AXIS M2025-LE Network Camera

1. Control button
2. SD card slot
3. Network connector (PoE)
4. Status LED indicator
5. Part number (P/N) & Serial number (S/N)

For technical specifications, see Specifications.

To find Axis devices on the network and assign them IP addresses in Windows®, use AXIS IP Utility or AXIS Device Manager. Both applications are free and can be downloaded from axis.com/support.

For more information about how to find and assign IP addresses, go to How to assign an IP address and access your device.

You can use the device with the following browsers:

*To use AXIS OS web interface with iOS 15 or iPadOS 15, go to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Experimental Features and disable NSURLSession Websocket.

If you need more information about recommended browsers, go to AXIS OS Portal.

1. Open a browser and enter the IP address or host name of the Axis device.

   If you do not know the IP address, use AXIS IP Utility or AXIS Device Manager to find the device on the network.

2. Enter the username and password. If you access the device for the first time, you must set the root password. See Set a new password for the root account.

3. The live view page opens in your browser.

1. Type a password. Follow the instructions about secure passwords. See Secure passwords.

2. Retype the password to confirm the spelling.

3. Click Create login. The password has now been configured.

The device password is the primary protection for your data and services. Axis devices do not impose a password policy as they may be used in various types of installations.

To protect your data we strongly recommend that you:

• Use a password with at least 8 characters, preferably created by a password generator.

• Don’t expose the password.

• Change the password at a recurring interval, at least once a year.

You can access the built-in help from the device’s webpage. The help provides more detailed information on the device’s features and their settings.

There are different exposure mode options in the camera that adjusts aperture, shutter speed, and gain to improve image quality for specific surveillance scenes. Go to Settings > Image > Exposure and select between the following exposure modes:

• For most use cases, select Automatic exposure.

• For environments with certain artificial lighting, for example fluorescent lighting, select Flicker-free.

  Select the same frequency as the power line frequency.

• For environments with certain artificial light and bright light, for example outdoors with fluorescent lighting at night and sun during daytime, select Flicker-reduced.

  Select the same frequency as the power line frequency.

• To lock the current exposure settings, select Hold current.

Your camera uses visible light to deliver color images during the day. As the available light diminishes, you can set the camera to automatically shift to night mode, in which the camera uses both visible light and near-infrared light to deliver black-and-white images. Since the camera uses more of the available light it can deliver brighter, more detailed, images.

1. Go to Settings > Image > Day and night, and make sure that the IR cut filter is set to Auto.

2. To determine at what light level you want the camera to shift to night mode, move the Threshold slider toward Bright or Dark.

3. Enable Allow IR illumination and Synchronize IR illumination to use the camera’s IR light when night mode is activated.

4. Note

   If you set the shift to night mode to occur when it’s brighter, the image remains sharper as there will be less low-light noise. If you set the shift to occur when it’s darker, the image colors are maintained for longer, but there will be more image blur due to low-light noise.

To reduce noise in low-light conditions, you can adjust one or more of the following settings:

• Adjust the trade-off between noise and motion blur. Go to Settings > Image > Exposure and move the Blur-noise trade-off slider toward Low noise.

• Set the exposure mode to automatic.

• Note

  A high max shutter value can result in motion blur.

• To slow down the shutter speed, set max shutter to the highest possible value.

• Reduce sharpness in the image.

• Open the aperture.

Dynamic range is the difference in light levels in an image. In some cases the difference between the darkest and the brightest areas can be significant. The result is often an image where either the dark or the bright areas are visible. Wide dynamic range (WDR) makes both dark and bright areas of the image visible.

1. Go to Settings > Image > Wide dynamic range.

2. Turn on WDR.

3. Use the Local contrast slider to adjust the amount of WDR.

4. If you still have problems, go to Exposure and adjust the Exposure zone to cover the area of interest.

Find out more about WDR and how to use it at axis.com/web-articles/wdr.

Use corridor format to better utilize the full field of view in a long and narrow area, for example a staircase, hallway, road, or tunnel.

1. Depending on your device, turn the camera or the 3-axis lens in the camera 90° or 270°.

2. Note

   Make sure to aim IR LEDs away from walls or weathershields.

3. If the device doesn’t have automatic rotation of the view, log in to the webpage and go to Settings > System > Orientation.

