An Awesome Camera

[cattlecreek]

I'm new here, but I wanted to share my experience with the Dahua PTZ6C2M-45X I recently installed. As a cattle farmer, my barn is centrally located in the pasture. I chose to mount the camera on the barn's backside and have been using it for two weeks. The results have exceeded my expectations. My primary goal was to monitor my cattle and observe deer and other wildlife. While researching on this forum, I noticed several comments praising its nighttime performance. True to their word, the camera and it's IR lights perform exceptionally in complete darkness, illuminating everything in view. Impressed by its capabilities, I've already ordered a second unit from Andy to mount on the front of the barn and cover the front pasture and my home. For anyone needing a reliable long-range camera that excels in dark conditions, the PTZ6C2M-45X is outstanding.
(Cattle was at 230 yards and Deer 140 yards.)

 

[Nunofya]

I'm new here, but I wanted to share my experience with the Dahua PTZ6C2M-45X I recently installed. As a cattle farmer, my barn is centrally located in the pasture. I chose to mount the camera on the barn's backside and have been using it for two weeks. The results have exceeded my expectations. My primary goal was to monitor my cattle and observe deer and other wildlife. While researching on this forum, I noticed several comments praising its nighttime performance. True to their word, the camera and it's IR lights perform exceptionally in complete darkness, illuminating everything in view. Impressed by its capabilities, I've already ordered a second unit from Andy to mount on the front of the barn and cover the front pasture and my home. For anyone needing a reliable long-range camera that excels in dark conditions, the PTZ6C2M-45X is outstanding.
(Cattle was at 230 yards and Deer 140 yards.)

Keep posting sample pics, especially nighttime with motion. I take it there are no lights around, which really showcases the night shots. I have two PTZ5A4M-25X from Andy, one in 2021 and a second in 2023. I wonder if the MP to sensor size of the PTZ6C2M-45X would do better.

 

[cattlecreek]

I almost bought the camera you have but I was wanting the 45x zoom. I would think both our cameras would be equal in the dark according to this chart I found on this site. Yes it was black dark because it was cloudy with no lights around. I'll try to get some cows walking tonight. Now I have to figure out this NVR I got today, ugh

 

[Galt]

@cattlecreek Thanks for posting the pics. Looks like that camera is EOL - in fact everything on Duhaua US website for networked products is EOL. Wondering if this camera can be used to trigger on animal detection. it clearly states that their smart motion feature filters out animal detection. But its not clear if their perimeter protection would trigger a recording - which is what i need. Need to record wildlife at night.

 

[cattlecreek]

If you mean "end of life" I have no idea about that. I bought mine at EmpireTech | Security Protection | Security Cameras & NVRs and have another on the way. For the price if they last 4 or 5 years i'll be happy.
I've been wanting to try a trip wire or perimeter protection test on my cows but haven't got around to it. I'll say one thing, with the IR, they can see out several hundred yards on the darkest of nights. I put a Wi-Fi plug at my poe switch to cut power to the camera when I'm not using it. Since I'm not using it for security I don't see any need and it running 24/7

 

[Galt]

If you mean "end of life" I have no idea about that. I bought mine at EmpireTech | Security Protection | Security Cameras & NVRs and have another on the way. For the price if they last 4 or 5 years i'll be happy.
I've been wanting to try a trip wire or perimeter protection test on my cows but haven't got around to it. I'll say one thing, with the IR, they can see out several hundred yards on the darkest of nights. I put a Wi-Fi plug at my poe switch to cut power to the camera when I'm not using it. Since I'm not using it for security I don't see any need and it running 24/7

Awesome. - thanks. I picked up a T5442TM-AS for the back porch. Think I'll try some AI software on my MAC mini that can detect animals.

 

[Galt]

So I'm playing with this software right now. I'll report back results when i run some tests with my small dogs in the day and at night

Using SecuritySpy for Recording Animals

Hi All, We've just posted a new blog article Wildlife Watch: Using SecuritySpy for Animal Detection and Recording.

www.bensoftware.com

 

[Galt]

1st test - daylight - worked. this is a screenshot that was sent to my email address. Also discriminates between people and dogs. Next test nighttime

 

[Galt]

Squirrel!

 

[tigerwillow1]

Having a few Dahua camera's that can't detect animals,I will be following this thread with great interest. If I had a mac lying around (which I don't), I'd already be setting it up. I'm reluctant to spend the money on a mac just to look for myself. Lack of animal detection in the Dahua cameras is the only big shortcoming for my needs, so that would be the only SecuritySpy feature that would induce me to switch. Other than that, the NVR based system has been working out great, and if I switched I'd be giving up the hardwire alarm I/O, a loss with my setup.

