10 Tips for Fixing Surveillance Camera Images

One of the issues you may encounter as the owner of a Surveillance Camera is imaging problems. The whole point of having a security camera solution is being able to see priority areas around your property. For that reason, when you have a visual disturbance in your camera’s capture image, it can be very frustrating.

If your image quality isn’t completely clear and you experience blurriness as well as visual disturbances like skipping, moving lines or other loss of detail, this guide is for you. You’ll want to be sure to follow these troubleshooting tips in order to see if there is a quick fix for your issue.

One of the first steps you can take to preventing this in the first place is choosing a Surveillance Camera from a top brand. Our HD IP cameras are crafted with precautionary measures taken to avoid these issues. We use premium materials and lenses for all-weather use. With that said, outside factors as well as strange events may occur that have an affect on your image.

Here’s what we’ll go over:

• Potential Causes of Imaging Issues
• Solutions and Easy Troubleshooting

Potential Causes of Imaging Issues for Your Surveillance Camera

There are several factors that may cause your security camera to malfunction or have an external clarity issue. Here is the shortlist of the most common occurrences that cause visual disturbances.

• Dirt buildup on exterior of lens
• Power cable may be running too long-distance
• Auto-focus malfunction for varifocal zoom
• Poor quality resolution
• Incompetent WiFi signal or unstable connection
• The resolution on your monitor is insufficient

Want to avoid imaging problems altogether? Check out our top-recommended security cameras!

10 Solutions and Easy Troubleshooting for Image Problems

Regardless of your security camera type (wired or WiFi), we have compiled the top 10 quick fixes for imaging issues.

1. General Picture Clarity Issues

Quick fixes for unclear images on your surveillance camera:

• Do a close check of the outer part of the lens. Check for dirt, greasy smears, cobwebs or otherwise that may be on the lens. You want your cleaning tool to be soft as well as clean. Microfiber works great here. Do not use household cleaning solutions as they may damage the unit.
• Verify your cameras technical needs for cabling to ensure you aren’t running it too long. If you are using a WiFi camera solution, make sure you aren’t out of WiFi range. Though, you shouldn’t have this issues with our WiFi solutions. They all feature long-distance transmission.
• If you are using one of our varifocal IP cameras, you need to use either the associated mobile app or NVR interface to adjust the zoom and focus settings. Most varifocal cameras require an adjustment after a period of time. This may be the cause of your blurry as well as unfocused image.

2. Experiencing Overexposure With Brightness

Check out these 4 trouble shooting tips if your surveillance camera image is too bright:

• Ensure that the camera is not pointed directly at a bright source of light (i.e. the sun or other intense light source).
• Try to avoid pointing your camera at a window. This can cause heavy reflections and glare from the sun.
• Check if your camera has an adjustable sunshade. If so, use it to moderate the direct light.
• Adjust the contrast and brightness within the camera settings on the associate mobile app or recorder interface.
• Relocate the camera if lighting conditions are too intense.

3. Solutions for Dark Camera Image

• Similar to the previous issue, first check the camera settings and adjust the brightness as well as contrast to your needs.
• Again, if you are using a camera from a different brand, that is not the best quality, you may need to move it to a better-lit area.
• Above, we suggested moving your sunshade to block light. Conversely, you can move it back to allow more light in!

4. Check Your Video Stream Settings

It may be possible that you are set to a lower resolution stream than your camera is capable of. This may attribute to the blurriness as well as potential visual tearing that you experience. If your camera is at least HD 1080p, you will want to make sure it isn’t recording at 720p. This could cause the lack of clarity you are noticing. If your surveillance camera is HD 4MP or above, you certainly don’t want to waste your ability to have pristine, detailed image quality.

5. Check Your Encoding System

NTSC and PAL are two of the most commonly implemented encoding systems. These have varying resolution and frame rate capabilities. Along with that, they are used in different regions. Generally, if you have a surveillance camera that isn’t compatible with one of these two encoding systems, you may experience unreliable video stream or visual disturbances. It may simply be time to upgrade your unit.

6. Choose a Camera with An IR Cut Filter for Night Vision

Cheaper security cameras out there may not have an IR cut filter. This drastically inhibits the camera’s ability to provide you a picture of any consequence in low light conditions. Without an IR cut filter, you won’t be able to use your camera outside. Plus, ambient indoor lighting will not be enough for you to see at night. Your best option is to choose a high quality IR night vision surveillance camera.

Check out the important footage a high-quality IR night vision camera can capture!

7. Check Your Surveillance Camera Power Supply

If you are experiencing strange horizontal lines that move through your picture, this may be a power supply issue. A lot of times, a physical disturbance, like a kink in the cord, or just a defective cable can be the cause of this. Whether you are using PoE or a basic power cable to a WiFi camera, you should check to see if it is as simple as adjusting or replacing your cable.

8. Check Your Firmware

As with most tech, most surveillance camera companies will provide firmware updates for bug fixes or any other upgrades their product may need. Typically, you can easily check if you have the most up-to-date firmware right on the company’s site. From there, you should be able to follow simple instructions to update. A lot of times, you can do the updates from an associated mobile app. That is how we generally implement our updates!

*Important Note: Make sure you are on the correct site for the firmware update. You’ll want to avoid downloading anything from 3rd party sites for the safety of your camera.

9. Do a Hard Restart

One of the age-old solutions for many pieces of tech is a hard restart. Whether your camera has a restart button or you need to power your entire system down, this can be an excellent, easy solution. Some internal malfunctions can sort themselves out with a simple restart.

10. Seek Customer Support

Any reputable surveillance camera developer should have in-house tech support available for you. When it comes to deeper troubleshooting, this is your best bet for getting step by step help with a person live on the phone. At LaView, we value our customers’ satisfaction beyond anything. For that reason, we make easy support available to your with our expert tech team. Submit a ticket in the LaView support center and leave the rest to us!

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