterday. When it became pitch black outside the cameras still showed a clear picture. Then all of a sudden around 1:25 am, the image became pitch black, only thing I could see is the brick wall beside the camera. Is there some setting that I can change to fix this?

 

[Dan]

Hi @Canadaboi

First of all, we would recommend updating the firmware of your Cameras & NVR, below are links to the latest versions:

DS-2CD2387G2-LU --- V5.7.13_230504
DS-7608NI-I2/8P --- V4.61.025_220905

If you need help installing the firmware you can find the instructions to do it in the below forum thread:

How-to: - How do I update the firmware on my Hikvision camera or NVR?

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...

forum.use-ip.co.uk

In regards to the night performance, are you able to share screenshots of the night image before & after 1:25 am?

If it is a privacy thing and you don't want to publish the images publicly on the forum you can always attach them to an email and send it to us at info@use-ip.co.uk, we will then look over the images and come back here with our thoughts on what the issue might be.

 

[Canadaboi]

Hi @Canadaboi

First of all, we would recommend updating the firmware of your Cameras & NVR, below are links to the latest versions:

DS-2CD2387G2-LU --- V5.7.13_230504
DS-7608NI-I2/8P --- V4.61.025_220905

If you need help installing the firmware you can find the instructions to do it in the below forum thread:

How-to: - How do I update the firmware on my Hikvision camera or NVR?

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...

forum.use-ip.co.uk

In regards to the night performance, are you able to share screenshots of the night image before & after 1:25 am?

If it is a privacy thing and you don't want to publish the images publicly on the forum you can always attach them to an email and send it to us at info@use-ip.co.uk, we will then look over the images and come back here with our thoughts on what the issue might be.

Sent to the email! Also are these firmware versions stable? I'm sort of afraid of updating the firmware as I've seen posts on here about it messing up their system

 

[Dan]

Thanks @Canadaboi

We are not aware of any major issues with these firmware versions so we would recommend updating to them just to rule out any firmware glitches causing this problem you are seeing.

Can you please post to this thread screenshots of your camera's video settings and image settings (especially the Day/Night switch settings)?

 

[Canadaboi]

Here are the pictures of the settings (the scene is also in Normal mode). I left everything to default other than turning on the white supplement light for that camera. I also successfully updated one of the cameras, I could wait and see if that fixes it before upgrading the NVR and the other camera, to see if it really was the camera's firmware

 

[Canadaboi]

Update, I checked the second camera that this occurred on and it seems the white supplemental light turned on (but for this camera at 1:42 am) and that made the quality worse. I will try turning the "Supplement Light Mode" to OFF on this second camera and see if the same thing occurs.

 

[Dan]

Thanks @Canadaboi

One other thing to try would be to change 'Day/Night Switch' setting from 'Auto' to 'Day' which will force the camera to stay in Day mode all the time.

From the footage you sent, I can see there is a couple of minutes of recording missing when the image quality changes and when it does go completely dark it looks like the camera's white light is reflecting off the white soffit next to the camera. this would suggest that although the image looks good the camera's sensor thinks it is too dark and is switching the camera into Night/white light mode, if you force it into Day mode you should keep that bright image all night.

I would point out one thing though, I assume to achieve such an incredibly bright image at 1am you must have the camera's Exposure Time set to 1/12 (or possibly even 1/6) which does appear to make the image very clear but if you walk through that scene when it is pitch black at night it is very like the motion recorded will be very blurry/distorted because a slow exposure time increases motion blur.

I would test this and if you are getting motion blur you will want to increase the exposure time to something like 1/25, this may make the scene darker and if it is looking dark at this kind midnight/1am time you might have to angle the camera away from the wall and re-enable the auto day/night switch so that the White light can come on to help illuminate the scene during these hours (without reflecting off the soffit).

 

[Canadaboi]

Thanks @Canadaboi

One other thing to try would be to change 'Day/Night Switch' setting from 'Auto' to 'Day' which will force the camera to stay in Day mode all the time.

From the footage you sent, I can see there is a couple of minutes of recording missing when the image quality changes and when it does go completely dark it looks like the camera's white light is reflecting off the white soffit next to the camera. this would suggest that although the image looks good the camera's sensor thinks it is too dark and is switching the camera into Night/white light mode, if you force it into Day mode you should keep that bright image all night.

I would point out one thing though, I assume to achieve such an incredibly bright image at 1am you must have the camera's Exposure Time set to 1/12 (or possibly even 1/6) which does appear to make the image very clear but if you walk through that scene when it is pitch black at night it is very like the motion recorded will be very blurry/distorted because a slow exposure time increases motion blur.

I would test this and if you are getting motion blur you will want to increase the exposure time to something like 1/25, this may make the scene darker and if it is looking dark at this kind midnight/1am time you might have to angle the camera away from the wall and re-enable the auto day/night switch so that the White light can come on to help illuminate the scene during these hours (without reflecting off the soffit).

Oh whoops, seems I somehow cropped the video the wrong way. I will try that day mode instead on the second camera.

And you're right, by default the Exposure Time set is 1/12. There isn't any additional light near this camera which I assume makes the motion worse. I will try 1/25 and maybe try changing the scene mode, thank you so much for everything you do on here!