The camera anti-flicker option is designed to eliminate or reduce the flickering effect you sometimes see in video recordings, especially under artificial lighting.
What anti-flicker does
Typical options:
60 Hz mode → reduces flicker in regions with 60 Hz power Auto (in some cameras)
- the camera’s shutter speed or frame rate, and
- the frequency of the electrical power supply (lighting)
- 50 Hz (Europe, most of Asia, and parts of South America)
- 60 Hz (USA and some countries in the Americas)
What does anti-flicker prevent?
- Moving horizontal bands or bars on the screen
- Light pulsing or visible flashing
- Uneven exposure or brightness in indoor environments
Advanced anti-flicker (in some cameras)
Higher-end CCTV systems (like Uniview, Hikvision, Dahua) may include:
- Smart Anti-Flicker → dynamically adjusts exposure
- Shutter priority / manual shutter control
- WDR + anti-flicker combination for challenging lighting
Anti-flicker synchronizes the camera with local power frequency to eliminate lighting flicker and ensure stable, clear video under artificial illumination.
Common anti-flicker settings in cameras
50 Hz
- Used in regions with a 50 Hz power supply.
- Synchronizes shutter speed to reduce flicker from indoor lighting sources.
- Typical shutter speed: 1/50 second.
60 Hz
- Used in regions with a 60 Hz power supply.
- Prevents rolling lines and visible brightness pulsing.
- Typical shutter speed: 1/60 second.
Auto mode
- Camera automatically detects lighting frequency.
- Convenient, but not always as accurate as manual selection.
Off / Disabled
- Camera automatically detects lighting frequency.
- Convenient, but not always as accurate as manual selection.
Why flickering happens
If we have noise in the security camera Miami which can be visualized in waveforms in the image, it can be due to external interferences, noise generated by nearby motors or fluorescent lights. To solve this, current camera technology has an anti-flicker option as we can see in the configuration of the following camera.
Pro tip (for CCTV systems)
For optimal CCTV performance, always match your camera’s anti-flicker setting with the local power frequency and pair it with the correct shutter speed and frame rate. In 60 Hz, setting the camera to 60 Hz with a shutter around 1/60 and a frame rate of 30 FPS helps eliminate flicker while maintaining smooth video. It’s also important to combine this with proper exposure settings such as WDR and avoid overly fast shutter speeds, which can reintroduce flickering under LED lighting. Proper calibration ensures stable, clear footage, especially in indoor environments with artificial light.
Recalling what the Anti-Flicker option does. The anti-flicker option on a CCTV camera is designed to reduce or eliminate the flicker that can occur in video images due to certain lighting conditions. This flicker is usually caused by the frequency of artificial lights, such as fluorescent or LED lights, which may not match the shutter speed of the camera.
By activating the anti-flicker function, the camera automatically adjusts its settings to better synchronize with the frequency of the illumination, providing a more stable and clearer image. This is especially useful in environments where lights flicker at a different frequency than the camera, such as indoors with artificial lighting.
As can be seen in the last 2 cameras, the noise generated by the fluorescent lights was solved in the first camera but not in the second one, only by activating this anti-flicker option.
Auto mode
- Camera automatically detects lighting frequency.
- Convenient, but not always as accurate as manual selection.
