Review - OEM IPC-B5442E-ZE 4MP AI Varifocal Bullet Camera With Starlight+
- Thread starter Wildcat_1
- Start date
Electronic Image Stabilization and Smart Scene Adaptive. The first attempts to resolve stabilization electronically, what it actually does is zoom the image ever so slightly so that jitter/vibration etc is mitigated. SSA is a backlight function that should be used very sparingly since there are no controls offered on how it is applied. IF you do use backlight during the day then WDR is generally better but again, use sparingly, 1-15 is your friend and closer to 1 is best in practice.
HTH
i've never had jitter except when it's been mounted on near heavy industrial equipment and it's vibrating. i'm looking at getting this camera and the IPC-B5442E-Z4Eversion with the 32mm lense to compare. not sure i'd need those options.
Parley
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bigredfish
Known around here
No. It’s simply the lens focal length
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Parley
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With the same size sensors and all one would think they are the same. However with the ones I have for some unknown reason to me the ones with the 32mm lens seem to have a slight edge at night time. I have 3 of 32 mm and 8 of the others.
Cleck
Getting the hang of it
I'll say after reading this review (but not enough reviews overall), I went ahead and pulled the trigger to order the IPC-B5442E-ZE based on just the video quality alone. I've posted that I had some cheap cameras that I setup years ago to learn the basics of this all, and to see what I'd ultimately need. I mistakenly thought it came with a built-in mic, not hookups for it. Must have gotten mixed up where someone's built-in mic carried the audio over the POE. Not this one. Oh well. Either way, I am still happy I got this. I got it setup yesterday, and while it's still mounted higher than most recommend for facial recognition and LPR, I am not trying to see every plate that drives by my house, or everyone who walks by. I just want to identify faces who come up my driveway, and I want to see activities a little more clearly around me. My neighborhood has a lot of people who insist on leaving their cars and garages unlocked.
I also wanted to force color on the front of my house where I have decent light (front porch, driveway flood from behind), but it wasn't good enough for my other 3 cameras, it pretty much showed me right away that I made a good choice w/ this camera. Even while playing w/ the various backlight and backlighting settings, it was still hugely better. I can't wait to learn how to tweak this a little better so I get a little less blur at night and it's not too dark overall.
I'll also keep looking for a bullet camera with a built-in mic. I saw one in the store, but I didn't recognize the brand, so I just went w/ this instead.
Here is the old camera that I moved to the spot of the bricked camera location. I need to adjust the angle because of the flare, but even at 6am, the quality isn't great. It was a cheap camera, so I don't expect it to be. I also didn't change any settings once I moved it.
Here's that same truck going by on the new camera, in the place of where the one above was located before
And here's just how it looked when it was darker about 30 mins earlier
The red line is pointing to just how bright the camera perceives the floodlight on the back side of the house aimed down the driveway. On camera, the edge of the house looks like a cutoff from an HID headlight. The green area was washing out faces due to the brightness of the lightbulb above the door, so that's when I started playing w/ the Backlight setting. I'm currently using HLC at about 30. It darkened the rest of the pic considerably, but it made a difference by the door. I have gamma bumped up a little at night and brightness turned down, along w/ exposure (35). I assume it's kinda like playing w/ my dslr, so I'm trying to find that balance.
I'm sure I can bumble my way through the settings w/ the Exposure mode to get the right balance of speed so I don't blur people and cars so much, but any suggestions are welcome. There's a lot more settings than the other cameras on this, and I'm going through each one, playing along as I read.
I also wanted to force color on the front of my house where I have decent light (front porch, driveway flood from behind), but it wasn't good enough for my other 3 cameras, it pretty much showed me right away that I made a good choice w/ this camera. Even while playing w/ the various backlight and backlighting settings, it was still hugely better. I can't wait to learn how to tweak this a little better so I get a little less blur at night and it's not too dark overall.
I'll also keep looking for a bullet camera with a built-in mic. I saw one in the store, but I didn't recognize the brand, so I just went w/ this instead.
Here is the old camera that I moved to the spot of the bricked camera location. I need to adjust the angle because of the flare, but even at 6am, the quality isn't great. It was a cheap camera, so I don't expect it to be. I also didn't change any settings once I moved it.
