IP8M-2496E-V2 Image scaling down / cropped only at night

[jantman]

Hello,

I just bought a pair of IP8M-2496E-V2 on Amazon to replace some older cameras that I had. Both of them are running the same firmware (version=2.800.00AC001.0.R,build:2021-07-12) and were configured almost identically going by some written steps that I use for configuring all of my cameras.

Every time one of the cameras switches into night mode, it... "crops" the image. This is very strange to me, as the actual resolution it's capturing and streaming is the same, but it only shows a smaller area at the center of the image. The following snapshots are taken from the main stream without changing any settings at all, just one during the day and the next at night:

day.jpg (256.55 KiB) Viewed 2573 times

night.jpg (120.05 KiB) Viewed 2573 times

I've pulled the configuration from each camera via API (both config.json and the various getConfig API endpoints) and the only differences are that the problematic camera is set to a slightly lower FPS (for reasons), has WDR enabled in only the default profile vs all profiles, and does not have an "ExposureCompensation" item in VideoInOptions. None of those seem to me like they should cause this problem. Aside from FPS, all of the other VideoEncoder settings are identical. Aside from the missing (but default) ExposureCompensation value, all of the VideoInOptions settings are identical.

I've tried rebooting the camera to no avail. This repeatably happens every time it switches between day and night modes.

Does anyone have any suggestions, other than taking the camera down and returning it as defective (if Amazon will even accept it without the packaging)

[Revo2Maxx]

So Removed my post as I read your more and found that you had said both are in same stream. So my thought isn't the issue unless your Camera offeres full size extra stream.. Really only way I could see this happening..

I don't understand why. I know that in some cases cameras in Night view have different image size.. Outside of my first thought with maybe a zoom in feature like my AI camera has. I would Reset the camera back to factory.

What software are you using to view your cameras? WebUI, ASP? or 3rd party software?

[jantman]

@Revo2Maxx Thank you so much for your reply.

I tried a factory reset last night, and then configured the camera again according to my notes. This didn't make a difference; it's still doing the same thing when in night mode.

HOWEVER, I did realize (I'm really not sure how I completely ignored this before, I guess frustration) that the other camera I bought "doesn't have this problem" ... because it never goes into full black & white night mode. There's a flood light illuminating most of its view area, so it never switches over. Tonight I'll need to shut off the circuit for the flood light and see if the other camera does the same thing or not.

I've had about 14 Amcrest cameras of different models now, and this is the only one I've seen a problem like this with; all of the others retain the same image when they go into night mode (which is quite important for me, since I use ZoneMinder and have motion detection only in certain areas of the frame). I bought this camera because it was advertised as having a "Super-Wide 105° viewing angle."

I'm using ZoneMinder to record them, but I've been using the WebUI to troubleshoot this (since I've been messing around with the settings anyway) and the snapshots in my original post were taken via curl to snapshot.cgi. All of those show the same issues.

I guess I'll shut off the flood light tonight to get the other camera into actual night mode, and that will either confirm a problem with the one camera (I suppose I'll try to RMA it?) or that this happens to both of them (in which case I guess I'll need to just use the camera somewhere else, and find another model for this location).

[Revo2Maxx]

Thanks for the update. I will have to look at getting me one of these to mess with. Personally I have a spot that I would love mine to do this at night.

I can't really find anything on the V2 at night I do see the normal one worked normal at night Via watching a Amcrest Made Video on youtube however that don't really help with the v2 your working with. There has to be some type of reason it was changed to V2 and didn't keep the normal 2496E name.. Could be different CMOS chip as the other was 112 degree fov so not sure. ..

Sorry for the next Dumb question. Did you happen to look at night on your WebUI of the camera and see that on the WebUI that it was also showing in LIve View the same Zoomed in Picture?

[jantman]

Well... last night I shut off the flood light and found that the other camera exhibits the exact same behavior. So either it's something caused by how I configured the cameras, or it's just their actual design. I guess I'll try contacting support/customer service.

Yes, I've been checking the built-in WebUI as well, and yes it's showing the same image.

[Revo2Maxx]

Contacting Support is good idea! I wonder if you have tried to do a Reset without doing a Configure as you setup in your notes? It might be something your setting up that is making this change..

