Improving the Night Vision performance of my Hikvision cameras?

[Bluenose1940]

I have two cameras connected to my system, they are :-

DS-2CD2155FWD and DS-2CD2035FWD

The night vision is extremely poor and so I am wondering if there is anything that I can do to improve this. I'm not too sure how old these cameras are and whether or not they may be able to accept some sort of modification.

Would it be worth fitting some sort of infra-red lighting that would enhance things somewhat.

As a point of interest, my Ring doorbell is much better than my CCTV cameras.

 

[Dan]

Hi @Bluenose1940

Are you able to share any example images from the cameras showing the current IR performance and the scenes the cameras are covering?

 

[Bluenose1940]

Thank you for coming in on this so quickly Dan. I wouldn't know where to start in order to grab an image from my CCTV monitor to add to a post.

Would it be possible for me to do this via a browser connection on my pc?

 

[Bluenose1940]

I think I've managed to insert a couple of images as requested. I need to pop out and give them a bit of a wipe over but that won't improve things much. I think that you can get the general gist of things.

 

[Dan]

Thanks @Bluenose1940

With the first image (Camera 02) I can see that a lot of the IR light emitted by the camera is bouncing off the edge of that overhang/soffit, any hot spotting like this close to the camera will definitely make the rest of the image darker.

If you could adjust the camera's angle and/or position to remove all of that overhang/soffit from the camera's field of view I think you would see an improvement in the camera's IR performance.

A similar situation with the 2nd image (Camera 01), that looks like the 2155FWD model because the moisture/dirt collecting on the curved dome is a common issue with traditional dome cameras.

Those marks on the dome will also reflect/bounce the IR light in strange ways, this will reduce how much light reaches the scene and like with Camera 02 make the whole scene look darker.

You could potentially add an IR illuminator, but these can be quite expensive and due to the resolution and specs of these older camera models I don't think the improvement would be as significant as if you bought new Hikvision cameras with improved IR, sensor, and lens technology specifically developed to improve IR/low light performance.

 

[Bluenose1940]

Thank you for your valuable input Dan. I will pop out to give them a bit of a clean and will also adjust the angles slightly too.

Thanks again.