Here's that same truck going by on the new camera, in the place of where the one above was located before
And here's just how it looked when it was darker about 30 mins earlier
The red line is pointing to just how bright the camera perceives the floodlight on the back side of the house aimed down the driveway. On camera, the edge of the house looks like a cutoff from an HID headlight. The green area was washing out faces due to the brightness of the lightbulb above the door, so that's when I started playing w/ the Backlight setting. I'm currently using HLC at about 30. It darkened the rest of the pic considerably, but it made a difference by the door. I have gamma bumped up a little at night and brightness turned down, along w/ exposure (35). I assume it's kinda like playing w/ my dslr, so I'm trying to find that balance.
I'm sure I can bumble my way through the settings w/ the Exposure mode to get the right balance of speed so I don't blur people and cars so much, but any suggestions are welcome. There's a lot more settings than the other cameras on this, and I'm going through each one, playing along as I read.
bigredfish
Known around here
Basics for nighttime color without blur:
Beyond that lots of tweaking as every scene is different. Sometimes you just have to accept that you don’t have enough light, and switch to B&W with IR and get a crisp good image minus color.
- lots of light. You don’t currently have enough for the street, but may for your yard/drive
- Exposure - again dependent on how much ambient light, but 1/120 is kinda a standard minimum
- DNR- keep below 40
Beyond that lots of tweaking as every scene is different. Sometimes you just have to accept that you don’t have enough light, and switch to B&W with IR and get a crisp good image minus color.
bigredfish
Known around here
I look at the street as a secondary target. If I can get clean video and see a color and perhaps make/model, Im good. My primary area of interest is my own property.
Streetlights help a lot
Streetlights help a lot
Cleck
Getting the hang of it
Yeah, I probably should have prefaced that cars are my secondary goal. If I can ID them (year/make/model) if I need to talk to police again, that's great. Otherwise, people are my primary goal of detection, hence why I'm forcing color. It's already a huge improvement over what I was looking at before.
Here's a shot of me playing last night. Since the people getting into unlocked cars don't really try to hide or anything, I didn't try a mask or hiding my face all that much. This would help a lot compared to some of the footage I've had in the past
As for street lights, I'm the President of our neighborhood association (not hoa), and we're really pushing for those right now. That'd be a huge help to my system and my goals.
bigredfish
Known around here
@Cleck if you need any assistance dialing in just reach out directly and we can setup some time. Happy to help
CCTVCam
Known around here
- Sep 25, 2017
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Push for the white light led ones. It will help remove the colour cast. Only issue with led is they can be dimmed at late night to sav energy so potentially you could still be low light. That's what many councils do in the UK, turn the brightness down after midnight to save energy. Point out the energy savings though of led over normal when pushing your case and good luck.
Realize that the turret version of that cam has a mic.
Cleck
Getting the hang of it
I definitely would love to, but I don't think they're going to, based on the rest of the lights around town, they look more like the sodium flavored lights, but I wasn't sure if those were also led or not. Just getting the neighbors on each street to sign the petition will be a battle enough, so I will see what's available. The town is going w/ a new initiative though to replace many lights and go w/ LED's for the ones that aren't already.
As of now, this is what our choice pretty much is:
Can't remember if I edited it at all, but I know they're quite yellow. I believe it's because most people here complain that any light is too much, but white lights are worse. Buncha whiners here. Go live in the country if you want it dark, lol.
I think I remembered that, maybe that's what screwed me up. I'll have to take a look at it and see if it works for me. Thanks for the reminder!
CCTVCam
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- Sep 25, 2017
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LED street lighting and it costs a fraction to run compared to sodium. Note this stock picture from google is of a main road, obviously local streets may not be as brightly lit. Note the lack of colour cast:
Parley
Known around here
bigredfish
Known around here
You already have great light @Parley , leave some for the rest of us 
CCTVCam
Known around here
- Sep 25, 2017
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I need to recommend LEDs light to our city. Especially in my neighborhood.
Yeah they claim over a 50% energy saving plus you can dim them later on at night to save even more. Pretty much all the UK councils are switching to LED becuase of the electricity bill savings (plus the bonus it's green).
Another item the UK has changed that the US might look at is our road signs. Many are unlit now as instead we have highly reflective surfaces on them so that the light spill from your headlights is sufficient to light the sign without the need for an electric lamp over the top. Again more savings for the local authorities.