 

[cattlecreek]

1st test - daylight - worked. this is a screenshot that was sent to my email address. Also discriminates between people and dogs. Next test nighttime

"Wow, I really wish I had discovered this software earlier, before purchasing my current NVR. It's been so frustrating trying to get the motion detection feature to work – I'm almost at the point of wanting to toss it out the window! Since I use Macs, I'll give this new software a try when I find some time."
Does it seem user friendly?

 

[tigerwillow1]

...my current NVR. It's been so frustrating trying to get the motion detection feature to work....

Are you using IVS or dumb motion detection? I'll concede that there are some circumstances when dumb motion detection works ok. In my situation with outdoor cameras it's darn close to useless, with so many false detections that what I want to see is totally lost in the noise. IVS works great, unless you're wanting to detect animals, then it's useless on newer cameras. I run somewhat older 5442 cameras with even older firmware that detects animals pretty well, but it's unfortunately the end of the line for newer cameras unless there's some miracle fix like SecuritySpy is sounding like. My enthusiasm is tempered by life's experience that many things that look great at first end up with many negatives, to make the cure worse than the disease.

 

[Galt]

ok nighttime - It works. not an exhaustive testing but I fiddled around with the AI settings a bit to it would trigger on almost any motion.

These are the knobs you can use to modify the trigger conditions.

@cattlecreek - the sw is really easy to setuo.
@tigerwillow1 I'm using the lowest tier M2 mac mini. 256G SSD, 8G ram. you can get one on ebay for $400

 

[Galt]

I set the trigger duration to 1 frame. I'll leave it like that over night to see what kind of false positives i'll get. I also set the threshold to 1 which should generate false positives. Ie i don't want to miss anything. want i want to see is a critter moping around the koi pond.

 

[Galt]

ok captured a moth flying by. I'm going to increase the motion trigger duration to 1 second.

 

[fenderman]

Having a few Dahua camera's that can't detect animals,I will be following this thread with great interest. If I had a mac lying around (which I don't), I'd already be setting it up. I'm reluctant to spend the money on a mac just to look for myself. Lack of animal detection in the Dahua cameras is the only big shortcoming for my needs, so that would be the only SecuritySpy feature that would induce me to switch. Other than that, the NVR based system has been working out great, and if I switched I'd be giving up the hardwire alarm I/O, a loss with my setup.

This can easily be done with blue iris, cpai and a $120 dollar pc. Aside from the cheaper startup costs, you will be able to chose from various available models and if you choose, on a per camera basis. There are models trained for a range of specific animals (though I dont know how well the accurately differentiate between them which is highly dependent on the angle and quality of your image as well as the model- this is why security spy lumps them all in as animals). You will also receive and can save images with the target object labeled in a box - this might be possible with SS but the posted images dont show this.

Security spy is a good product if you are stuck on mac, but as with most software geared towards apple heads, its very limiting with a focus on ease of use and looking pretty.

You will also be able to integrate with your hardwire alarm in various ways.

 

[tigerwillow1]

This can easily be done with blue iris, cpai and a $120 dollar pc. Aside from the cheaper startup costs, you will be able to chose from various available models and if you choose, on a per camera basis.

I'm going to take this info seriously. I already know about the sealevel gadgets, just wish they weren't so expensive. If I fell in love with SecuritySpy, I'd need a 16 or 32 camera license, for $467 or $745. No need to point out that I'm acting schitzo about what things cost, I already know. I do like the ease of use and looking pretty part

 

[fenderman]

I'm going to take this info seriously. I already know about the sealevel gadgets, just wish they weren't so expensive. If I fell in love with SecuritySpy, I'd need a 16 or 32 camera license, for $467 or $745. No need to point out that I'm acting schitzo about what things cost, I already know. I do like the ease of use and looking pretty part

Not to mention to cost of the mac vs a cheaper pc....
You should be able to use much cheaper devices than sealevel (though several years ago I was able to buy a sealevel for 50 bux on ebay).. I dont have experience with shelly devices but others here do, like @TonyR .

https://www.shelly.com/en-us/products/switching-and-triggering#unfiltered

 

[tigerwillow1]

Good tip about sealevel on ebay. If I'm reading the shelly docs correctly, they need wifi. I'm a tinfoil hat type and everything on the network is wired.

 

[TonyR]

Good tip about sealevel on ebay. If I'm reading the shelly docs correctly, they need wifi. I'm a tinfoil hat type and everything on the network is wired.

The Shelly Pro 1 is wired, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, as are the Shelly Pro2 and Shelly Pro 3.