3D Printing Dual Camera Mount for Pairing Z12's

[guykuo]

Hmmn. Both Z4-S3 and Z12-S2 are in night mode, 1 msec shutter. I adjust things to make the grass about the same dimness. No gamma or picture setting shenanigans.
Z4 is picking up a lot more dim light details on the house (left half of frame). I mean, where is the house on the Z12? The grass is brighter on the Z12, but can't see the house. Weird.

I am running only the Z12's IR illuminator.

Z4 on left / Z12 on right

 

[97JeepXJ]

Maybe 2024 will be the year of the 5442-Z12

 

[guykuo]

I think the Z4-S3 is winning the night LPC job as well. Look not only at the license plate, but the rest of the UPS truck. It is well defined on the Z4-S3, but practically blobs on the Z12-S2

 

[Parley]

Your side by side comparison of the cameras show that the S3 version is a big improvement. We need an S12 version with the 1/1.2" sensor.

 

[samplenhold]

Your side by side comparison of the cameras show that the S3 version is a big improvement. We need an S12 version with the 1/1.2" sensor.

I wonder if one could get a longer telephoto lens and install it on the Z4 S3? I have seen videos of folks swapping out lenses on IP cams.

 

[Parley]

I wonder if one could get a longer telephoto lens and install it on the Z4 S3? I have seen videos of folks swapping out lenses on IP cams.

Maybe.

 

[wittaj]

A fixed lens is much simpler.

The biggest question would be how would the firmware deal with double the zoom and focus issues. If the firmware is designed for so many steps then it may only zoom in to the focal length the camera is designed for.

 

[samplenhold]

Well maybe take the bullet fixed lens version. Is there an S3 version of that one?

 

[guykuo]

Someone in the master thread Mini-Review - 5442-ZE-S3 AKA T54IR-ZE-S3 - Replacement to 5442-ZE wrote to use self-adaptive to work around the day/night CGI issue. I can't find the original posting, but thank you!

Reposting the work around here because it seems to work on both my Z4-s3 and Z12-s2 for getting the day / night profile CGI to function as expected. My prior use of day/night mode was not stable. Self-adaptive seems to be stable in allowing day / night profile selection via CGI. Moreover, it keeps using the last commanded profile.

1. Do all your day and night profile settings with camera in Customized Scene mode. I also set all my schedules in customized scene to full time night. Save your settings.
2. Switch the camera to self-adaptive mode. That moves the camera out of Customized Scene mode AND enables the CGI to accept day / night profile changes. I also set self-adaptive to B/W full time, but that is probably not necessary.
The camera will initially operate with the self-adaptive mode settings. However, it WILL accept CGI day / night profile command and actually switch to your previously saved day and night profile settings.
3. Send a day profile, or night profile CGI command (or let Dahua day/night utiltity do it). That will actually switch profiles and that profile will continue to be active.

This takes advantage of what appears to be a useful bug in the firmware. Self-adaptive mode accepts and executes day / night profile changes.

NB: If you go back into the camera GUI, it will switch back Customized Scene mode. Just be sure to switch back to self-adaptive mode and send an appropriate CGI command to set your desired day or night profile.

 

[Parley]

With one of my license plate cameras, it works best in the Day/Night mode. However, in order to get the Day/Night mode to work properly, I had to go to Customized Scene mode and set up the Day/Night parameters in that section. Yes, I do consider that to be a bug in the program. For my LPR cameras I like color in the day and B/W at night. However, my LP3 camera is still in color 24/7 at least for the time being.

 

[guykuo]

I continue to be astonished by how much a leap in LPC the Z4-S3 (Empire Tech IPC-B54IR-Z4E S3) delivers.

13 yards to plate


Still readablel at 36 yards!


Loses it as car turns just about 40 yards out.

 

[Parley]

I paced off the distance with my LP2 camera and I was getting well over 150' and I could still read the license plates, just like what you are getting. Good to see someone else getting the same results as I have.

