Is this 'IPC-T5442T-ZE' a good choice to monitor front of the house.

[S0619212]

Y'all have helped in building my surveillance system from scratch, THANK YOU.

I currently have 1 'IPC-T5442T-ZE' on side of my garage, I am looking to put another one may be more zoomed in towards the street, this camera will be located on the other side of the garage. Been a while since I have been on this forums, is this 'IPC-T5442T-ZE' still considered to be a good one to purchase for my use case?

 

[mat200]

Looks good to me..


FYI - camera in question





IPC-HDW5442T-ZE
4MP IR Vari-focal Eyeball WizMind Network Camera

4MP, 1/1.8" CMOS image sensor, low illuminance, high image definition
Outputs max. 4MP (2688 × 1520) @30 fps, 2MP(1920 × 1080) @60 fps
Built-in IR LED, max. IR distance: 40 m
ROI, SMART H.264+/H.265+, flexible coding, applicable to various bandwidth and storage environments
Rotation mode, WDR, 3D DNR, HLC, BLC, digital watermarking, applicable to various monitoring scenes
Intelligent detection: Tripwire, intrusion, fast moving (the three functions support the classification and accurate detection of vehicle and human), abandoned object, missing object, loitering detection, people gathering, parking detection, heat map, face detection, face attributes and people counting
Supports max. 256 G Micro SD card, built-in Mic
12V DC/PoE power supply, ePoE network transmission over long distance, easy for installation
IP67 protection

 

[wittaj]

The 5442 series is still the go to in the varifocal arena.

But which one comes down to distance you are trying to capture.

Here are my general distance recommendations, but switch out the Dahua 5442 series camera to the equivalent 2MP on the 1/2.8" sensor or equivalent Hikvision 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 auto-track 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 wide angle 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.

 

[S0619212]

The 5442 series is still the go to in the varifocal arena.

But which one comes down to distance you are trying to capture.

Here are my general distance recommendations, but switch out the Dahua 5442 series camera to the equivalent 2MP on the 1/2.8" sensor or equivalent Hikvision 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 auto-track 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 wide angle 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.

Thanks.

I am trying to see center of street possible get license plates, center of street is about 30 - 50 feet from the camera. Sounds like go with 5442 ZE?

 

[Flintstone61]

no

 

[Flintstone61]

you need more zoom than ze

 

[Flintstone61]

your right at the boundary of unreadable

 

[wittaj]

At 30-50 feet I would go with the Z4E. We tend to underestimate the distances LOL and the optical zoom and tightness we need for plates needs higher zoom. Heck even at 50-60 feet, many feel the Z4E isn't enough zoom. Since the Z4E and the 5241-Z12E are the same price, I would favor the Z12E as the optical zoom is much better.

Regarding a camera for plates (LPR) - keep in mind that this is a camera dedicated to plates and not an overview camera also. It is as much an art as it is a science. If you want to capture plates, you need a camera just for that.

During daytime it may act as an overview, but at night the shutter tends to need to be faster to capture the plate, and the faster the shutter, the darker the image.

Most of us run B/W to take advantage of the reflective properties of a plate which is why we can run a faster shutter to get the plates. Once you decide to keep it in color, the shutter speed slows way down and might not be fast enough to actually capture a plate.

You may have enough light and the car moving slower to capture, but you may also need to decide what is more important - the overview or the plate. Most of us run two cameras.

At night, we have to run a very fast shutter speed (1/2,000) and in B/W with IR and the image will be black. All you will see are head/tail lights and the plate. Some people can get away with color if they have enough street lights, but most of us cannot. Here is a representative sample of plates I get at night of vehicles traveling about 45MPH at 175 feet from my 2MP camera (that is all that is needed for plates):

 

[Flintstone61]

^Like what he said .... z4e

 

[S0619212]

Thank you for the feedback. I might not be in a position to buy 2 cameras, sound like this 5241-Z12E would be decent for front overview for about 60 - 80 feet and possibly read license plate in good day light at 30 - 60 feet?

 

[sebastiantombs]

The 5241-Z12E is normally used for LR at distances out to 100-120 feet of maybe a little further. It's only a good overview camera if zoomed all the way out. Remember that these are varifocal lenses, not "zoom" lenses and are meant to be set at a zoom that is appropriate needed for the scene and left there.

 

[S0619212]

The 5241-Z12E is normally used for LR at distances out to 100-120 feet of maybe a little further. It's only a good overview camera if zoomed all the way out. Remember that these are varifocal lenses, not "zoom" lenses and are meant to be set at a zoom that is appropriate needed for the scene and left there.

That should be fine I think, the angle the camera would be located can have the LR ( license reader ?) with wide range i think between 30 - 120 feet as the vehicle moves away but still be in the sight of the camera. Is that what you mean? Thank you.

 

[Mike A.]

The primary focal point where you'll do the capture being within that range. Not that it necessarily will capture everything well within that range. i.e., At distance, you'll have to kind of pic a spot and focus on that at the best focal length within the range of the cam. Not sure what the setting is and how that works out.

 

[wittaj]

These are not infinity focus, so 30 to 120 feet is a big range, plus the whole distance to cover range. If you can IDENTIFY at 30 feet you will not be able to IDENTIFY at 120 feet.

 

[sebastiantombs]

The purpose of a varifocal is to zoom in, optically, on the area of interest. For LPR that means basically zooming in far enough to just see a relatively small portion of the street where the vehicle will pass. That eliminates everything in between. One camera will not do both at the same time, overview and LPR, is the bottom line. Think about looking through zoom binoculars. When you zoom in all you see it what you zoom on while everything else is no longer in the focal area of the lens. The same principal applies here with cameras.