How to remove this 'effect' on lights?

[GeekDrop.com]

Not sure what the proper term form the effect is, but lights, such as the porch lights in the screenshot, and car lights are showing a sort of 'star' effect.



(https://imgur.com/a/64HI8vG)

This happened after upgrading to the latest firmware. I'm using a Amcrest IP2M-841B.

How do I eliminate this?

Thanks

[Revo2Maxx]

Sadly when you want to have color at night and lights are on there is going to be issues like you have... There are things you can do sadly most times it will effect the rest of the picture... 1 and most often used seeing not many cameras offer settings like some of my older Tech do so 1 thing to do is use HLC. Most times that can be found under BLC Options... Using HLC you might want to try things out if there is adjustment levels for it try different adjustments to see if you can get to the level you need. 2 if your camera offers a Exposure setting for Shutter settings. Change that from Auto to Manual and then go through the Shutter speeds until you find one that works for your lights... However note this... By doing so could give your night time images a Slow Motion effect. SO like one of my Cameras offers Manual shutter starting with 1/30th up to 1/50,000th. There are some other things you could also try as well. Like Masking them out. however if your masking ability don't let you change for the day time you will have the mask at all times of day.

having more then 1 camera in an area is a good thing looking at different areas... This way you could have one that is with HLC on and don't show anything but the well lit areas and another at a different angle showing the areas that are not blacked out in the HLC camera but not getting all the glare from the lights...

[patric]

It actually looks more optical, like something on the lens that just happened to coincide with your update.

[jack7]

It's called diffraction spikes.

[amcrest168]

@GeekDrop.com, diffraction spikes also occur when there are streaks on the lens and the spikes are perpendicular to the streaks. try cleaning the lens and leave no streak.

[jack7]

@amcrest168
I'm an old amateur astronomer and astro-imager that is used to diffraction spikes from supporting vanes of a secondary mirror in some telescopes.
Your forum avatar reminds me of two giant red stars and M57 - the Ring Nebula.

[amcrest168]

@jack7, i know what you mean. most reflectors have 4 supporting vanes but 3 is also common. i have seen an old dobsonian with just one vane holding the secondary mirror--alignment could be tricky. my ad110 doorbell captures sirius moving across the evening sky--astroimaging with a doorbell camera.