Feedback on footage of breakin caught on camera IPC-T5442T-ZE

[S0619212]

After lots of study and recommendations I installed IPC-T5442T-ZE. I wanted to get some feedback to see what are the things I could improve to ID a person in this situation. Few things about this footage:

1. You will notice that when suspect is by the car facing towards the camera, the distance between car and the camera is about 40 - 60 feet, not sure if it is even possible to ID from that of a distance.
2. I should probably change from color to B/W?
3. Any other recommendations please?

 

[Holbs]

others with more indepth knowledge will chime in with better answers...
but seeing how I went through the same scenario, my solution was to add more cameras. From a SD4 PTZ, lamp post birdhouse camera. I bascially have 8 cameras on the front of my house (Dahua VTO doorbell intercom, porch, PTZ, left/center/right driveway, birdhouse, etc). The theory being...to catch both left & right angles...and the PTZ to follow/zoom in. Oh, and to add more lighting (hence the lamp post and even adding outdoor high lumen LED security lights).
I also have a few selected 5442 series cameras set exactly at 6' above ground just to catch faces.

 

[Holbs]

oh..forgot to mention. That Dahua 5442 camera has fantastic human AI detection with IVS intrusion/tripwires. If using Blue Iris (or whatever you are using), can set up schedule so that if the camera detects a human at 2am in the field of vision of the camera (could be neighbor, could be criminal), at least with Blue Iris you could have it send a MMS text to your phone to notify you....even at 3am.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

The lens difference, can refer to the bullet model IPC-B5442E-Z4E.

 

[wittaj]

One camera, regardless of how good, cannot perform as a be all, see all camera...

You need the right camera for the area you want to cover.

And you usually need more than one camera.

People here recommend two cameras on either side of the garage and a camera in that location would have got a great capture of him as he passed under this camera location!

To cover an area at a distance from your camera install you need optical zoom to that area. Digital zooming in after the fact on the video only works in the movies and TV.

That camera, if optically zoomed in to that spot would probably be able to ID the person, but then you wouldn't see your driveway. So you would need another camera to cover the driveway.

You need to decide what areas you want coverage of and then select the right camera to cover those areas.

Here are my general distance recommendations, but switch out the 5442 camera to the equivalent 2MP on the 1/2.8" sensor works as well.

• 5442 fixed lens 2.8mm - anything within 10 feet of camera OR as an overview camera
• 5442 ZE - varifocal - distances up to 40-50 feet (personally I wouldn't go past the 30 foot range but I like things closer)
• 5442 Z4E - anything up to 80-100 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 60 feet but I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - anything from 80 feet to almost 200 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 150 feet because I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - for a license plate cam that you would angle up the street to get plates up to about 175 feet away, or up to 220 with additional IR.
• 49225 PTZ - great PTZ and in conjunction with an NVR or Blue Iris and the cameras above that you can use as spotter cams to point the PTZ to the correct location to compliment the fixed cams.

You need to get the correct camera for the area trying to be covered. A 2.8mm to IDENTIFY someone 40 feet away is the wrong camera regardless of how good the camera is. A 2.8mm camera to IDENTIFY someone within 10 feet is a good choice OR it is an overview camera to see something happened but not be able to identify who. A camera being used to capture your driveway is not going to also be able to ID someone the next house over.

You have enough light to run in color, so running B/W would not have made a difference. More cameras and/or zoomed into the neighbors car would make the difference.

 

[Teken]

Where’s the rest of the video of him breaking into the vehicle?!?

 

[bigredfish]

As @wittaj said:
People here recommend two cameras on either side of the garage and a camera in that location would have got a great capture of him as he passed under this camera location!

It’s always a dilemma on neighbor area coverage. My own crossing cameras at the driveway would have got a good face shot of him facing the opposing camera (which you apparently lack) and then like you, while I wouldn’t get a Face ID of him actually at the neighbors car, I would at least have continuous video of him crossing my drive to the neighbor car and enough detail to see him breaking into neighbors car. Sort of continuous video chain of custody if you will. Enough for LE to say, yep same guy, in court.

