Newbie to this particular subforum, and I am working with cameras that were installed on this house years before I bought the place. I have learned a lot and could use your thoughts on these pics..

The cameras are analog bullets. Probably at least 8 years old. At some point the previous owner told a security company to pound sand and come get their equipment. They must have just yanked the DVR or whatever out. I started with:



I fixed the cable ends with crimp BNC's. A locked box was there, I wedged the box open. This power supply appeared OK.



Got a cheapy signal processer to merge the images so I could display them to see if the cameras work. So far soo good. ETA: You can't see green shit growing on the cement like that in the day, or at least it isn't green and THAT bad!



Nightime rolls around. I believe these switch from color to B/W at night. Channels one and two look like shit. Excuse the crappy picture of the monitor, I'll get to capture software and shit down the road.



I figured the lenses were dirty so I cleaned them, not much change..



These cameras face north and are under the eaves so I don't think the weather or sunlight jacked them up. Is this what it looks like if someone fries your cams with a laser or whatever? Pics are good in color during the day, but two go to shit at night. Backyard is decent for how old the cameras are.

Thanks for any insight. I am working on this since my car got tossed one night and I have seen shady folks strolling the neighborhood.

Clean them inside the dome. Make sure they are dry. They may be getting overpowered by your neighbors lights or yours. See what settings you can change.
Try turning off your outside lights and see if anything changes..
This usually happens to my cameras when they get dirty and the IR LEDs get reflected back to the camera lens.

Thanks for the reply CoyoteGray. I'll see if they are serviceable. They don't look cloudy but your comment makes sense excepting only two of four installed at the same time have the issue and they are both in areas someone could walk up to them. They are also quite old so I might just replace them all, I have one new camera to pop in there to test out, I'll get more pics after I do that.

Neighbor's motion light doesn't shine in the direction of or into the lense of these and I don't have a driveway light, just one on the porch out of view of these cameras. We do have the new LED streetlights versus the older HPS ones.

I second what the other posters say about the LEDs reflecting back. Also, consider going to IP cameras for minimal cost: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PY0HS60/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=vglnk-c102-20

Personally, I would rip those out and get POE cameras installed. If you absolutely can't afford it, that system will do, but it really is only good for glancing at the screen and seeing what is happening outside the house.


If something every happened, even if the person looked directly at the camera from 10 feet away, you likely wouldn't have a good enough picture to tell any features.




Like I said, if budget is short, they'll do. If you have a couple extra hundred bucks, get POE and completely change them out.

Thanks for all the replies. Yes, long term will go with PoE with recording capabilities and better pics for ID purposes, but we are currently working on some interior renovation work so cash is short. I can't use the existing cabeling to pull CAT, the installer of this system was a total hack, all of the cables run in the rain gutters and then slip into the vents on either end of the house. When I do PoE, it will get done right.


This is one of the cameras with a night vision issue, to my untrained eye it doesn't appear cloudy, but it got swapped anyway. One thing I was thinking is maybe the sunshade is too far back (isn't shading anything at all) and the LED light thrown under the eves is reflecting back.



The other three cams, all the same style and age, have LED's that appear red, this one looks to be bluish.



Replacement cams for the meantime are less than $20. Does anyone have a good suggestion budget wise for a monitor / display? I am using this old beater for now as I like to watch TV on well, my TV.

Cam 01 was replaced.



Night view. The wavy shit is my phone capturing something, it doesn't look like that live.


..