At night, I have also done some testing with some of my cameras where I had some issues at night. I would do a Reset, If the condition didn't come back I would then do a Configure adjustment 1 or 2 items at a time to test to see when the issue starts. (re-booting between changes) However with this only happening at night that is first thing I would do is Reset at night, Log in to WebUI. Don't even connect to any 3rd party software only work within the Amcrest Eco System to find out if it is Amcrest Camera related or 3rd party software related. Thing is it might be hard to pin point off the bat connecting to something outside of Amcrest Eco System..

[Revo2Maxx]

So I am wondering as well. Again I don't know the Camera (Don't own one yet) however with my own AI camera I have some crazy things built into the camera I have not seen on others. So with your Camera being way better then mine I wonder if you maybe setup some ROI

I guess it would need to be setup in a dual mode setting? Do you use the Global, Day/Night or Scheduled times for your cameras or do you just use the normal Auto full time Day setting?

If you do some changes with the day/night it might be that under the night time settings you choose some type of ROI setting. I know that with my AI camera I can setup my camera in an area that would pick up to much area for good Detection and setup ROI to only detect in that area. Something to try might be changing your setting to Full time Day with Auto for the switch to B/W my AI camera I have setup to work in Color at night only seeing mine is color at night AI. while it does work in B/W it isn't real seeing there is no IR and don't offer IRC filter so it is just waste..

My AI camera does have a Sub Stream2 that I can zoom to an area I choose and while yours is same size not sure that is what yours is doing my camera is 4mp however in that mode can only work up to 1080p and I know you said yours was main stream seeing I would have to choose different RTSP feed for mine to change in the sub2 or choose that in the WebUI..

Just some things to look at.
Sorry for the trouble. First time of hearing about this issue. Has to be Software related or Hardware feature that isn't in the manual yet.

[jantman]

I use the default "General" profile with Mode Auto, Sensitivity Middle, and Delay 6 Seconds. I believe that's the default when they're new. I have "Profile Management" set to "General".

Well, it looks like you're onto something with the profiles! I went in to the WebUI, Camera -> Configuration, and changed the dropdown from "General" to "Day"... and the preview image almost instantly changed to the "cropped" version that's been giving me problems. It stayed there when I switched the profile to "Night", and then quickly returned to the full image when I changed the profile dropdown back to "General". So there's definitely *something* going on here related to the profiles... only "General" gives the actual full image, and both Day and Night give the smaller/cropped/reduced image.

Unfortunately, I don't see any new settings in the Configuration/Profile Management pages that weren't there in older versions. And the only thing I changed in any of these settings was enabling WDR.

I guess I found the bug. If I enable WDR, it shows the full image area. If I disable WDR, it crops down as shown in my original post. It looks like the fix for this entire problem was just to go into the "Night" profile and enable WDR. As far as I can tell, there are two separate bugs in the firmware:

• The full image area is only shown if WDR is enabled; if WDR is not enabled, only the smaller cropped area is shown. This is per-profile.

• Despite Profile Management being set to "General", it seems that the camera is still activating the Night profile when it gets too dark and needs IR.

I'll have to wait until it's dark tonight to confirm this (about 12 hours from now), but I'm pretty sure this is the problem and fix.

[Revo2Maxx]

Yeah I would make a Ticket for your camera. Maybe submit link to this thread so they can look over it some so you don't have to type to much in the email and maybe they have a V2 there that they can do some work with to check for this issue. I know it is a night issue however they have to have some type of Darkroom setup for night time hardware testing (I mean if it was my type of business and had to troubleshot cameras different times of day in day time) I would.. Anyway maybe if they are able to see the same issue They can get it fixed with a new update rather fast maybe, it might be that while in the software setup of the camera the user doing the writing got off track and was working with WDR when they thought they were working with ROI or AOI because I have never seen a WDR zoom in a Picture if not enabled. Also making a user use WDR in most cases at night is not a desirable result for night time. I will admit I do have one camera that WDR looks ok with at night the rest of them makes me feel like the camera is from the stone ages lol

[jantman]

Well, so much for my theory of just fixing it by turning on WDR. That didn't work. I now know that on these cameras:

• Turning WDR off always results in a smaller/cropped image.

• Night mode / IR on always results in a smaller/cropped image.

It seems like however they test the firmware before release, they didn't test night and day on this camera model.

Hopefully support will get back to me with something helpful. Luckily the camera I replaced was still working, so tomorrow I'll swap back to the old 1080p camera. I'd rather have a constant field of view.