How-to: How do I know if the lens on my Hikvison mini dome is orientated correctly?

[Kyle]

It's easy to install your Hikvision mini dome only to turn it on and find that the image is upside down. If you're not familiar with Hikvision cameras, adjusting the lens and settings can be confusing. This post will explain the two different ways that you can rotate your camera's image by:

1. Manually rotating the lens itself.
2. Rotating the cameras image 180° in the image settings.

Part 1: How do I orientate my camera's lens manually?

1. Remove the mini dome's cover by loosening the screws surrounding the glass dome, shown in the image below:
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. You should now be seeing something like the image below. Loosen the locking screw to the right of the lens, and then the lens bracket which locks the orientation of the lens in place. The lens is effectively attached to the camera body via a ball and socket joint, so this can be orientated however you like.
   
   Part 2 of this guide explains rotating the lens in more detail, as well as how to rotate the lens on the turret and bullet styles of camera - How-to: How do I set up Corridor Mode on my Hikvision Turret, Bullet or Mini Dome IP CCTV camera?
   
   NB - This image shows a camera with the lens rotated 180°, you'll actually need this 90° marker to be in the 3 o'clock position, and the 180° marker pointing towards the bottom of the unit.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. The lens should be positioned like the one shown in the below image. The small line marker located directly parallel to the 180° marker signifies the top of the lens. So, this needs to be pointing up, towards the top of your scene. This will orientate the camera's view correctly. You should also make sure that the lens bracket is repositioned correctly so that the thicker part surrounds the top half of the lens.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Now, tighten the locking screws and fasten the dome cover back in place, making sure the cover screws are tight to prevent water ingress into the camera. It's always worth checking your camera stream before doing this to make sure that the camera view is orientated as you like.
   
   For a guide on installing you Hikvision IP camera correctly to ensure it is properly waterproofed, please see this guide - Please Read: IMPORTANT - Installing Hikvision IP Cameras Correctly

Part 2: How do I orientate my Hikvision camera's view through its settings?

1. Log into your camera's web browser interface (not your NVR's), by entering its IP address into the browser's address bar. This will only work for cameras that are on the same LAN as your PC. If the camera is directly connected your NVR's PoE ports, then you will need to use the NVR's 'VIrtual Host' feature to access the camera's own browser view, which gives you access to a wider range of settings.
   
   NB - It is recommended that you use Internet Explorer if possible. If you are a macOS user, the best web browsers for this seem to be Google Chrome or Apple's Safari. You might need to install Hikvison's macOS Web Plugin as well.
   
   
2. When you have access to the cameras in a web browser, go to:
   
   Configuration > Image > DIsplay Settings > Video Adjustment
   
   The different options are will adjust your image as described below:
   
   Left/Right: The image will be flipped horizontally, so it appears as a typical mirrored image.
   Up/Down: The image will be flipped vertically, which will still show a mirrored image of the default view as you are not actually 'rotating' the image 180°
   Center: This will be the option that you need to select to rotate the image 180°, which will show the same view as physically rotating the lens would.
   
   
   
   
   
   If you only need to rotate the image 90°, then setting the Rotate option to ON will do this, as shown below.
   
   To rotate your view 270°, set the Mirror dropdown to Center, and then set Rotate to ON.
   
   
   

Thanks for reading - hopefully, this will prove helpful to some of you in the future! As always, please feel free to post any questions or feedback that you have below or by creating a new thread.