Review: EmpireTech IPC-T58IR-ZE-S3 / Dahua 5842T-ZE-S3 - 8MP / 4K Turret Camera

Intro

This is the first of 3x S3 reviews. This one will focus on the EmpireTek IPC-T58IR-ZE-S3 - 8MP S3 Turret Camera / IPC-HDW5842T-ZE-S3 Turret Camera. Unit has been provided by Andy @EMPIRETECANDY (THANK YOU !) in exchange for my fair and unbiased review.

This cam is an 8MP unit with IR. Critically these S3 units feature a number of upgrades to previous S1 / S2 versions such as AcuPick 2.0 , SMD 3.0, EPTZ as well as some great staples such as Video Metadata (which you know I’m a big fan of). It does this with a new SOC that without spoiling anything, handles things very well. It features an impressive 4 streams (1 main, 3 subs), 2 of which can handle up to 30fps @ 1080p making this a great option for sub stream sharing with additional smart home options such as Home Assistant, HomeKit, Scrypted etc which is great from a flexibility perspective, over and above traditional MW and NVR usage.

Another critical feature to point out is that these S3 cams (turret + bullet cam variants) now feature built in Microphones which has been a LONG time coming and I’m very happy this is now included.

It’s also worth noting that with the update to IVS / SMD 3.0 we now get Animal’s as a Target option. While this is great to see, I have to point out that at this point in time (July 2024) that Dahua does not offer any way to filter Animals in cam or NVR at this time. I’ve fedback that similar to Video Metadata where you have the option to filter by Human, Motor Vehicle, Non-Motor Vehicle, that we need an option to filter IVS by Animals IF this feature is going to be useful for users / evidential review.

As I mentioned in my opener post (How about a new review, what about 2, 3, possibly 4 ?), I’ve also noticed issues with AcuPick 2.0 AI algorithms relating specifically to HumanTrait. Specifically a LOT of incorrect ‘targets’ being captured with this latest algorithm that results in 100’s / 1000’s of images / vid caps. I’ve already filed this bug with detailed testing plans, recommendations etc and am awaiting updated FW from Dahua so I can perform additional testing. Therefore in the meantime, while I’ll mention AcuPick 2.0, I am purposefully NOT going to focus on that in this review and will post an addendum later. For the record, Video Metadata works fine on these cams, just not AcuPick 2.0, its AI alogirthms and therefore incorrect meta tagged files.

As usual I will be covering configuration, AI setup for critical capture, tips and tricks on how to best utilize and obviously a rundown of image quality in day/night capture scenarios. Initial vids and pics in post 2, AI feature breakdown and testing in post 3, tips and tricks on how to make these features work and other settings / menu functions in post 4 and a summary of findings / recommendations in post 5.

If anyone has any questions as I go just leave a comment. Please remember to keep questions/comments on topic with this thread. Thanks

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Onto the specs

Firmware Installed On Delivery - 2024-05-16 - Current version for this review: 2024-05-24

GUI
Uses the new Web 5.0.1

Camera Details

Image Sensor - 1/1.8” 8 Megapixel STARVIS™ CMOS
Effective Pixels - 3840(H) x 2160(V), 8 Megapixels

Electronic Shutter Speed - 1/3s~1/100,000s
Minimum Illumination:


IR LEDs - 2
IR Distance - Up to 40m (131.23 ft)
IR On/Off Control - Manual/Auto + Smart IR = Off / General (General is my recommendation)

Lens Information

Focal Length - 2.7mm~12mm
Max. Aperture - F1.8
Field of View

Optical Zoom - 2.7mm to 12mm
Close Focus Distance - 1.5m (4.92ft)

DORI Distance

Wide

Tele

Mounting Options

• PFA122 - Square 3 hole junction box
• PFA137 - Circular Junction Box
• PFB203W - Wall Mount Bracket
• PFA152-E - Pole Mount Bracket
• PFB220C - Ceiling Mount Bracket

Post #2 - Video's & Pic's

Daytime Testing

Here is the daytime test I completed for this camera. Nightime will be coming in about 1.5 weeks. As always remember to select 4K on YouTube.



