Subscriber Discussion

Help - Image Getting Whited Out?

CS
Claudia Synnatzschke
Feb 17, 2014
IPVMU Certified

I have a question about a problem I have with some analog cameras, so may not be the right place to post but thought I'll give it a try. I have several cameras that are about 4 years old. Over the course of a day or so they will go from a normal picture to getting lighter and lighter to a complete white out. It has nothing to do with the position of the sun, as some of them are protected and don't get hit by the sun at all. After a while, the picture will go back to normal. Someone told me the reason for this is that the iris is going 'bad'. What does that mean?

JH
John Honovich
Feb 17, 2014
IPVM

Claudia,

Do you have any images of it so we can see what it looks like?

It could be an iris issue. It could imply the iris is too far open and that the camera cannot adjust its shutter speed to compensate. Is this a manual iris or auto iris camera? What's the model?

CS
Claudia Synnatzschke
Feb 18, 2014
IPVMU Certified

The camera is a GE dome camera (GEC-DRHDNU-VA3 I think).

JH
John Honovich
Feb 18, 2014
IPVM

Claudia,

Thanks for the images and the model number. Definitely helps!

First guess is that the auto-iris controls broke and that as it gets sunnier the camera is not closing down the iris. It's an older camera so I am also guessing that it does not have an electronic shutter control (depending just on iris).

Let's see what others have to say.

Btw, analog cameras are pretty expensive. My gut feel would simply be to change it rather than troubleshoot or repair.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Feb 18, 2014

I bet, it becomes brighter as the day progresses, right? If so, sounds like a stuck lens. Just replacing the lens might do.

JH
John Honovich
Feb 18, 2014
IPVM

A lens being 'stuck' would relate to focus. It's not as if the focus is changing during the day. The iris is related to the lens but is controlled by the auto-iris mechanism.

It seems to be an integrated camera, so I am not sure how easy or possible it will be to just change the lens.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Feb 18, 2014

If the lens belongs to a dome camera, then you are right, changing its lens (yes it is possible) won't help.

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Ethan Ace
Feb 18, 2014

Just curious, how many cameras is this affecting? Did they all start exhibiting it around the same time?

CS
Claudia Synnatzschke
Feb 18, 2014
IPVMU Certified

The 'white out' in the camera pictured above starts right as the sun comes up, lasts all day, and then the picture comes back when the sun goes down. I have currently 7 cameras that are affected. It started about 1 year ago wth 1 camera followed by the 6 others within about 6-8 months. When it starts out, it does not happen every day and also not all day long. One of the cameras for example has done it but now for the last 2 weeks it has had no problems at all.

JH
John Honovich
Feb 18, 2014
IPVM

Still sounds like auto iris, as if the iris control is flaky. Ethan, thoughts?

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Feb 18, 2014

How about a power supply problem? If those cameras are all powered by the same central power supply, maybe it's time to adjust the voltage output level, provided it is 12 VDC.

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Ethan Ace
Feb 18, 2014

It sounds likely. I was trying to pull a manual for the camera quickly, but can't find one. I did find a spec sheet, just to see if there were DIP switch or settings in the OSD menu for exposure, aperture, shutter speed, or something related. Here's what I found, so something here might be doing it, but I'm always sort of dubious about "aperture correction", because it never seems to mean much, or the same thing between manufacturers.

It also looks like these cameras use D mount lenses, so you may be able to replace it to see if that fixes things, but some of those lenses may require soldering the pins to the board...so you'd likely be better off buying new cameras, honestly.

CS
Claudia Synnatzschke
Feb 18, 2014
IPVMU Certified

yeah I figured I would have to replace the cameras. Just found it curious that 7 out of 20 cameras would have the same issue within a relatively short time frame.

JH
Jim Hall
Feb 19, 2014

Claudia, try out the OSD settings like Ethan says first, but if that don't pan out and you don't wanna put'em out to pasture just yet, AND you only need them domes in the daytime:

Try an ol' slammer trick, slappin one of them smoky dome covers on it. Some domes even come with both smoky and clear when you buy'em. If you're not so lucky, I seen'em on amazon for 15 smackers. Worth a shot, barely.

Good luck

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