day/night mode settings and intermittant night vision.

[measureitonce]

Hi, could someone shed some light on what some of the day night menu settings actually do on my Twilight Nero camera?

The auto/day/night/ext option is explained in the booklet, but these are not....

1) LEAD TIME
The selectable switching time from Day to Night and from
Night to Day.
The options are 1,3,5,10. What does this "time" do? the camera is not aware of the time of day, only light levels, so whats it for? is it seconds, minutes, hours?

2) BURST
Select BURST ON or OFF.
What is it!?!?

thanks

 

[chaindaisy]

You are using a colour camera which adds colour information to the signal (Chroma). Colours are dulled when the chroma ( Burst Level) is low and there may even be a loss of colour altogether if it is too low, hence a black and white picture and maybe lack of detail. If colour burst is set too high you'll get colour run, or flare, and obviously, very little detail. I don't know what your system is so this is a general note. If there is a mid range setting I would suggest you try that. At the end of the day, whether we like it or not, professional or amateur, a cctv camera is like anything else which we need to try on different settings for a few days until we are happy with the outcome. Since you already have switchable day and night settings it may be worth trying the Lead time at say 1 (should be minute) and go from there over a few days and nights. Personally, I would say that normally, Burst (Colour Burst) should be set to Off. More than prepared to be 'shot down in flames' on this one guys. Sorry I can't help any further.

 

[measureitonce]

only option for burst is on or off. - easy to check the results I guess.

The lead time - might it be how long its dull/dark before switching over maybe (to avoid switching during heavy cloud during the day, or bright light at night).

 

[chaindaisy]

There are a small body of installers who set up a unit and hope for it to do everything precisely as they want on the first day, and it is essentially an unfamiliar unit, and they don't want to go back to the site. This is bad business practise. It is far better to tell the client that the install is under test conditions for the next say seven days, and call in for say half hour or so each day until you are satisfied that everything works to your satisfaction. One of our unbreakable rules is that anything which we are not totally familiar with stays on the workbench undergoing several tests before it is taken out on site. This may sound like time wasting, but when you get to the site you'll find that you have saved a few hours of anxiety and the customer gets that warm glow telling him that he has chosen the right professionals for the job. You are basically correct but a test off site is always better than a test on site.

 

[measureitonce]

Couldn't agree with you more. I'm not claiming to be a professional. The two shop installations I've done were favours for a friend. The one I'm currently working on is an already valued customer (I do their IT support), that I'm doing as a 6month try/buy basis, for my own benefit as much as theirs. I've paid for the kit, I've installed it for nothing, I'm tweaking and playing for nothing.
Their remote workshop has been prone to gypo's helping themselves, so now they can see it from their main office/home/mobiles, and download the recordings. I get to learn a lot, and have a commercial scale test site (internal, external, long range, short range etc etc). At the end of the day if they decide they don't want it, or they decide to get pro's in (which they currently can't afford), I'll go collect all my kit and stick it on ebay, or use it at home even. I'll be a bit out of pocket, but I'll know alot more about CCTV than I did before hand. In essence this site IS my test bench!

Now back to the matter in hand, I'm still none the wiser, on the "lead time" setting, although I'm struggling with night vision on the camera in question anyway. Will be going up the ladder tomorrow night hopefully so should be able to shed some more light on things (excuse the pun!)

By the sounds of it its all trial and error even for you pro's, so I'll just keep at it. Will report back if I figure out what it is!!

thanks for your input, the colour/chroma/burst stuff was good info, all part of the learning curve.