 

[guykuo]

I laser ranged the distances. Yes, our LPC performance experiences match.

I'm SO tempted to put some S3's for my north and south LPR's instead of the current 25X PTZ's I have in those roles.

 

[guykuo]

For comparison, these are from my SD49425XB-HNRB PTZ doing LPC. Granted it is working at the mid to outer range of what the Z4-S3 is doing and the results are usable, but no one will say they have the clarity of the Z4-S3 captures.
Its opposing direction PTZ does its LPC work at about 100 yards in the daytime.

 

[MrSurly]

Looks like there's aNUTHER camera I have to order!

 

[guykuo]

For completeness of comparisons, here is 2MP SD49225T-HN PTZ at 100 yards, daytime doing LPC. Rainy, heavy overcast afternoon.

 

[Parley]

Here is one of mine from a few weeks ago. I just paced it off again. It is 83 steps from the face of the camera to the midway point between the palm tree and the corner sign post. This is one of those non-reflective or low reflective California retro plates with a black background and orange/yellow lettering. My step is 25 inches from heel to heel. This is only to show the possibilities with this camera and add to the nice pictures that guykuo posted.

.

 

[MrSurly]

Someone in the master thread Mini-Review - 5442-ZE-S3 AKA T54IR-ZE-S3 - Replacement to 5442-ZE wrote to use self-adaptive to work around the day/night CGI issue. I can't find the original posting, but thank you!

Reposting the work around here because it seems to work on both my Z4-s3 and Z12-s2 for getting the day / night profile CGI to function as expected. My prior use of day/night mode was not stable. Self-adaptive seems to be stable in allowing day / night profile selection via CGI. Moreover, it keeps using the last commanded profile.

1. Do all your day and night profile settings with camera in Customized Scene mode. I also set all my schedules in customized scene to full time night. Save your settings.
2. Switch the camera to self-adaptive mode. That moves the camera out of Customized Scene mode AND enables the CGI to accept day / night profile changes. I also set self-adaptive to B/W full time, but that is probably not necessary.
The camera will initially operate with the self-adaptive mode settings. However, it WILL accept CGI day / night profile command and actually switch to your previously saved day and night profile settings.
3. Send a day profile, or night profile CGI command (or let Dahua day/night utiltity do it). That will actually switch profiles and that profile will continue to be active.

This takes advantage of what appears to be a useful bug in the firmware. Self-adaptive mode accepts and executes day / night profile changes.

NB: If you go back into the camera GUI, it will switch back Customized Scene mode. Just be sure to switch back to self-adaptive mode and send an appropriate CGI command to set your desired day or night profile.

I have now ordered one of the IPC-B54IR-Z4E S3 cams as I have been frustrated, lately with the lack of clarity (actually a focus issue methinks) with a turret cam I have at the street.
Given that I have only a small house but deploy now 21 cameras.... this really IS a sickness, you know.
All cams are Andy's Dahuas (plus a Reolink doorbell on the way) all on BI.
I am greatly impressed by your CGI script/Python work but i will confess that it is (at least for now) a bit over my head.
The question I have is: Am I going to be able to get this great LPR performance from this cam merely tweaking settings.... if I'm not able to do any scripting?

 

[guykuo]

Without scripting, you should still get pretty good LPC performance. You can still change between optimized day and night profiles using the camera's customized scene mode. Or you could also use the Dahua day/night utility or some other app / NVR function to switch between Day/Night profiles (provided you use the self-adaptive mode hack)

Doing it via scripting lets me get it automatically synchronized to when I have it switch after sunrise and before sunset. Also, I get to tweak the focus for perfection each time. Even without that fine tuning, the cameras should still be a very good LPC performer.

 

[MrSurly]

A fixed lens is much simpler.

The biggest question would be how would the firmware deal with double the zoom and focus issues. If the firmware is designed for so many steps then it may only zoom in to the focal length the camera is designed for.