Low-light struggles / improving image quality.

Thanks Steve. For now, I will look into replacing the 12mm Hik with a B54IR-Z4E (bullet). I will be pleased if I can get good face ID at night in this location. I will probably leave my other spotter / overview Hik which is covering the same area alone for now, because it is fulfilling its purpose (basic overview), even if not ideal.

No doubt a while later I will be looking to perform more upgrade or add additional cameras though! :)
 
The B54IR-Z4E-S3 arrived yesterday - thanks Andy :cool:

I have mounted it where the Hikvision was, and am now configuring. Further updates to follow...

P.S - Made another thread specific to a few Web UI queries, whilst I am configuring:
E

Thread 'EmpireTech web interface questions.'

I just installed my first EmpireTech camera, a B54IR-Z4E-S3. Below are a couple of questions regarding the web interface, which I am obviously still familiarizing with.

1. How do I (or can I?) install a HTTPS TLS certificate into the camera? On Hikvision's which are I am slightly more familiar with, I was able to load a self-signed certificate into the web interface, which was signed by a CA trusted by my PC. I know that this does not add much security, considering the cams are on a separate network, never accessed remotely directly (except over VPN), etc, but all the browser...
 
Been dialing in a bit for day at least, started off following this advice from earlier in this thread:
Go into shutter settings and change to manual shutter and start with custom shutter as ms and change to 0-8.3ms and gain 0-50 (night) and 0-4ms exposure and 0-30 gain (day)for starters.
Click to expand...
1752840814947.png
This is doing pretty well - running full zoom, it can even just about get some plates from the vehicles going past on the street! Yes, the angle is terrible, and no, this cam is NOT intended to capture plates! Just a good metric for comparing motion blur as settings are adjusted.
Manual, day shutter and gain, blurred plate.jpg

When running Manual mode during the day, is variation in light levels ever a serious problem? I guess I will find out in time, but thinking of cloud cover, then bright sunlight, etc, all causes considerable variation in the light levels...

Still have to tackle the night situation.
 
Thats why running a range (0-4) vs a static exposure (1/500) is good for daytime. It allows the camera to adapt to lighting conditions via exposure
 
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First look at performance at night.

Running the following settings:
1752947016025.png

And its doing pretty reasonable. Here are a couple of taxi's passing in the middle of the night:
1AM Taxi.jpg
12AM, Taxi, Plate.jpg
The motion blur is worse than daytime, as seen by the blur on the vehicles and their plates - however, the main interest of this cam is people / vehicles entering the driveway - a situation where movement will mostly be towards the camera, and so will likely have less of a blur issue.

Here are a couple of folk walking past at 10PM (The camera says 11PM, the time was 1HR out on the cam):

View attachment People Passing @ 10PM.mp4

Are they reasonably decent stills, or do we think there is more room for improvement?


Additionally, this is how I currently have the different settings for Day / Night setup:
1752947865107.png
And then the Night profile has slightly longer shutter times etc:
1752947895079.png
Is it correct to use a 'Working Mode' of 'Day/Night Switch'? My intent here was that the camera would switch between the Day & Night settings whenever it switches from Color to IR mode, or back again... Is this correct? The only reason I ask is that whilst footage from yesterday revealed clear plate shots (indicating low motion blur), the footage from today has slightly more blur, which made me wonder if it is actually switching between the Day/Night profiles as expected, or still using the longer Night exposure settings?
1752948061665.png
 
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You will want to check your focus settings when it is in Day and again when it is switched to Night. The IR filter can slightly change the focus when it drops into place, so an adjustment of a few points might be needed.
 
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EagleEye7 said:
First look at performance at night.

Running the following settings:
View attachment 224844

And its doing pretty reasonable. Here are a couple of taxi's passing in the middle of the night:
View attachment 224845
View attachment 224846
The motion blur is worse than daytime, as seen by the blur on the vehicles and their plates - however, the main interest of this cam is people / vehicles entering the driveway - a situation where movement will mostly be towards the camera, and so will likely have less of a blur issue.

Here are a couple of folk walking past at 10PM (The camera says 11PM, the time was 1HR out on the cam):

View attachment 224848

Are they reasonably decent stills, or do we think there is more room for improvement?


