Axis M3105-LVE Showing Artifacts With IR On - Any Suggestions??

Brian, Axis had "the product specialist team look into this. Unfortunately, they cannot make any firm conclusions without access to video and some more information." They recommended contacting support.

We've seen this (or similar) and it was a dirty lens cover.  We've found that our Axis IR cameras have to be cleaned on a regular basis to mitigate this issue.  I've also wondered why their IR's are inside of the bubble dome and not on the outside.  I'd think this issue would go away if they were moved to the outside..

Can the lens be changed? 

Light Reflection from imager to cover , 

Clean in and out of cover , insert a spacer between lense and cover 

or old cover needs replaced 

or old cover scratched due to wrong cleaning materials used in process 

cff/ppp

Thanks for the info from all.

FYI, this is one of their mini-turret style cameras - it’s not a dome.  AFAIK, there is nothing to clean except the exterior surface of the lens which we’ve tried.

I contacted support last week and the RMA unit arrived today.  I’ll be installing it tomorrow and will advise.

Thanks again.  

At night the lens opens up shortening the depth of field. Dust and other particles would come into view. Does the image problem occur any time the camera view is covered or blocked? do the aberrations remain in place if you were to shake the camera?

Christopher:  The camera isn't vari-focal so there's no adjustments that I'm aware of.  It happens anytime during low ambient light (i.e. night time with flood lights off).  Rain / dry and temp changes don't seem to make a difference.

Undisclosed 2:  Good point about focal length changing.  I haven't tried physically shaking the camera.  If I can get it repeat the issue after removing it from service, I'll try this before sending it back to Axis.

What does Axis say?

1. Reflections from the or illuminator. Should have some type of grommet around the lens so there are no light leaks from the dome

2. Turn on de fog of it has it 

I have found an easy way recently to tell if it is condensation and has a P-Iris.  Set it to maximum zoom then quickly set it to minimum zoom.  While it's trying to compensate for the rapid change you can more clearly make out what may be obscuring the view.  Not saying this is the root cause but it certainly looks similar to a case yesterday.

We put up the new camera yesterday, and the image is considerably better but it still shows the same type of artifacts:

We mounted the new camera with the factory-applied plastic cover still adhered to the lens, and only removed this in the final step (just to make sure we didn't brush up against the lens).

I powered up the camera at the shop in a dark room, and the image looks great - no artifacts at all.

It has to be something with the geometry of where this camera is positioned, but I can't figure it out.  Here's a pic of the mounting position:

To answer a few questions from others:

- No defog available here

- Since it's not a vari-focal, unfortunatley I can't test altering the zoom position

- There's nothing that shakes or moves (i.e. debris inside the sealed lens)

Any thoughts?

I would say IR reflection from the wall shown in the bottom left. 

IMHO, its the shape of the iris that you are seeing on the return of the IR at an oblique angle, i.e. lens flare.  As U4 notes, the source is mainly the trim to the left of the camera.  

Lenses are typically coated to reduce this effect.  However such coatings have a frequency band which they operate in.  

Can you move it a bit to get the siding out of frame?

Send us a pic with the porch light turned off.

Thanks for all the replies - much appreciated.

UM 4 / UM 6:  OK, I'll try changing the angle on it and pointing it down and away from the wall.  What's weird is I have others installed on the same building in roughly the same angle without a problem...

UM 6:  Actually that is with the porch light off.  What you're seeing is the IR illuminator on an Axis P3225-LVE (that's actually the camera that's looking at the "problem" camera in the color photo above).  I tried turning the IR off from this camera a few days ago with no change, but now that you mention it I'll try that again too.

It certainly looks like lens flare from some other light source.  Can you go there at night, get a live stream on a mobile and walk around blocking various sources and/or reflectors? Or, for that matter, get up close to the camera and just move your hand around blocking light from various directions.  That at least will tell you if it's 'view based' or something internal to the camera.

Best guess, the IR illuminator on that other camera is hitting it just right (wrong?).