Brinno Time Lapse - Blurry Videos Using Weather Resistant Housing

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I am only writing about this because the situation has happened to me. I had a big project with two time lapse cameras running, the dismantling of a road train trailer and delivery of a very large transformer to a new sub station. One camera, I unboxed on site and hastily placed in an ATH110 Weather Proof housing to mount on a ladder on a very cold winter day.

When I viewed the videos, the ladder mounted camera clip (above) was soft and blurry and unusable for my project. I first thought maybe it was the extreme cold as this camera was stationary all day while the other camera moved around and was warmed up occasionally during breaks in the action. However, I have had cameras function fine in extreme cold before.

A brand new weather resistant housing with protective plastic over the lens. Without knowing the plastic is there you will probably miss it and have poor video results.

A brand new weather resistant housing with protective plastic over the lens. Without knowing the plastic is there you will probably miss it and have poor video results.

The camera was good, I had used it on other projects so my next thought was the housing. There must have been some residue, finger oil or something obscuring the lens element. I checked and could not find anything so I left the issue unsolved which bothered me.

Still bothering me, I checked again and on the third time I discovered it... There was a very thin layer of protective cling plastic over the lens. I don't recall if I quickly pulled it off on previous housings, it just fell off or wasn't there in the first place. However, this time it was there and it wrecked one video.

Removal of the plastic from the housing lens. Do this before you start shooting.

Removal of the plastic from the housing lens. Do this before you start shooting.

This plastic is hard to notice and there is no mention of it in the instruction pamphlet. I wish Brinno would change the color, add a sticker to it or something to alert users to remove the plastic.

In short, check for the plastic, if you don't think it's there check again. Look carefully for the pull tab covering the brass piece at the bottom of the lens.

Peel the plastic off and the housing will perform very well with no noticeable difference between using the housing and not.


Here is video shot on the same day from the other camera without plastic obscuring the lens.