Fault-finding
A camera is no longer aimed where it should be
Wind, vibration and daily heat cycling work camera brackets loose over time — a bullet camera on a long arm drifts a few degrees a season until the gate it covered has left the frame. A sudden jump is different: a reachable camera that changes aim overnight was pushed, and the real fault there is mounting height.
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Step 1: compare the view against the plan
Pull up the live view and set it against what the camera was installed to cover. Drift is gradual, so nobody notices until footage is needed — which is the worst possible moment to discover the gate is out of shot. A monthly one-minute glance at each channel catches it early, and it is a standing item on every maintenance visit we make.
Step 2: tighten the bracket properly
Re-aim, then tighten the lock screws with a tool rather than fingers — a hand-tight lock ring is how most drift begins. Cameras fixed to fascia boards, signage or shutter housings move far more than those on masonry, and a monsoon squall or a hailstorm will find every loose fixing on the building. Refixing into brick or concrete stops the seasonal creep for good.
Step 3: raise anything within reach
A camera that jumps aim suddenly rather than drifting was almost certainly pushed, knocked by a ladder, or clipped by a delivery van. The answer is height: mount above arm's reach, roughly three metres and up, and route the cable into the wall directly behind the housing so there is nothing to grab. Height solves the tampering that tightening never will.
Why has my CCTV camera moved on its own?
Can it be re-aimed without replacing anything?
Yes — it is a short visit, and we tighten the fixings properly at the same time so it holds. Callout within Islamabad and Rawalpindi starts at PKR 3,000.
How do I catch drift before it matters?
Walk the channels monthly against a note of what each camera should show. On an AMC, aim checks are part of every scheduled visit, which is much of the plan's point.
Rather have it done?
Security camera repair covers black screens, recorders that stopped writing, lost phone access after an internet change, and footage that will not play back. Most faults trace to power, connectors or settings rather than a dead camera. Callout in Islamabad or Rawalpindi starts at PKR 3,000, with the full fix priced before any work.
Security camera repair in Islamabad — prices and scope