Additionally, this is how I currently have the different settings for Day / Night setup:
View attachment 224849
And then the Night profile has slightly longer shutter times etc:
View attachment 224850
Is it correct to use a 'Working Mode' of 'Day/Night Switch'? My intent here was that the camera would switch between the Day & Night settings whenever it switches from Color to IR mode, or back again... Is this correct? The only reason I ask is that whilst footage from yesterday revealed clear plate shots (indicating low motion blur), the footage from today has slightly more blur, which made me wonder if it is actually switching between the Day/Night profiles as expected, or still using the longer Night exposure settings?
View attachment 224851
Click to expand...


I think you're very close. Not bad at all on the Nighttime images

I would try to go even faster in day, 0-3 or 0-2

Yes on night you have a scene like I do in two locations where you have to choose between faster vehicles and humans. Like you I accept a little blur on faster cars to get clean human shots
I would try to increase gain to 55-60, even a little more Iris, and see if you can cut back exposure even more at night. Its a constant battle but you may be able to get 0-7 or 0-6.5
 
Thanks for the suggestions - I will give these a go.

I am assuming I am correct on my choice of Working Mode then?

Should I be using Manual Focus for my chosen zoom level? Currently I think I have it on automatic.

Finally, since everything seems to be a balancing act, what is the downside to a greater iris setting?
 
in reverse order

- the larger the iris is opened the more light can enter, at the expense of depth of field . Lens Iris Tutorial

- yes use manual. Often night IR image requires a slightly different focus point than bright daylight

- most use the Day/Night mode. This in theory means the camera adjusts to the two profiles using it’s built in light sensor. I prefer the Customized Scene which allows me to dictate when the changeover occurs using the schedule. I have two cameras for example where I use a 3rd profile for dusk. Also here in Florida, we get daily thunderstorms around 3-4pm. They can be quite intense but usually only last 15-20 minutes. It’s gets very dark, but not nighttime dark.
 
- the larger the iris is opened the more light can enter, at the expense of depth of field . Lens Iris Tutorial
Click to expand...
Of course! I'm forgetting the basics of cameras! I would usually call this 'aperture', so didn't immediate recognize the term.

- yes use manual. Often night IR image requires a slightly different focus point than bright daylight
Click to expand...
Makes sense. I will try and set this up when I have time to play with it.

- most use the Day/Night mode. This in theory means the camera adjusts to the two profiles using it’s built in light sensor. I prefer the Customized Scene which allows me to dictate when the changeover occurs using the schedule. I have two cameras for example where I use a 3rd profile for dusk. Also here in Florida, we get daily thunderstorms around 3-4pm. They can be quite intense but usually only last 15-20 minutes. It’s gets very dark, but not nighttime dark.
Click to expand...
I can see why this is useful - I will continue to use Day/Night mode for now, as I don't have time to fully setup schedules etc - also, with this, how do you manage seasonal variations in light timing?

This in theory means the camera adjusts to the two profiles using it’s built in light sensor.
Click to expand...
On this point specifically, do you know if this switch happens simultaneously to the IR/Color mode switch, or is it independent logic? E.G what is the best way to tell if the camera is running in Day or Night mode?

I have tweaked to the following, will see what results I get:
1753033055858.png
1753032524305.png

Its a little strange though, because experimenting now (18:35) using the above settings (it is still light, and the camera is in Day mode), it is struggling a little on plates on the vehicles - even though the shutter is capped at 2.5ms...
1753033026418.png

Suppose checking focus might be a good next step?
 
I think focus is your problem there as called out by @Ri22o

Lighting seasonality is handled by the drop down schedule by month (below your settings, above the Save/Refresh buttons)

I cant be sure on the change using Day/Night but I believe its entirely dependent on the camera's light sensor
 
FYI when you set forucs, set the "Step" to 1, it defaults to 20. Much finer adjustment
 
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1. you have worst possible angle.. car movement in photo frame at this angle is the biggest and plate visibility very low..

2. if the cars are moving faster, you must go down with shutter speed even to 1/1000 second to have sharp plates.

