Troubleshooting Camera Images Issues

Here you will find some common causes of foggy images, dark images, distorted images and all the general security camera image quality issues.

The most common issue is a foggy image or a halo in the middle of the image.

Generally speaking this is caused by one of three issues, dirt/cobwebs, reflecting IR from something close or reflecting light from a nearby light.

IR Bounce Back, see this image and it has the classic halo in the center of the image. This is mostly due to the IR bouncing back from an eave or other item, but can also be caused by cobwebs, or dust on the screen.

This is the go to standard fault when people call with foggy image, clean the lens with a damp micro fiber cloth and if it doesn’t go away, try aiming the camera away from the building.

In the below example you can see a similar issue, but this one is a white round section in the center of the screen. This is caused by a light nearby which you can see in the other camera image next to it.

These can be difficult to identify as they seem to be random and unless you see the outside light on you may never connect the light to the bad image, in this scenario we can see both in the image. The only solution is to move the camera, move the light, or aim the camera away from the light, however a clean lens will have lees of a problem so give the lens a clean first.

Sometimes you will see a camera stay black and white during the day. This can be caused a a number of issues, the most common is a lack of power as the IR cut filter is mechanical and if the camera lacks power it may not have enough juice to switch it over.

The next option is that there is a small bit of dust or other contaminant that has restricted the filter, many times a tap on the base of the camera with a screwdriver handle will fix it up.

You will also occasionally get a camera that stays dark all night, this can be caused by lack or power or an internal camera setting, but mostly it is a failed camera and needs to be replaced.

If you even see that all of your cameras go crazy and colours are wrong, screen size is out and they all seem just wrong. Then your HDMI is out or your screen resolution doesn’t match.

This can happen if your TV does an update, or the HDMI cables ages and needs replacing. The easiest solution is to try a different cable, using HDMI 2.0, a different monitor, or using the VGA output of the recorder.

And lastly sometimes you will see one or more cameras fail or not work correctly after the install.

The below image is bad to see as it generally indicated poor cable, grounding issues or faulty cameras and can take longer to diagnose.