4. Click .

5. Rotate the view 90° or 270°.

Find out more at axis.com/axis-corridor-format.

Bitrate control helps you to manage the bandwidth consumption of your video stream.

Variable bitrate (VBR)Variable bitrate allows the bandwidth consumption to vary depending on the level of activity in the scene. The more activity, the more bandwidth you need. With variable bitrate you are guaranteed constant image quality, but you need to make sure you have storage margins.

Maximum bitrate (MBR)Maximum bitrate lets you set a target bitrate to handle bitrate limitations in your system. You might see a decline in image quality or frame rate as the instantaneous bitrate is kept below the specified target bitrate. You can choose to prioritize either image quality or frame rate. We recommend that you configure the target bitrate to a higher value than the expected bitrate. This gives you a margin in case there is a high level of activity in the scene.

1. Target bitrate

Average bitrate (ABR)With average bitrate, the bitrate is automatically adjusted over a longer period of time. This is so you can meet the specified target and provide the best video quality based on your available storage. Bitrate is higher in scenes with a lot of activity, compared to static scenes. You are more likely to get better image quality when in scenes with a lot of activity if you use the average bitrate option. You can define the total storage required to store the video stream for a specified amount of time (retention time) when image quality is adjusted to meet the specified target bitrate. Specify the average bitrate settings in one of the following ways:

• To calculate the estimated storage need, set the target bitrate and the retention time.

• To calculate the average bitrate, based on available storage and required retention time, use the target bitrate calculator.

• 
  1. Target bitrate
  2. Actual average bitrate
• You can also turn on maximum bitrate and specify a target bitrate within the average bitrate option.
• 
  1. Target bitrate
  2. Actual average bitrate

Decide which compression method to use based on your viewing requirements, and on the properties of your network. The available options are:

Motion JPEG

Motion JPEG, or MJPEG, is a digital video sequence that is made up of a series of individual JPEG images. These images are then displayed and updated at a rate sufficient to create a stream that shows constantly updated motion. For the viewer to perceive motion video the rate must be at least 16 image frames per second. Full motion video is perceived at 30 (NTSC) or 25 (PAL) frames per second.

The Motion JPEG stream uses considerable amounts of bandwidth, but provides excellent image quality and access to every image contained in the stream.

H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10/AVC

H.264 can, without compromising image quality, reduce the size of a digital video file by more than 80% compared to the Motion JPEG format and by as much as 50% compared to older MPEG formats. This means that less network bandwidth and storage space are required for a video file. Or seen another way, higher video quality can be achieved for a given bitrate.

1. Go to live view and select H.264.

2. Go to Settings > Stream.

3. Do one or more of the following:

4. • Turn on the Zipstream functionality and select the desired level.

   • Turn on dynamic GOP and set a high GOP length value.

   • Increase the compression.

   • Turn on dynamic FPS.

1. To store recordings on the network, you need to set up your network storage.

2. Go to Settings > System > Storage.

3. Click Setup under Network storage.

4. Enter the IP address of the host server.

5. Enter the name of the shared location on the host server.

6. Move the switch if the share requires a login, and enter username and password.

7. Click Connect.

1. Turn on audio:

2. Go to Settings > Audio and turn on Allow audio.

3. Go to Input > Type and select your audio source.

4. Edit the stream profile which is used for the recording:

5. Go to Settings > Stream and click Stream profiles.

6. Select the stream profile and click Audio.

7. Select the checkbox and select Include.

8. Click Save.

9. Click Close.

To record video you must first set up network storage, see Set up network storage, or have an SD card installed.

1. Record video

2. Go to the live view.

3. To start a recording, click Record. Click again to stop the recording.

1. Watch video

2. Click Storage > Go to recordings.

3. Select your recording in the list and it will play automatically.

You can create rules to make your device perform an action when certain events occur. A rule consists of conditions and actions. The conditions can be used to trigger the actions. For example, the device can start a recording or send an email when it detects motion, or show an overlay text while the device is recording.

To learn more, check out our guide Get started with rules for events.

This example explains how to set up the camera to start recording to the SD card five seconds before it detects motion and to stop one minute after.