I tell neighbors “I can likely see him breaking into your house, but I won’t be able to get positive facial ID of him at your door/car” That’s why most of my neighbors have installed their own cameras!

 

[SouthernYankee]

your neighbor need to install cameras for there security, and not depend on you.

The "bad guy" walked across your yard, but you do not have a camera pointing in that direction. He walk across the path of your front door, but no camera pointing out.
There are no cameras pointing out at the top of your garage door. Two cameras required one on each side.
You have a nice overview camera, but that is it.

 

[McBud]

One camera, regardless of how good, cannot perform as a be all, see all camera...

You need the right camera for the area you want to cover.

And you usually need more than one camera.

People here recommend two cameras on either side of the garage and a camera in that location would have got a great capture of him as he passed under this camera location!

To cover an area at a distance from your camera install you need optical zoom to that area. Digital zooming in after the fact on the video only works in the movies and TV.

That camera, if optically zoomed in to that spot would probably be able to ID the person, but then you wouldn't see your driveway. So you would need another camera to cover the driveway.

You need to decide what areas you want coverage of and then select the right camera to cover those areas.

Here are my general distance recommendations, but switch out the 5442 camera to the equivalent 2MP on the 1/2.8" sensor works as well.

• 5442 fixed lens 2.8mm - anything within 10 feet of camera OR as an overview camera
• 5442 ZE - varifocal - distances up to 40-50 feet (personally I wouldn't go past the 30 foot range but I like things closer)
• 5442 Z4E - anything up to 80-100 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 60 feet but I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - anything from 80 feet to almost 200 feet (personally I wouldn't go past 150 feet because I like things closer)
• 5241-Z12E - for a license plate cam that you would angle up the street to get plates up to about 175 feet away, or up to 220 with additional IR.
• 49225 PTZ - great PTZ and in conjunction with an NVR or Blue Iris and the cameras above that you can use as spotter cams to point the PTZ to the correct location to compliment the fixed cams.

You need to get the correct camera for the area trying to be covered. A 2.8mm to IDENTIFY someone 40 feet away is the wrong camera regardless of how good the camera is. A 2.8mm camera to IDENTIFY someone within 10 feet is a good choice OR it is an overview camera to see something happened but not be able to identify who. A camera being used to capture your driveway is not going to also be able to ID someone the next house over.

You have enough light to run in color, so running B/W would not have made a difference. More cameras and/or zoomed into the neighbors car would make the difference.

So the 2MP 49225 PTZ perfroms better than the 4MP 49425 PTZ at night?

 

[S0619212]

oh..forgot to mention. That Dahua 5442 camera has fantastic human AI detection with IVS intrusion/tripwires. If using Blue Iris (or whatever you are using), can set up schedule so that if the camera detects a human at 2am in the field of vision of the camera (could be neighbor, could be criminal), at least with Blue Iris you could have it send a MMS text to your phone to notify you....even at 3am.

Thanks. I should have provided more details, I am aware of few things, like my front camera is installed at about 10 feet above the ground. What I wanted to know if based on the existing camera on the same set up, is there any other tuning that I can do to get most out of my camera with the current set up.

I do get few false alerts in middle of night i.e. cats, coyotes etc.. Can you please tell me how can I use BI to detect ONLY humans.

 

[S0619212]

As @wittaj said:
People here recommend two cameras on either side of the garage and a camera in that location would have got a great capture of him as he passed under this camera location!

It’s always a dilemma on neighbor area coverage. My own crossing cameras at the driveway would have got a good face shot of him facing the opposing camera (which you apparently lack) and then like you, while I wouldn’t get a Face ID of him actually at the neighbors car, I would at least have continuous video of him crossing my drive to the neighbor car and enough detail to see him breaking into neighbors car. Sort of continuous video chain of custody if you will. Enough for LE to say, yep same guy, in court.

I tell neighbors “I can likely see him breaking into your house, but I won’t be able to get positive facial ID of him at your door/car” That’s why most of my neighbors have installed their own cameras!

This is EXACTLY what happened..lol.. My neighbour is going to install few cameras. I posted the video on FB and ND , quite a few people reached out to me asking which camera I have been using .

 

[S0619212]

Where’s the rest of the video of him breaking into the vehicle?!?

