UltraHD 4K (8MP) Outdoor Bullet POE Water in Lens

[Revo2Maxx]

Here is a Picture of what I am talking about.. .I did take your Picture for reuse.. resized it and added some text and blue around what I am talking about... Hope this helps and this is really where the Entry point is, again this is a guess seeing it is a shaped camera it would be hard to have a screw on and off only

Camerafront.jpg (36.81 KiB) Viewed 3617 times

[rjm12rjm12]

Well your picture is correct, under that ring are the screws to get the cover off. I was just gonna post a picture. I was too impatience and basically destroyed the camera to figure this out, before I saw your post. Oh well live and learn. Under that ring is four screws then the cover comes off.

Maybe someone else will see this.

Thanks for your advice,
Time to get a new camera.

Rob

[Revo2Maxx]

Sorry to hear that... I tired to give all the info I could as fast as I could think of how things might be... Sadly I guess I was to late to the Table with my Idea about things I seen... It wasn't until I looked at your First picture I seen the part that I thought hummm wonder if that comes off and as soon as I seen that I thought I better share what I think it could be...

I send you a PM

[rjm12rjm12]

James,

Because I'm new it won't let me PM. Give me a day to think about it, I was thinking about what I could do, it would still be usefully as an indoor camera. I might just put it in my garage. My fault for not being patient, I do thank you for all of you advice thogh.

Rob

[Revo2Maxx]

Awesome... If you do use in your Garage as an indoor camera just be sure to keep an eye on the Humidity levels in your setting area.. Free air could be ok but keep in mind that Water kills Electronics... IF you have a Garage that is heated or at least water tight it should be fine for a good long time.. If you destroyed the IR you can use an IR Blaster to help keep your ability to see in darkness... Seeing itis Free Air you could even set it up on the Camera to work in the area you have it mounted... Or just change the Night time running to Color and leave a small light on in the area like a small night light then when someone comes in turns on light it will be ready...

[rjm12rjm12]

Thanks again for all the advice. Time to start looking for an outdoor replacement. Do you have another brand you would recommend. I have an old HikVision that has been working outside for years without a problem, now I know its not 4K. Not sure I want to buy another.

[Revo2Maxx]

Sadly I don't.. I have been in the CCTV for many years and sadly while some people may not be 100% happy with the support they got from Amcrest I can tell you that out of every Brand Camera I have bought there has only been 2 that had some type of Phone Support and one the Support was so bad the Email or Phone support they are down right Disrespectful and the Other one was Amcrest... Sadly I for many years don't need support and while I have loads of Cash tied up in High Quality products from the other brand that I have been buying form them since 2008ish First time i needed support was after one of my 1400 cameras got bricked because I was doing something the manual says I should be able to do.. In 2015 I call and get told they don't support the camera anymore even if they did I would have to pay to send it to China for Re Programming... Yeah no... While it did sit on my Bench for 6 months I did on my own figure out how to Program it so it would work again... After that I don't buy from them anymore.. One of the Rude Comments was They don' t sale to the General Public, Products owned are Outdated just buy new they only support IP cameras now however they don't carry anything over 4mp lol... Anyway 2015 I found Amcrest, Bought a Few things from them to work in my Cabin and my Garage.. I set them up and let them do the job wasn't until 2019 that I needed first support from them... It has been nothing but Nice pleasant contact... Sure there was a couple of times I thought they forgot about me waiting for Tier 2 support to call me back.. But They did... Even go as far as taking products off the Shelf to try and help with an issue that I was having or others are having... Go as far as Installing a Camera and trying to get same issue as the one your reporting so they can help solve your issue...

In the End I would say Amcrest... While they do carry other Cameras besides the 4k... If you don't need to have the 8mp 4k maybe look into a 2mp 1080p or even one of the 4mp outdoor camera they have... IT only matters what you are trying to do with the Footage...

Me living in Ohio now. I did for some time live in CA and the heat here is different then the Dry heat there.. So Now I have to keep an eye on my installs for Humid.. It is in all Brands.. I have one that last year I thought I changed out the Gel Pack but after winter hit I found sadly I didn't and my camera fogged up over night day time if say I missed looking at the camera before noon came around I wouldn't have known unless I needed to look at the footage of the camera... In CA I could go 3 to 5 years before changing out the Gel Packs... That is a ReBranded Hikvision TVI camera...

[rjm12rjm12]

Yeah, maybe now that I know about the gel packs things will be better. I'm not really doing much with the footage yet, mostly just remote viewing. I'd like to get one setup to watch for deliveries so I am looking at the turret camera they make. I was wondering about trying the 4k 30fps for my driveway, but it might be overkill. Then a few just to watch around the outside house, dog, etc. I will soon look into some NVR but I haven't had the time yet.
Rob

[ems]

I wanted to pop in to note that I had this same issue as OP -- I had two spares of this camera going unused on a shelf. I brought one to use for an outdoor project and found that in the morning the inside of the lens was covered w/ droplets like this and the picture was hazed up as though it were covered by grease. I thought that forcing the IR light on might help burn it off, or that once the camera body was in the sun it would evaporate, but no such luck...

Sadly I'm an idiot and decided to experiment with opening the case of the 2nd (still good and unused) camera rather than the one w/ condensation... and I managed to shatter the glass lens

From the destroyed camera I learned that the face front ring highlighted in blue by the previous poster is just a sticker... so if you come at the face of it on an outer edge you'll easily get behind it and be able to peel the sticker away revealing access to the 4 phillips screws which hold the front on.

For my condensation filled camera I'm 99% sure that the rubber gasket wasn't installed correctly, which is how moisture likely got in. I was able to open it up and wipe out the condensation in about 2 minutes using nothing more than a small phillips screw driver, and put the sticker back so it appeared virtually untouched.

...now I'll have to decide what I do with the "destroyed" camera... the glass is shattered, so I don't think it will provide a clear picture... I guess I'll chock it up to a learning experience with the main lesson being: ALWAYS EXPERIMENT ON THE BROKEN STUFF FIRST!

[Revo2Maxx]

Hello and Welcome to the Forum..

So what can happen with the water forming inside is caused by the camera being warmer at night then outside temps and it condenses on the lens and if not pointing down can run back and fill camera with water and damage the camera and or at times even the Recorder if connected...

So as the OP said you could just use the camera without the Cover indoors if you have a Garage or shed that you want to watch.. or just keep it as a backup camera if one of the others fail in the future..

Seeing that Parts like that isn't something most people stock a Glass company could remove and install a new glass like I had done for one of my cameras some years ago..