1. Make sure that AXIS Video Motion Detection is running:

2. Go to Settings > Apps > AXIS Video Motion Detection.

3. Start the application if it is not already running.

4. Make sure you have set up the application according to your needs. If you need help, see the user manual for AXIS Video Motion Detection 4.

1. Create a rule:

2. Go to Settings > System > Events and add a rule.

3. Type a name for the rule.

4. In the list of conditions, under Application, select AXIS Video Motion Detection (VMD).

5. In the list of actions, under Recordings, select Record video while the rule is active.

6. Select an existing stream profile or create a new one.

7. Set the prebuffer time to 5 seconds.

8. Set the postbuffer time to 60 seconds.

9. In the list of storage options, select SD card.

10. Click Save.

To reset the product to the factory default settings:

1. Disconnect power from the product.

2. Press and hold the control button while reconnecting power. See Product overview.

3. Keep the control button pressed for 15–30 seconds until the status LED indicator flashes amber.

4. Release the control button. The process is complete when the status LED indicator turns green. The product has been reset to the factory default settings. If no DHCP server is available on the network, the default IP address is 192.168.0.90.

5. Use the installation and management software tools to assign an IP address, set the password, and access the video stream.

   The installation and management software tools are available from the support pages on axis.com/support.

It is also possible to reset parameters to factory default through the web interface. Go to Settings > System > Maintenance and click Default.

Axis offers product firmware management according to either the active track or the long-term support (LTS) tracks. Being on the active track means continuously getting access to all the latest product features, while the LTS tracks provide a fixed platform with periodic releases focused mainly on bug fixes and security updates.

Using firmware from the active track is recommended if you want to access the newest features, or if you use Axis end-to-end system offerings. The LTS tracks are recommended if you use third-party integrations, which are not continuously validated against the latest active track. With LTS, the products can maintain cybersecurity without introducing any significant functional changes or affecting any existing integrations. For more detailed information about Axis product firmware strategy, go to axis.com/support/firmware.

Firmware is the software that determines the functionality of network devices. One of your first actions when troubleshooting a problem should be to check the current firmware version. The latest version may contain a correction that fixes your particular problem.

To check the current firmware:

1. Go to the product’s webpage.

2. Click the help menu .

3. Click About.

AXIS Device Manager can be used for multiple upgrades. Find out more at axis.com/products/axis-device-manager.

1. Download the firmware file to your computer, available free of charge at axis.com/support/firmware.

2. Log in to the product as an administrator.

3. Go to Settings > System > Maintenance. Follow the instructions on the page. When the upgrade has finished, the product restarts automatically.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for here, try the troubleshooting section at axis.com/support.

When setting up your system, it is important to consider how various settings and situations affect the performance. Some factors affect the amount of bandwidth (the bitrate) required, others can affect the frame rate, and some affect both. If the load on the CPU reaches its maximum, this also affects the frame rate.

The following factors are the most important to consider:

• High image resolution or lower compression levels result in images containing more data which in turn affects the bandwidth.

• Rotating the image in the GUI will increase the product's CPU load.

• Access by large numbers of Motion JPEG or unicast H.264 clients affects the bandwidth.

• Simultaneous viewing of different streams (resolution, compression) by different clients affects both frame rate and bandwidth.

  Use identical streams wherever possible to maintain a high frame rate. Stream profiles can be used to ensure that streams are identical.

• Accessing Motion JPEG and H.264 video streams simultaneously affects both frame rate and bandwidth.

• Heavy usage of event settings affects the product’s CPU load which in turn affects the frame rate.

• Using HTTPS may reduce frame rate, in particular if streaming Motion JPEG.

• Heavy network utilization due to poor infrastructure affects the bandwidth.

• Viewing on poorly performing client computers lowers perceived performance and affects frame rate.

• Running multiple AXIS Camera Application Platform (ACAP) applications simultaneously may affect the frame rate and the general performance.

This product supports microSD/microSDHC/microSDXC cards.

For SD card recommendations, see axis.com.

microSD, microSDHC, and microSDXC Logos are trademarks of SD-3C LLC. microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC are trademarks or registered trademarks of SD-3C, LLC in the United States, other countries or both.

• The control button is used for:

• Resetting the product to factory default settings. See Reset to factory default settings.

RJ45 Ethernet connector with Power over Ethernet (PoE).