Recommendation for a camera with great night view

M

mkrsn

n3wb
Dec 24, 2022
5
3
Elbental
Hi Guys,

In January, some morons mean people kicked my motorcycle and set it on fire - it was a total economic loss - the police wasn't helping here :(
So I had to buy a new one. 2 days later they kicked it again - luckily nothing big happend. But I assume they will come back.

That's why I need something to watch over my bike. Frigate is running anyways, what's missing is a good IP Cam with great images at night with the following requirements:
  • The Video quality (Color@night; 1080p / 2k) should be really good with disabled IR (Camera sits behind a window; street is lit by some lanterns)
    • I've tested it with a amcrest IP2M, but the Noise of the image is too big. The quality at low light is terrible
  • Following & Zooming on target when a motion was detected (PTZ with optical zoom (min. 4x)) would be great
  • IPv6
  • Low power consumption would be desirable (24/7/365)
Does anyone have a recommendation for me?

Thanks guys :)


Greetings
Matthias
 
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A camera's low/no light performance is mostly determined by the physical size of each individual pixel. The larger each pixel is, the more light it can absorb and the better/cleaner the footage will appear. The smaller each individual pixel is, the less light it can absorb and the worse/noisier the footage will be.

The size of the individual pixels is determined by two hardware specs of a camera. 1) the image sensor size and 2) the resolution the image sensor uses. Increasing the resolution will lower the size of each individual pixel (assuming the sensor size stays the same) because there are more pixels taking up the same space - meaning each pixel has to be smaller. Likewise, decreasing the size of the image sensor will lower the size of each individual pixel (assuming the resolution stays the same). For example, if you have two cameras with the same size sensor, but one camera has 4k resolution, and one camera has 2k resolution, the camera with 2k resolution has pixels that are 2.25 times LARGER than the camera running the 4k resolution (and 16 times larger than if the camera was running 8k resolution). Therefore to get the best low/no light performance, you are looking for a camera with a large image sensor and relatively low resolution. Certainly running higher resolutions like 8k is going to hinder the camera's ability to perform in low/no light.

We have a couple of "minimum" image sensor/resolution combinations/suggestions to ensure good low/no light performance. If you want to run a 4k camera, the image sensor needs to be 1/1/2" or larger. If you can run a 2k camera, that sensor size can drop to 1/1.18" and achieve the same relative performance. If you can run "full HD/1080p" resolution, the image sensor can be 1/2.8" and achieve the same relative performance. Obviously the larger the sensore the better, so finding a camera running 1080p on a large 1/1.2" sensor would provide the best low/no light performance. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any company manufacturing that image sensor/resolution combo.

Most "consumer grade" cameras (Ring, Eufy, Nest, Reolink etc, etc, etc) have image sensors that are 1/2.8" or SMALLER. This means that unless the camera is only running 1080p resolution (with a 1/2.8" sensor size), they are going to underperform in low/no light situations. If they have smaller sensors than that (1/3.2" for example) - which many of them do - they simply are not good options if you need low/no light coverage.
 
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Thanks for the clarification. In that case, 1080p should be enough - the main intention is to get a clear picture of the offender.

Are there any non consumer grade Cams (up to 500eur) where I could find a proper one?
 
mkrsn said:
Distance is something between 20-30m.
Click to expand...
I would guess at that distance, you'll probably need something with a decent zoom to get an identifiable image. The B54IR-Z4E or B52IR-Z12E would be the likely candidates. The B54 should have good identity (with good lighting) for roughly 60 feet and the B52IR would be good for 100 feet
 
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wittaj

Thread 'Mini-Review - 5442-Z4E-S3 AKA B54IR-Z4E S3 - Replacement to the 5442-Z4E'

As many of us are aware, Dahua decided to keep the same model numbers of some of their most popular models like the 5442-Z12E and the 5442 series cameras, but they have been updated with a newer GUI and specs that on paper show better than the previous version as was discussed in this thread even though they have the same size sensor as the previous generation.

I previously did a mini-review of the new 5241-Z12E here, so now it is time for the 5442-Z4E comparison between the old Z4E and the new Z4E.

Many of the specs remained the same. Similar to the 5442 series with...
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Color at night is hard, as you discovered with the Amcrest. Very hard.

Regardless of what camera, the area where you wish to record must be well lit.

In order to determine what may ur may not work please show a picture of the area at night

As noted above the two cameras mentioned will likely be the best candidates
 
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In the middle section at the bottom, there you can see a little white scooter. This is where the Bike normally stands (it's currently in the garage - ~15km away)

Because of the test the camera wasn't mounted to the ceiling. That's why the scooter is partly hidden by the windowsill. The final Solution will have a better view on it.
On the left and the right, outside of the picture, are also two lanterns. I assume this should be enough light for the night.

yard_snapshot_2026-06-16T23-24-27.jpg
 
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The Z4 would be your best choice.

Still color image will be less than ideal, it takes way more light than you think to run color at night.
Should be far better than the Amcrest
 
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You have almost zero chance of identifying them from that height no matter how good the camera. As you can see you look down on the top of their heads, no camera, no matter how good will change that. You're only hope is they look up.

The best camera for night colour is the 4kt but it has it's own issues with shallow dof and not being able to zoom the image much despite the high pixel count, which may prove an issue depending on the focal point vs the bikes. I don't suppose you also own any of those cars? A dash camera that detects movement in the side window of the brown car or one parked there, would be ideal.

Also, window glass has a negative effect on CCTV picture quality as it's not designed to look through it.

Only other way of tackling this I could think of would be a small dashcam on your bike. It would need to be the always on type or something with parking recording that responds to movement. The latter is better because it stops your memory card becoming full / incidents being over written. You'd probably have to budget for a separate battery or powerbank. If you simply want to protect the bike at night, a powerbank would probably suffice. Power it at night, charge it in the day. I'd suggest putting it in your secure locking glove box and running the wiring to there.

There is a mention of 2 motorbike cameras here, but to be honest, reading the article I didn't think it was a lot of help in the sense that whilst the article was good informationally, there weren't really many hands on reviews of multiple brands. From memory I think there are only 2 cams reviewed - not that helpful in choosing in my book especially when you're looking for something specific like 360 degree, dual or parking / always on recording. I'm sure there will be mnotorcycle forums out trhere that discuss dash cams.

You also need to check the legality of dashcams in your locations as I believe they're not legal everywhere in the EU.

 
Thanks, I'll try to get one Z4 :)

@CCTVCam
I know that the angle / position isn't perfect. But that's all I have. Maybe there is a way to get the offenders attraction so that they look up, with a short flash or something like that. At least I could send myself a information that something is going on there.
I'll also checkout the basement later. Maybe there is a possibility to deploy a cam.

Unfortunately Dashcam's are no proper solution here. This would mean I couldn't cover the vehicles with tarps anymore. Not speaking from the many stupid kids / teenagers here which would start ripping of that Cam. If I forget to charge the battery the cam is gone. And if they steal the vehicle, unfortunately, the dashcam won't help either. And there are some more problems...
 
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Angle is bad, going thru glass is horrible, and the shutter would have to be slowed down so much to run color, I wouldn't waste the money on a better camera. And you would have to do that because infrared reflection off glass would make the camera useless.

The Z4E is a tremendous camera and I have several of them, but even the best camera will fail if not given the proper install location.

The money would be better spent on a cheap cam and an alarm system.
 
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