Your camera is pointing at the sky

Last updated 2026-08-28

Height is usually the real cause

Doorbells get mounted at the height of the old button, which was placed for a hand and not for a lens. Put a wide-angle camera above eye level and it looks down at the top of people and out at the roofline beyond them.

Lowering the mount fixes more than any accessory will. Where that is not possible, a wedge is the substitute.

Wedge, corner mount, or neither

• A wedge tilts the camera down, typically by a fixed number of degrees. This is what you want when faces are cut off at the top and the step is out of frame.
• A corner or angle mount turns the camera left or right. This is for a doorbell set back in a recess, or one facing along a wall instead of out at the visitor.
• Neither helps if the problem is the field of view itself. A camera with a tall aspect ratio sees the step natively; a wide one may never do it well whatever you bolt to the back.

Wedges and corner mounts stack on some models. Check that before buying both, because the combined stand-off can put the camera proud of narrow trim.

Check the software before buying hardware

Most cameras let you crop or adjust the active area of the image, and some offer a package-watching mode that biases the view downward.

It costs nothing to try, it is reversible, and on a camera mounted only slightly too high it can be enough. Adjust the view in the app, look at a recording, and only then decide whether you need the wedge.

Related

• Uneven trim and siding — if the mount itself sits crooked
• Mounting without drilling