He tried breaking in but the doors were locked

 

[samplenhold]

What I wanted to know if based on the existing camera on the same set up, is there any other tuning that I can do to get most out of my camera with the current set up.

You have a lot of wasted view. Move the cam more to the left to get rid of all that brick. Drop the view some to get rid of all that down the street view. That is a varifocal cam. You really need to optimize the zoom for YOUR property, not your neighbor's.

Turn on your garage coach lights all night long. Put high lumen, 5000k LED bulbs in them. That is where I would start.

 

[Holbs]

I do get few false alerts in middle of night i.e. cats, coyotes etc.. Can you please tell me how can I use BI to detect ONLY humans.

you have some IPCT searching and researching to do. With that Dahua 5442 model, you have to log into the camera directly, learn things about IVS tripwires and intrusion boxes, turn on the Human and/or Vehicle AI.... and then in Blue Iris, ensure the specific camera has 'ONVIF' checked for alerts (and remove Blue Iris motion detection since you are using the camera to handle that).

 

[Holbs]

As samplehold mentions above, get rid of wasted space. Here is image of me doing some walk tests (which are mandatory to see if your camera settings are correct. best you do this instead of a perp just to find out something is wrong). I have just enough at top of image to show a complete 6' person enter the image. Right side is my house. I do not need to know how the paint is holding up so no need to see it.
(this is low res image...that's why it looks low quality)

 

[wittaj]

So the 2MP 49225 PTZ perfroms better than the 4MP 49425 PTZ at night?

Yes, the 49225 PTZ performs better than the 49425 unless you have a ton of light. They both are on the 1/2.8" sensor so the 4MP needs double the light of the 2MP. There are locations where the 2MP may auto in color at night while the 4MP would auto in B/W at night based on the light at that location.

Thanks. I should have provided more details, I am aware of few things, like my front camera is installed at about 10 feet above the ground. What I wanted to know if based on the existing camera on the same set up, is there any other tuning that I can do to get most out of my camera with the current set up.

I do get few false alerts in middle of night i.e. cats, coyotes etc.. Can you please tell me how can I use BI to detect ONLY humans.

As others have said, zoom it in to cover a specific area you want coverage of and try to eliminate seeing your wall, etc. and then set up IVS for human only or human and vehicle. We have found the AI in these cams to be awesome.

From my own personal experience - the true test....I have found the AI of the Dahua cameras to work even in a freakin blizzard....imagine how much the CPU would be maxing out sending all the snow pictures for analysis to Deepstack LOL. My non-AI cams in BI were triggering all night. This picture was ran through Deepstack (without the IVS or red lines on it) and it failed to recognize a person in the picture, but the camera AI did in my 5442. The only triggers my AI cameras have are from human or car triggers and is doing so with a lot less CPU than sending pics to Deepstack. This pic says it all and the video had the red box over it even in complete white out on the screen:

 

[Parley]

You have a lot of wasted view. Move the cam more to the left to get rid of all that brick. Drop the view some to get rid of all that down the street view. That is a varifocal cam. You really need to optimize the zoom for YOUR property, not your neighbor's.

Turn on your garage coach lights all night long. Put high lumen, 5000k LED bulbs in them. That is where I would start.

View attachment 84913

You need a camera above the coach light "circled in red" pointing in the general direction of where this camera is mounted. That way you would have had a good facial shot.

 

[Holbs]

I'll also toss out there for a suggestion... add a post light if you want facial ID's of someone on the sidewalk. Looking over the video again, those street lights are rather distant. Great for driving or general duties, but not the best for facial ID.
If you do post light near sidewalk (can do 12v/24v DC LED instead of AC), you now get the benefit of adding a camera in a birdhouse/fake mailbox!
In the picture of me doing walk tests above, you notice a lamp post. I installed that (with the $100 fake mahogany wrap) JUST to get facial ID's within 10'. Ran 24v DC wire out to the thing, along with 4 x Cat6 networking cables. 1 for a 6mm 5442, 1 for future LPR camera, 1 for Bosch PIR, 1 spare.
Here is my birdhouse camera (never mind how crooked the image is....I was testing):