Installed a IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED

[mech]

Got one of these, or considering one? Quick summary:
This IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED cam has white-light LEDs and can't see infrared light, only visible light. It combines extra low-light sensitivity with substantial "enhancement" abilities to boost dark scenes. It's a variant of the other 5442 turret models. The others can see infrared, and I think the general consensus is that they're the better all-around choice unless you specifically want the white-light LEDs and Full Color-type camera.

I want to easily tell if someone's walking around at night If you want a super-bright night scene, I recommend setting the backlight to SSA and either Auto shutter or use Shutter Priority to dial in your preferred maximum shutter speed to control blur. You get the benefit of the sensitivity plus the enhancement capabilities, but at the expense of fine detail.

I want to get really good facial detail at night If you want to ID nearby people, experiment with Backlight to OFF, or HLC or BLC backlight mode, and use the camera's good low-light sensitivity to your advantage by switching Exposure to Manual. Lock shutter speed to a relatively fast maximum, like 0ms - 5ms range, and keep Gain down to around 50 or less. If your camera's getting help from nearby building lights, and nearby subjects are overexposed, begin reducing Gamma. Keep 3DNR noise reduction as low as practical, hopefully under 20.

What if I want BOTH of the above? Simple, get two of this camera and set up one each way

What about daytime? I got good results with a low amount of WDR to brighten up dark areas.



Original post below
I had a IPC-HDW5231R-ZE in a corridor orientation and zoomed to about 10mm focal length to look down the "aisle" in front of parked cars in our lot. The objective was to get some highly detailed shots of car prowlers/etc.

Problem 1: the light is brighter behind them, at least until they got within range of the motion-triggered light near the cam. So I was getting silhouettes.

Problem 2: prowlers might not hit that corridor.

So in a strategic shift, I picked up a 3.6mm IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (bought from Andy) and put it in a horizontal orientation instead of corridor. This is the low-light 4MP turret with white-light LEDs instead of IR, previously reviewed here:
Review IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED (Full Color, Starlight+)
Dahua IPC-T5442TM-AS-LED review

Despite being 4MP, pixels per foot is lower than the scoped-in 5231R-ZE, so the gamble is that the prowlers will be fooling around with the cars near the camera and I'll still get good detail, assisted by the cam's white LED lighting for front lighting.

Here's day pics from the two:



I experimented with the 5442's setup and settled on WDR mode with a low amount of WDR, and a little extra sharpening, and Exposure as follows (for Day profile). I also tried SSA but it was brightening the scene so much that it was losing fine details.


So it will be interesting to see how this does after nightfall. Here's a sample from the 5231 while we wait for the Earth to rotate some more, showing the silhouette effect I get if the target does not trigger the motion floodlights. Will the 5442 in a horizontal layout be the better bet despite the lower pixels per foot? Details at 11!



I was a little disappointed that it does not lock into place as firmly as it should. I have its collar fully tightened down, and I can still move the turret with a one-handed grip. If it turns out to be a keeper in this role, I'll add some silicone grip tape between the turret and its base to rectify that.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Thanks for your sharing! If not lock firmly can add a wall mount PFB204W.

 

[mech]

Below is a sample from the 5442 in Night profile, forced Color, LEDs at 100% plus the shed's floodlights. This is with some of the settings researched by wopi82 in his review, aimed at reducing noise by lowering Sharpening and using WDR.



I'm not satisfied with the photo above for ID purposes, especially considering the camera was set to a reasonably fast shutter limit of 8ms maximum.

Below: I'm trying WDR off, sharpening at 60%, 8ms max shutter speed.



Now I'm overexposed when I'm alongside the car, and I still can't pick out much detail like ear shape or eye/face structure.

Next test below: SSA mode with these Exposure settings


This is the least muddy frame from my walk past the car, the others were rather muddy despite the fast shutter speed. Maybe I have unrealistic expectations for a camera with a 3.6mm lens here. I'll set it to full Auto for the night and see how the results look.

Below is what the camera will do on forced Color, SSA enabled, and full Auto exposure (with the shed light still running next to the camera). If you don't need to worry about motion blur, it's glorious to look at:


Like every security camera, even my best ones, this one is not infallible. It shows a bald spot starting on the top of my head, which obviously can't be correct. *sigh*

Additional remark: it's hard to understand why Dahua doesn't have a varifocal turret/eyeball variant of the 5442 family in the slightly larger body used by the 5231. I'd definitely pay extra for the versatility of a varifocal turret.

 

[mech]

So this is better. My face is not overexposed by the shed's floodlight when it kicks in, and there's a decent amount of detail on face structure and ear shape. The scene looks pretty dark until the shed's floodlight does trigger. An actual car prowler would pause by the car to look inside and try door handles, so I might be able to relax the shutter speed to get more light, as long as it doesn't start to overexpose the face and reduce detail.

To get this result, I set the camera to forced Color, and the settings shown below. So low Gamma, medium gain, fast shutter, low 3D NR, and HLC enabled.

 

[Mike A.]

View attachment 48290

So this is better. My face is not overexposed by the shed's floodlight when it kicks in, and there's a decent amount of detail on face structure and ear shape. The scene looks pretty dark until the shed's floodlight does trigger.

That looks real good. I have to do the same with one of mine. Looks dark and not all that great when just viewed doing nothing but as soon as a motion light that I have triggers, then it's perfect. Takes a couple of seconds to adjust but given the long range of the detection and where it is there's plenty of time to capture what I'd want.

 

[Grn1z]

That image looks really good. Thank you for sharing your settings. I bought the 5442tm-as and it really makes faces white(blew out, lk looneys review) with default setting at night.

 

[mech]

I got a real-world case, a woman looking for discarded cigarettes the other night. Here is some original video from BI, and a second video which is screencapture of BI zoomed in a bit, so you can get a look at some still frames. The scene's pretty dark until the floodlight activates. Settings are similar to what I posted previously, but with maximum gain reduced to 45 and maximum shutter time boosted to 5ms to compensate, instead of 4ms and 55 gain. For a person moving slowly on foot, it still gets identifiable results.





YouTube kind of mauled these, they look less jagged in real life. But you get the idea.

So to recap, if a person wants a very bright night scene that makes it easy to tell someone's walking around, you could go with SSA enabled in the Backlight section, and set the Exposure to a Shutter Priority maximum exposure time that gets you an acceptable tradeoff of blur versus gain. But you will lose a lot of fine detail that would be useful to facial ID at close range. If ID is the priority, try HLC or BLC for the Backlight option (or disabled). If your subjects are still overexposed due to floodlights like I'm dealing with, experiment with reduced Gamma in the Picture section to get more facial detail like ear details, cheekbone and jaw shape, etc.

In the end, the attraction to this specialty model was the white-light LEDs, and they did not prove very useful since the shed's floodlights completely dominate the situation. I probably would have been better off with the sister models that have infrared LEDs here.

 

[c hris527]

Very Nice, You could really make a ID on her right down to the Tats on her Arm.

 

[djernie]

Yes these are great the settings you used in my opinion, are acceptable.