 

[measureitonce]

Couldn't agree with you more. I'm not claiming to be a professional. The two shop installations I've done were favours for a friend. The one I'm currently working on is an already valued customer (I do their IT support), that I'm doing as a 6month try/buy basis, for my own benefit as much as theirs. I've paid for the kit, I've installed it for nothing, I'm tweaking and playing for nothing.
Their remote workshop has been prone to gypo's helping themselves, so now they can see it from their main office/home/mobiles, and download the recordings. I get to learn a lot, and have a commercial scale test site (internal, external, long range, short range etc etc). At the end of the day if they decide they don't want it, or they decide to get pro's in (which they currently can't afford), I'll go collect all my kit and stick it on ebay, or use it at home even. I'll be a bit out of pocket, but I'll know alot more about CCTV than I did before hand. In essence this site IS my test bench!

Now back to the matter in hand, I'm still none the wiser, on the "lead time" setting, although I'm struggling with night vision on the camera in question anyway. Will be going up the ladder tomorrow night hopefully so should be able to shed some more light on things (excuse the pun!)

By the sounds of it its all trial and error even for you pro's, so I'll just keep at it. Will report back if I figure out what it is!!

thanks for your input, the colour/chroma/burst stuff was good info, all part of the learning curve.

 

[chaindaisy]

For the life of me, I fail to see any reason why they would want to call in the so called 'pros' over yourself. You show a great deal of knowledge and it's obvious that you are not going to let them down. You probably want to concentrate on one area of security at a time, and I don't blame you, but have a thought about installing alarm systems, not immediately, probably some time in the future. The gypo syndrome is a real pain and quite often I get reports that our guardian angels in blue will not approach a campsite on their own, they usually wait for three or four transit vans full of armour clad colleagues. So here's a suggestion:-

Several court cases have been lost purely on bad cctv evidence. The CPS put forward grainy images and it is really up to them to prove the positive identity of the intruder or perpetrator. Defence counsel merely argue on that point and their client goes free. If you can work toward first class images then your reputation will grow not only with your customers but also with the boys in blue. It is far better to apprehend a person knowing his features, bling, and clothing. When there is no question of whom they are about to apprehend, their job is that much easier, they get the praise you get more work.

I mention in one of my publications that a 500 watt flood coupled with an external pasive infra red detector will give perfect colour reproduction at night regardless of the camera, but opt for ccd if you can although cmos in the right place is great for close ups. That said, I was recently 'shot down' on this forum for making the suggestion. So I'll repeat that " .... the flood should not be mounted too close to the camera..". We have used this method for years without any problems. This may well solve your night capture problems, have a think about it.

Your camera could be a British version of one that was meant for the U.S. market, and consequently they may have their own little phrases which we have yet to encounter, also, I find that their instructions leave a lot to be desired.

Keep in touch,

Take Care.

 

[measureitonce]

I appreciate the complement - but I'm just a beginner! CCTV/Sercurity is certainly something that interests me though, so I would like to pursue it. The customer is questions has already passed on my details to others, I just have to be careful not to run before I can walk. I'm really experimenting with camera at the moment as they seem a more important factor in a good image than teh DVR. Currently using a £180 AVTech unit, which I'm already finding the limitation of, but its serving a purpose for now.

Funnily enough, I've seem the post where you were shot down. And coincendently I have 3 cameras in the yard that give an "ok" overview image of their yard area running in very low light, but the yard is also covered by PIR floodlights (camera and lights instigated since the last gypo visit). When the flood lights kick in we get an excellent image (by beginner standards at least!)

The Pro Nero night vision camera in question points outside of the fence onto a public footpath/entrance road. To floodlight it would be instantly be deemed a public nuisance.

Having thought about it, I have turned the shutter speed up to 1/1000 to capture number plates as the farm next door have had problems with fly tipping. I can pull legible plates in daylight at 20-30mph which is as much as you can do on the lane/bend in question. Of course as a consequence, I guess this has stuffed the night vision capability as the filter speed will apply even when the IR lighting/filter is in use. I did catch a car in the dark, and could just make out the front and rear number plates (barely), and lights did not dazzle the image but the rest of the image was black. I guess this could make it a 2x camera scenario? to allow me to capture the number plate at a fast shutter speed, and the general goings on at a slower shutter speed?