A hazy or blurred image
The first and most common cause is banal: a dirty lens. Dust, rain streaks and cobwebs turn the picture into fog within a couple of months — wipe the dome or glass with a soft cloth and the 'broken' camera is fixed in a minute.
If the haze stays after cleaning, check the focus. On varifocal cameras it drifts with vibration; it is adjusted by the lens ring or motorized from the menu. The third cause is condensation inside the dome: the seal has failed, and the camera needs service before moisture kills the board.
At night everything glares or goes dark
The classic night problem: IR illumination hitting an obstacle — a hood, a wall, a branch or a cobweb right in front of the lens. The reflected light turns the frame into white milk. Cured by moving the camera or clearing its field of view.
If the night is simply dark, check that the IR turns on (a red glow of the diodes) and that a forced day mode is not set. For large yards the built-in illumination may not be enough: an IR floodlight or a camera with longer IR range solves it.
The picture stutters or breaks apart
Noise, artifacts and break-up are almost always the network or the power. Beyond 100 meters of twisted pair the signal degrades; bad crimps and twisted joints lose packets. Test the cable and re-crimp the connectors.
If there are many cameras and all of them stutter, look at the switch: the combined stream may have hit its limits, and the PoE budget its ceiling. The PoE-starvation symptom: cameras reboot at night when the IR turns on.
Live view is fine, but recordings are 'soapy'
A normal live picture with a muddy archive means recording settings: the bitrate is lowered or the recording resolution is below the camera's. The recorder saves disk space — at the cost of readable plates and faces.
Raise the recording bitrate and resolution for the important cameras and recount the archive depth: a bigger disk may be needed. Twenty days of readable archive beat sixty days of soap.
The camera goes blind in daytime sun
Backlight — the sun or a bright window in the frame — turns people into silhouettes. Only the right mounting angle removes the problem fully; WDR (wide dynamic range) in the settings helps partially.
If the camera faces an entrance against the sun and cannot be moved, a camera with true hardware WDR of 120 dB or more helps. That is the case where replacing one camera is cheaper than daily blind hours.
When to call the specialists
Call if: the haze survives cleaning, there is condensation inside, the picture breaks up on several cameras at once, or the system never produced a readable image since installation — likely design mistakes: wrong focal lengths, wrong angles.
The systems we installed ourselves we keep on a schedule: cleaning lenses, checking focus and IR illumination, reviewing power and archive depth. If the picture has been unsatisfactory since installation and the design is to blame, the subject is an upgrade: a site audit, recalculated angles and focal lengths, and replacement of cameras and recorder with equipment we supply under warranty. We reply to requests within the working day.
FAQ
Why does the camera show black and white in daytime?
It is stuck in night mode: usually a jammed IR-cut filter (you can hear clicking when it switches) or a forced night mode in the settings. Reboot the camera; if that does not help, the filter needs service.
Will the 'sharpness' settings help?
A little: digital sharpness emphasizes contours but does not bring back detail. Haze is cured by cleaning, focus and bitrate, not by the Sharpness slider.
What does diagnostics cost?
In Tashkent the visit and inspection are free: we check the cameras, network and settings, and name the cause and the repair price before any work starts.
Installation works cost calculator
Set the number of points — the calculator lays out a site plan and shows the range from our standard price list. One minute, no phone calls.
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