Night Testing

Here is the night test of this camera featuring B&W with no light as well as full color tests

Tips / Recommendations When Using The S3 Cameras (Listed in My Video too):

• Reduce Gamma to 42.
• Reduce Sharpness to 40 - 44.
• Reduce Exposure Compensation to 20.
• For Night Settings Consider Dropping Gain to Range of 0 - 40 (from 50).
• Increase Contrast to 52.
• At Night, Don't Drop Noise Reduction (2D or 3D) below 36 on These Cameras.
• Turn Off Auto Iris.
• Even Though AcuPick Needs Work, Turn It On To Get IVS + Video Metadata Captures tagged.
• If You Disable AcuPick You Only Get 1 or The Other E.g. IVS, Video Metadata, Face Detect.

Post #4

Post #5

CCTVCam said:

I quite like the sharpness out of the box but can't see a lot of diference after adjustment anyway. The DOF is impressive.

I just hope that maybe Dahua will revist large sensor cameras maybe with a new sensor given the plethora of sensors that seem to be released every year and come up with a camera that can has a large sensor but can be paired with a slightly smaller aperture to give a similar DOF to this. This camera is impressive in the day, I await night time testing before passing judgement although I expect it to be not as good as the larger format CCD's.

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To confirm / clarify, the recommendations I made for adjustments are NOT shown in the video. I kept everything out of the box for this video and then made the adjustments before recommending here, based on what I saw in the video. Hope that helps clarify.

BTW, agree that it would be nice to see a 1 1/2" set of cameras with vari-focal that are not just full color. Unfortunately from my research, I don't think we'll see that this year from them.

All, night time video for this one is complete, will be uploading today. Share my thoughts, recommendations, tips in that video as well.

I'll also update the post place holders above with my final thoughts when complete. Long story short though, great camera with a LOT of potential. Needs dialing in to get the most out of it. Use my recommendations in the night video and also dial down the IR at this time. Working on getting some updated FW with some of the bug fixes I've seen in OverExposure Illumination Mode + AcuPick.

Ok after waiting the usual long time for YouTube to re-process what already meets their 4K specs, night video is up. Including here in thread and will then post in the bookmarked posts above for easy reference. As always, remember to pick 4K on playback.

Yes I may do a comparison video once done with the other reviews. As I mentioned, the image from the sensor is bright and the SOC is very quick. The S3 cams really are a 1 stop shop of a cam that can do many tasks at one thanks to the SOC + packing the cam with Video Metadata. As I mentioned in the video this allows you to open the cam use up to LPR + Face Detection + Human detection all in 1.

Just need the couple of bugs I mentioned, worked on which based on the feedback I sent and examples + the code pointers, should make these easier fixes.

Well as I mention all the time and show, you definitely need to adjust the camera away from Auto for exposure etc but with regards to true aperture, you’re limited by the max offered by the lens, in this case 1 1/8. When I mention IT adjustments I truly mean just that, IR light and associated mode for the onboard illuminators.

in the case of this camera it’s a light hungry sensor so as I mentioned, you have a lot of latitude to adjust. I set the Cam on Auto for IR strength and General for the Overexposure Illuminations as stated. While that is usually good for most, when you have such a bright sensor you can benefit from toning down the IR strength. In the case of the environment I captured the review in, IF I had constant light in that area then I would recommend switching to Manual for IR strength and dialing in around 75-80. However I would still advocate that for Overexposure Illumination you set the to General to benefit from adjustments which in this example would be based / constrained within the IR strength setting you already adjusted. With that said, as I mentioned, Overexposure Illumination definitely needs work by Dahua to make it behave more inline with the SmartIR code changes and tweaks I had them put in place for the 5x42 a few years back. At that point Overexposure Illumination would be perfect, like it was / is on that SmartIR work I completed with them.

Now, expanding that to off camera IR, same rules apply. In other words this is still a bright sensor, you will have to adjust IR for your environment for sure but be aware that you will also want the benefits of Overexposure Illumination. Therefore you might want to run on-camera IR at lowest strength (since augmented by off-camera) and still enable Overexposure Illumination to ensure you never run into a situation with IR washout.

One other thing for all to bear in mind is that as I always remind folks on, this is the turret therefore only features 2 illuminators. Therefore with the bullet cam variants (that always feature 4 illuminators) you gain from more IR on scene BUT with a bright, light sensitive sensor need to ensure you’re dialing that in to the location and light situations you’re deploying in.

HTH

H. Swanson said:

Phenomenal review, @wildcat1. It's so professional. Thank you for doing that.

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Thanks for the kind comments, much appreciated.

lukeeper said:

I will be installing few similar cameras (IPC-T5442T-ZE S3 and NVR5216-16P-EI) from Andy in a few days. I’m newbie. Which tutorial and recommendations should I apply for this setup?

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If you have any questions, DM me