3. there can be focus problems...

4. I saw similar problems with many similar camera installations - there is not enough camera video resolution to capture sharp plates at this very bad angle from that distance..
you can try to zoom-in camera to the max to obtains better plates...

5. there is full WDR + strong IR trick on 5442, which can be used to capture cars with sharp plates at night. But for it you need good car plate visibility (so better angle / distance).. below screenshots are from 5442-Z4E + 5xxx-EI NVR...

VMD vehicles night.png

VMD vehicled day.png
 
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This is the 5442 or is this some new version?
Click to expand...
This is a IPC-B54IR-Z4E-S3, ordered direct from Andy.

1. you have worst possible angle.. car movement in photo frame at this angle is the biggest and plate visibility very low..

2. if the cars are moving faster, you must go down with shutter speed even to 1/1000 second to have sharp plates.

3. there can be focus problems...

4. I saw similar problems with many similar camera installations - there is not enough camera video resolution to capture sharp plates at this very bad angle from that distance..
you can try to zoom-in camera to the max to obtains better plates...
Click to expand...
Reiteration to avoid confusion:): This camera is not intended for plate capture.

This camera is intended to capture people / things entering or exiting the gateway, as well as perhaps pedestrians passing on the pavement as a bonus. In reality, it is probably fulfilling its task very well the way it is right now. The only reason I am fixating on car plates is because I would like to dial in the camera as best I can, and the clarity of the car (and its plate) is a good indicator of the motion blur etc in the image.

When I first set the camera up, I was getting clear (ish, not up to LPR standards, but mostly readable) plate captures on the passing cars. Now, they are a lot more blurry. Hence I am wondering what has changed. I don't care about the plates themselves, it's not the purpose of the camera - however, it is an indicator of possible increased motion blurring or pixelation.
 
EagleEye7 said:
This camera is intended to capture people / things entering or exiting the gateway, as well as perhaps pedestrians passing on the pavement as a bonus. In reality, it is probably fulfilling its task very well the way it is right now. The only reason I am fixating on car plates is because I would like to dial in the camera as best I can, and the clarity of the car (and its plate) is a good indicator of the motion blur etc in the image.

When I first set the camera up, I was getting clear (ish, not up to LPR standards, but mostly readable) plate captures on the passing cars. Now, they are a lot more blurry. Hence I am wondering what has changed. I don't care about the plates themselves, it's not the purpose of the camera - however, it is an indicator of possible increased motion blurring or pixelation.
Click to expand...

it's simple.. car speed could be different (slower).. sun light / direction - brighter day = faster shutter...
Also you lowered max gain at day settings - so camera can choose longer exposure..

ps. there are totally different algorithms used when you are in manual mode and automatic mode..
 
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Good catch on the Gain
 
it's simple.. car speed could be different (slower).. sun light / direction - brighter day = faster shutter...
Also you lowered max gain at day settings - so camera can choose longer exposure..

ps. there are totally different algorithms used when you are in manual mode and automatic mode..
Click to expand...
True - I guess there are a huge number of variables here. I will try not get too hung up on the plates, considering this isn't even the purpose of the camera.

On the gain point - does decreasing the gain mean the camera can actually use a slower shutter than specified in the Manual Shutter Range setting?

I think I set the gain to 30 when I originally set it up, so the first sharpish plate captures were using this gain, and this shutter (or slightly slower). Must be other variations I guess.
 
EagleEye7 said:
True - I guess there are a huge number of variables here. I will try not get too hung up on the plates, considering this isn't even the purpose of the camera.

On the gain point - does decreasing the gain mean the camera can actually use a slower shutter than specified in the Manual Shutter Range setting?

I think I set the gain to 30 when I originally set it up, so the first sharpish plate captures were using this gain, and this shutter (or slightly slower). Must be other variations I guess.
Click to expand...

gain is different name to ISO...

basic of photography: to increase light capture (increase brightness) on photo, camera can:
  • increase gain/ISO
  • increase the shutter time
  • increase the aperture (this camera don't have this capability).

by limiting gain range you ask to use longer exposure.. and vice versa...
 
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